E14 - Kfir Damari (Space IL, Tabookey)

In this episode we speak with Kfir Damari, COO of Tabookey and Co-Founder of Space IL. Listen on RealLifeSuperPowers website: https://reallifesuperpowers.com/podcast/kfir-damari-space-il-tabookey/ Kfir made history by founding a company that is the first private organization to ever reach the moon! It’s a bitter sweet achievement because the official goal was to soft land on the moon, making Israel the fourth nation in the world to do so. But as life (or physics) would have it, Beresheet, the lunar lander that the team built, failed to do so and crashed on the moon at a speed of 1km per second (making Israel the 7th nation to orbit the moon). Failure is a funny word to use in this respect for reasons that are self explanatory. But above all, the high level goal of the mission was to create an effect similar to the Apollo effect that will inspire younger generations to go and study science and technology and to set moonshot goals for themselves. In order to do that Kfir and his team spent years visiting schools across Israel, giving talks to kids, telling them the story of Space IL. As the venture progressed more and more volunteers joined this mission and the educational aspects of the project became the core values of it (and its true success). To date they’ve reached more than a million kids. There’s a lot to be learned from Kfir’s mindset. We asked him what set his heart to go for the project. He said “it was mainly that it was an impossible mission”. He wanted to do something bigger than life. To make an impact. To take an impossible mission and show that it’s possible. We discuss: • How Space IL started • Why it’s so difficult to land on the moon • Persistence - it took Kfir and his team about 24 hours to announce they’re going to try again • The non-material rewards of solving a problem of such magnitude and the motivations for taking on such a challenge • Why founders are like stem cells • The importance of asking a lot of questions and speaking out • Kfir’s current venture Tabookey and its super original value proposition (that can potentially disrupt how companies do business with end users) Much more! The Apollo effect spun-off a host of inventions that permeate the US economy (and probably the global one) to this day. It’s fascinating to see what the Beresheet effect will yield, what the future holds for Space IL’s second stab at the impossible, and what Kfir will do next on his overall mission to make a dent in the universe. We hope you enjoy your listen Zooming out, if you like listening to this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss new conversations with peak performers, serving as a reminder we can all tap into the best versions of ourselves. You’re also welcome to follow Ronen and Noa on Linkedin • Ronen Menipaz on Linkedin • Noa Eshed on Linkedin And if we may ask for a favor - please leave us a review on your native podcast app. Some further resources: • Real Life Superpowers podcast on Ctech • The podcast website