Interview
The journey of Eternity-IT CEO, Asaf Bar, to create his IT company has had many twists and turns. Along the way, he burned down a computer, worked in his basement, and created an app to find missing people.
12:2406.27.21
Although he was interested in computers from an early age, his journey towards a career in technology and building an IT business was anything but routine. After not being accepted into a good high school in his hometown of Bat Yam, Bar was forced to attend a vocational school in Tel Aviv. “At that point, I realized that if I didn’t put the effort into my studies, I would have a problem later in life. I enrolled in an accounting class and graduated successfully and with full enrollment, a very rare thing in itself in this school, ”he explained. During his military service, Bar served as a border patrol fighter and two years later, due to an injury, he joined the Corps of Communications. “I insisted on getting into something about software and very quickly I found myself writing code in the Corps of Communications. Everyone there thought an employee had arrived, but I came in with it. capacities.” During his service he also began to study accounting, but later the advice of his partner’s father changed the course of his life.
“From the age of 16 I didn’t live at home, I lived with my girlfriends because, as a child of divorced parents, I was looking for a home that had both a father and a mother. During my military service, I earned my living. computer repair. It was the start of the internet age and I was more interested in the darker parts of the net – mainly hacking. My girlfriend’s father saw my skills with computers and urged me to quit accounting studies, luckily he really insisted and even helped me pay for my studies. I switched to studying computer science at Tel Aviv University. It was one of the best decisions of my life and very quickly when I was still in the military I found myself joining a startup and working in a company with people who are part of the software world. . It was the first time in my life that someone had given me a chance, ”said Bar.
After completing his military service, Bar was hired as a database supporter and intern at SRL for 4,000 NIS (about $ 1,200) per month – and thus began his career in the IT field. “I would work and study 300 hours a month. Something inside me told me that the more I knew and got involved, the more I would learn. The desire to prove myself made me work crazy hours. important for me to know a lot about a range of topics and then delve into specific topics when needed. Any shortcomings I had I was covered for dozens of hours and nights. None technological question remained unanswered on my desk. ”During this period, Bar also met his wife and had a baby girl. And with such changes in his personal life, he decided to move on to a new job.
Turning
Bar’s second opportunity was not easy. It was when he started his job at Opisoft, “I came in demanding to be CTO, which was not well accepted with only four years of experience in the field. I came for an interview, but they wanted me to be a senior developer. When I left the room the CEO said “we don’t have a CTO role at the moment, but we had a deal that went wrong. This is technology that no one here is familiar with. If you go to a meeting and are successful in bringing the project to us, the job is yours. ‘ It was a technology based on JAVA. I picked up a book and read it. I went to a meeting and it ended with us getting the project – and I getting the job. I worked at Opisoft for five years, and that’s where I was introduced to the field of BI, in which I work today. ”
After five years, when he felt he had reached his glass ceiling at Opisoft, Bar turned to his next goal, leading the field of BI on a business level. He joined Bynet Software Systems and founded its BI department. “The opportunity for me there was to set up the BI business and run the business with both hands, even though the pay was relatively low. I was there for two and a half years and the team grew to 50 people, the success was quick and I felt that things could be done differently. I had been in two companies before, and I created a business area for one of them. Bar left Bynet in 2008 to found Eternity-IT, which he still runs today.
Bar started the business from the basement of his home, and from day one he had a time reporting system, internal company emails, and even a switchboard. “Everyone laughed at me because I was a one-man business with a switchboard. As a person who always thinks big, I remember imagining where I want to go in detail and I firmly believe that the universe is listening. When you want something and strive for it, and of course, don’t lose hope and desire to achieve it – you will, ”said Bar.
The lowest point
Six months after the founding of Eternity by Bar, came the economic crisis of 2008. “No phone calls or faxes arrived. We were a very small company, 10 employees and I had no work to give them. . It was the great crisis of my career. I embarked on a new path with great self-confidence, I was responsible for families who depended on me for a living and was under pressure so that there would be no calls or faxes. And throughout that time, our competitors were jubilant and waiting for our downfall, ”said Bar.
Bar describes this period as a long and continuous day, during which he realized that he had to innovate, change his work methodology, look to different markets and keep fighting. “It was then that I discovered what it means to be a struggling entrepreneur. An ordinary entrepreneur who has dreams and wants to make them come true will jump between things – he will see that something is wrong and will move on. For me, the option of not being there did not exist, “he said. After about a year and a half, the company has 30 employees and its reputation is growing in the market. “Every person who starts a business should assume that no one will be there during hard times. That their tools are creativity and persistence. Even though I have a lot of friends in the industry, at the end of the day, everyone is committed to their own organization and not to their friend. ”
In 2015, what Bar defines as the “hottest time in business,” his father was injured in a car accident. “I found myself taking care of my father while working every day and after two months he passed away.” It was then that he decided to make another change and sold part of the Eternity group to Aman for tens of millions of shekels. “I divorced and started on a new and better path for myself. I decided I wanted to relieve myself and sold to the Aman group. Sometimes you have to neutralize your ego in order to grow. C “was one of the most important decisions because by partnering with Aman, Eternity moved into the big leagues. We were 250 employees and in four years we became 500. Number two in the Israeli market in terms of data” , did he declare.
Hazilu
A missing person case in 2018 greatly affected Bar and prompted him to take action. Noga Yitzhak, 34, from Tel Aviv was last seen in Ramat Gan before disappearing two days before her birthday. Bar set out to create Hazilu (a call for help in Hebrew), an app that helps parents of disabled children and children of elderly people with dementia protect their families and locate them if necessary. . “I went to meet Noga Yitzhak’s dad, Ron and asked him what we as a tech community can do. He said he got hundreds of photos from people who say they saw Noga and what “He can’t really identify it. I realized it was solvable. and that’s where the business came from,” Bar said.
To date, the app, which uses facial recognition technology, has helped locate hundreds of people and reconnect them with their families. “In a two-year process, we reached dozens of local authorities and mobilized them for the project. We have 450,000 registered users and I am very proud of this company. It’s free and it’s for a good cause.
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