Presenting Fractional Growth Leader and Marketer Jason Chernofsky (Ex-Lemonade)

Aliyah Success is a weekly newsletter for Olim and Potential Olim to land their dream job in Israel tech by Andrew Jacobson. For Season 1, we are interviewing 12 Successful Olim, including top professionals across finance, venture capital, marketing and more. If you got this email forwarded to you, subscribe here:

Where I grew up:

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Something that most people don’t know about me:

My favorite movie is Fantasia. Also, my first real job was working in music. I helped Israeli artists gain traction abroad.

• After driving growth for companies like Lemonade, Balance, Spot.io, and others, I currently wear two hats - one as freelance growth marketer, working primarily with pre-Series C startups like Riverside.fm, Nilus, Nas Daily, and others. The other is a new venture where we use data to help match companies to the best service providers for their needs (we partner with VC platform teams and B2B companies who want a provider network to help their customers better use their product). 

I actually didn't have much of a say in the decision to make Aliyah.

My parents decided to make Aliyah after I finished 9th grade. They told me they would wait until I finished high school if I didn’t want to go to Israel then. But I didn’t want to split up the family. So I finished high school in Israel and then joined the army.

I really began to love Israel after I finished my degree at IDC Herzliya (Reichman University).

I only realized I wasn’t moving back to the States until the past few months. I would always toy with various opportunities to go back to the US. I actually went to California for a couple years but I missed my family that all live here in Israel now.

There also wasn’t really a strong Jewish community for me in the States. I never thought I’d be part of a Jewish community the way that I was in the US. I'm not religious at all. 

But I went to shul events and stuff like that because I just wanted connection and community and I didn't have that there. In Israel, wherever you are you’ll have community. 

Everyone is family. 

Then after everything happened in October, it became very clear to me, the importance of Zionism or how rampant anti semitism is  And there's no way I would want to live anywhere else. This is my home.

You've worked at Lemonade and other large companies. Can you tell us about your career trajectory?

Lemonade was the largest company I joined. I don't remember how many employees there were at the time, but there weren't many. 

I don't like big companies. They're probably good if you’re looking for community because you make friends there. But it’s not for me.

I like building and doing hands-on work. The tests say I'm an extrovert. But I'm a hybrid. I get energy from being alone. But I also need energy from being around people. So that introverted side of me has played into my career decision making, and led me to go independent and do growth marketing for brands.

People here are warmer, more friendly, and in general, want to help other people. Whereas in the States, it's a little bit colder socially.

If you move to somewhere new in the States, it can be hard to connect with a new community. Especially if you're not religious (I’m not), there is no centralized area. It's a little bit less community-oriented here in terms of centralization. That is challenging. Whereas Israel is just a big community of its own. 

There is a strong international community here. People are connected to one other and hang on to that.

It was very, very hard to integrate into Israeli society.

It was 9th grade and I joined a high school in Hebrew without knowing much Hebrew. I went to a Jewish school in the States, but I hadn’t learned enough there. So it took me a long time to understand what was going on in school. 

To be able to make a joke in conversation. It took me years. 

It was hard my first few years of adapting. I joined the army, which was also hard. I started to find myself here when I found an international community at IDC. Now I feel very comfortable with Hebrew and at this point. And I have a group of Israeli friends and a group of American friends.

Here’s the advice I would give to a young professional looking to move to Israel.

It’s tough at first. Expect that. Including from a career standpoint: It’s hard to find a job when you move to a new place.

If you can manage to keep your job in America and work remotely, that's the easiest way to do it. But it will hinder your integration into Israeli society in other ways. The reality is, finding a job here is not going to happen overnight. It's much easier when you're here physically.

Of course, it’s easier more than ever before in a world of remote and freelance work. It’s never been easier to make it work from a job perspective.

People always talk about networking. It’s a huge part of the job search process in Israel. Applying for jobs here just doesn't work.

It has never worked for me. I never got a job I applied for in Israel. 

You have to reach out on LinkedIn and email. 

I have friends who have done creative things like sending physical mail to companies. That’s cool. Find the companies you want to work for and go after them by looking for the HR recruiters for your role. Be proactive. That’s how I got the job at Lemonade.

I was visiting Israel during Passover. I was living in the Bay Area at the time and wanted a change. On that trip, I realized I just wanted to be here. 

In total, I applied for 5 companies at the time. But I didn't just apply. I sent an email and LinkedIn message to everyone who was on each team for those jobs. Plus the HR recruiters. I think I got 3-4 interviews from those 5 companies within that week. Then I closed with Lemonade. I had to extend my flight by two days to have a final interview with them, because they would only do the interview in person.

Golda Meir is the Zionist leader I most admire.

No one taught her, she just did, without much experience or a sense of certainty for the future. That's the Israeli spirit.

The same can be said about Israel or the Jewish people. We just figure it out. That's why Israel is entrepreneurial. It’s the mindset and outlook on life that we all have. People aren’t afraid. Frankly it’s a bit arrogant, but that’s why there are so many successful startups here.