The beginning of Shift

I’m going to tell you about the first days of Shift, as I became an entrepreneur. It all started from a text message from my dear friend Julia, as she was helping another friend of hers find a co-founder and CTO. I was intrigued and as days followed, Veetahl (who became my co-founder) chose to meet me.

We met at a cafe, a meeting that I was late to (very shameful to admit, as I make a point at getting to meetings on time). At the cafe, she was telling me about her journey with her husband (an IDF officer) , her children and her stressful and demanding career. As a career women and mother of three myself, I related to the story — especially the part where she was folding laundry at 2 a.m. after a stressful day at work. That night made her think about a problem couples have these days — so many tasks to juggle with too little time to do them all. Her story was all about helping couples around the globe enjoy a happy marriage by spending more quality time together.

All of this bliss can be achieved through a product that will help those couples manage their household chores with positive communication and playfulness. No more of the, “I did more than you, wash the dishes already!” end of the day communication, but more like, “if you wash the dishes, I just might give you your favorite treat — a foot massage…”

I loved the idea from the beginning, but as I have a very good partnership with my husband (thank you Egor!) I was quite afraid that Shift might bring “counting” into relationships and make it worse instead of better. Only time and validation with friends helped me understand that this was a real solution, and that Shift created a new understanding of marriage for couples.

So I made the decision, I was going to leave my job as head of R&D and move to unknown territory as co-founder and CTO. It was so exciting and so unbelievable. As a first time entrepreneur, everything is so new. The meetings, the decision making, the roller coaster feeling, even working through a family vacation (which I had never done before), felt right — because it is all for the cause.

I truly believe that we will make a difference and make a positive impact on couples, and that’s so unbelievably right for me as a person.