While studying abroad at Tel Aviv University during his junior year at Stanford, L.A. tech entrepreneur Tyler Hochman met and worked with former members of Israel’s elite 8200 Unit, an IDF intelligence division known as a prolific incubator of tech startups. Hochman was impressed to see the tight intersection between military service and entrepreneurship, which has earned Israel its moniker: “the startup nation.”
“They develop these technologies in the military and then get to take them outside of the military and commercialize them,” said Hochman, founder and CEO of FORE Enterprise, an AI data workforce analytics firm that helps companies improve employee happiness and retain top talent. “If you can invent an anti-drone technology that’s used in the military, when you leave the military, you can sell it to football stadiums to prevent people from flying drones over football games.”
The ingenuity, grit and hustle culture Hochman witnessed in Tel Aviv inspired him to waste no time starting his own companies when he returned to California. He co-founded Stanford’s chapter of TAMID, a program connecting students to Israel’s business community, and launched his first two tech ventures while still a student.
Now, at just 27 years old, Hochman has already launched five startups, including his latest venture FORE Enterprise, as well as SafeStop, an app designed to reduce violence during traffic stops by having drivers and law enforcement video chat from the safety of their cars. Hochman also became a first-time father this fall and was named to the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 list for social impact on Dec. 3, the same day that his own father, Nathan Hochman, was inaugurated as L.A.’s new district attorney.
“It’s been an exciting year,” said Hochman, who credits much of his business success to his time in Israel. “I was so inspired by the Israeli work ethic, the drive, and the ability to turn any situation into an opportunity for growth. These guys are fighting a war and at the same time, starting a business. It puts my own challenges into perspective.”
Hochman first decided to apply AI data analytics to understanding workforce issues and employee needs during the Great Resignation, a period toward the end of the pandemic that saw a record number of workers quitting their jobs en masse. Launching FORE in 2022, Hochman raised more than $4 million in seed funding to help companies predict which employees would leave their jobs – often before they knew it themselves. FORE’s technology forecasts the cost of future attrition, identifies the precise reasons for employee churn, and an advisory board of experts from Stanford, Wharton and Kellogg recommends solutions.
After the company emerged from stealth mode in April, Hochman landed contracts worth $10 million in revenue, making FORE profitable in just its second year of operations – almost unheard of in the tech sector. Clients include large hospital networks, luxury goods companies and private equity firms. Much of Hochman’s time building that client base was spent educating companies about the high cost of employee disengagement and turnover – roughly $355 million a year in lost productivity for mid-size S&P 500 companies.
Once again Hochman leaned on skills he gained in Israel. “Both Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley have a heavy emphasis on intellect and technology, but in Tel Aviv, they’re also very good salespeople,” he said. “My background is in engineering. I’m good at tackling that, but Israel really helped me learn how to sell, and I think that’s an underlooked part of the startup process.”
Raised in a Jewish household in Los Angeles, Hochman brings his Jewish values of Tikkun Olam into his company, working to help L.A. tutoring company Step Up tutoring use AI analytics to find the perfect match between students and tutors and solve complex scheduling issues. “Partnering with FORE is proving to be transformative for our organization,” Step Up co-founder Daniel Halper said.
Hochman first developed an affinity for giving back after raising $42,000 for wheelchairs that he delivered to people with disabilities in the Jewish homeland for his bar mitzvah project. While Hochman attended Hebrew school at Wilshire Boulevard Temple and became a bar mitzvah at the Brandeis-Bardin Campus of the American Jewish University, he felt his greatest connection to Judaism while in Israel.
“I really enjoyed Shabbat in Tel Aviv,” he said. “You went to this beautiful coastal spot, and they would do a public Shabbat. They were incredibly meaningful, and at the same time, there was an informality to it that I really liked. We were not in the temple. We were just on the coast, and there’s a rabbi, we’re singing and having a good time. It didn’t feel like you had to be quiet.”
Hochman sees similarities between the relaxed coastal vibe of Tel Aviv and Los Angeles, but he believes the ever-present threats that Israelis live with creates an even greater sense of simcha. “As a result of potentially being bombed at any moment, they’re always appreciating life,” Hochman said. “They don’t want life to take place in a temple – they want life to take place by the ocean. They want life to take place at a party. They want life to take place singing and dancing.”
Hochman has tried to incorporate some of that zest for life into his fully remote workplace at FORE. Every week, he asks employees to share a funny story that’s unrelated to work. Hochman believes it takes a strong sense of humor and an unusual level of risk tolerance and persistence to be a successful entrepreneur – traits he saw in abundance in the Jewish homeland and adopted when he returned.
“I think most people who start successful companies are kind of insane,” Hochman said. “There’s no logical reason to keep going. You’ll pitch someone, and they’re going to say, ‘Absolutely not, this a horrible idea,’ and then you’re going to keep doing it. And the 51st person will finally say, ‘This is a great idea.’ It takes an almost irrational belief in yourself. You don’t think about failure – you only think about success.”
