Geffen Yamin and Eyar Halabi are behind the national transportation project that, through volunteers, led tons of equipment and food to soldiers in the south and north. The center connects civilians and security forces for emergency transportation, soldier transportation, equipment delivery to soldiers and evacuated families, as well as food for soldiers. The project combines technological tools that facilitate and expedite the transportation process and involves security personnel who check the reliability of those offering and requesting transportation.
“Our center is driven by a deep sense of mission. We see ourselves as a connecting link and executive arm, providing vital assistance to the war effort”, they recount. “We wake up in the morning knowing that we are doing everything we can to help, contribute, and give of ourselves to others, and this gives deep meaning to our work”.
“An immediate connection was formed”
In their “civilian” lives, when they’re not busy with the center, Eyar manages projects and Geffen is a CoS in a startup. The two met only a few weeks before the war, at a conference they attended and “immediately a good connection was formed between us and we understood that we’re both on the same business, entrepreneurial, and ambitious mindset”.
In the army, Eyar served in a classified intelligence role in the Navy, where, she says, “I developed analytical thinking skills, deep planning ability, and decision-making under pressure – experience that toughened me and gave me unique tools for dealing with complex challenges”.
Eyar says she discovered her inclination for entrepreneurship at a young age. “I grew up in an environment that nurtured action and positive impact on the world. I participated in a unique government project that promotes scientific entrepreneurship at a young age, and there my passion for entrepreneurship was revealed.
“The experience I gained led me on an ongoing journey of searching for deep meaning and breaking new boundaries in entrepreneurship and positive impact”.
Geffen graduated with honors in industrial design studies from Bezalel, and says she has always been drawn to the world of entrepreneurship. “Over the years I found myself leading various initiatives, with the passion to invent, lead, and implement innovative solutions where it hurts being what drives me.
“My first attempt to establish a startup started from my final project in my degree. My lab partner took me under her wing and I developed an ecological air purification device with which I started a funding process from the Innovation Authority, which was stopped during COVID. A year ago, I decided to try again with a product in the rental market field. I formed a team of five people and we worked for almost half a year trying to find a solution. I delved into the B2C world and as an entrepreneur in this niche there were very few information sharing and focused meetups – so I raised together with a partner a large B2C conference in the country in collaboration with Google”.
The two recount that with the outbreak of the fighting they experienced loss, anxiety, and a lot of uncertainty, and both stopped working during this period and focused on operating the center they established. “The work was 24/7 and very quickly we implemented technologies that allowed us to manage the system efficiently and we built an organizational structure, division of responsibilities, and implementation of processes quickly”, they recount.
“The past year has brought out abilities we didn’t know we had and taught us to deal with the many challenges in a creative way and with an open mind”, they say, and present one of the challenges they faced: “Fuel prices made it harder for drivers to afford to volunteer in the center and a significant shortage was created. We immediately understood that crowdfunding in our case would not be effective, so we built a campaign and looked for companies that would sponsor our activity, and thus we created a collaboration with large companies in the market. In doing so, we became the first transportation center to raise money from sponsorship, what enabled the continued travel of trucks, buses, and cars”.
