"I discovered the zoom even before everyone knew what it was"
Matan Cohen Lavie, is the VP of investments who has made a name for himself as one of the most talented in his field, while fighting a rare and life-threatening hereditary disease.
Talia Levin
16/06/2022
Thursday, 16 June 2022, 13:27 Updated: Saturday, 18 June 2022, 07:38
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It sounds almost trivial to deal with serious illnesses and go on living life as if for nothing.
These stories fill the web and it seems that in recent years (or at least with age) the number of people suffering from serious illnesses that everyone knows and avoiding naming their explicit name is only rising and rising.
But what happens when you are dealing with a rare inherited disease, which also causes involuntary or unexpected side effects - such as uncontrolled swelling of organs, and worst of all: what if it happens during important fundraising and investor meetings, zoom meetings, international conferences?
Matan Lavie Cohen is a young and brilliant vice president at the investment company TOGETHER
, who manages behind the scenes not only a significant professional field but has been dealing with a rare disease that endangers his life at any given moment since the age of five and a half.
"The disease is called hereditary angioedema," Matan explains to me. It's as big as a balloon for no real reason, so in any organ in the body, whether internal or external. "
And it happens without notice?
"Yes. It could be from Mecca and could be from a cold or weather changes or anything else."
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He is 31 years old, lives in Acre, is the father of two daughters and is considered one of the rising stars in the investment market in Israel.
As part of his position as VP of investments in a company that specializes in alternative investments, high-tech and startups, he manages the staff and accompanies high-tech companies from the recruitment stage, investment portfolio management, meetings with potential investors and creating connections between foreign and foreign investors.
The rare disease is inherited in his family.
"My father and grandparents got it, my brother got it and it's something we've been dealing with for generations you could say."
He had his first attack at the age of five and a half, when he was also diagnosed with the rare syndrome.
"Twenty-five years ago not only was medicine not advanced when it came to treating this disease, but also the doctors in the hospitals in the north that we would reach during life-threatening seizures did not always know what to do."
This is a very stressful situation
"I guess what helped us cope was the fact that it was not just me, but something family. My grandmother died of suffocation caused by the disease, and there was no way to help her quickly. We got to the point where we would keep the drugs at home because my parents' care It was faster than what we received at the hospital, where sometimes the doctors would look at us in shock and have to open a book to understand what to do in such a situation. "
How do you live with the thought that you can actually die at any moment?
"I have to say that for the last year and a half I have not had any seizures at all, thanks to an innovative drug that I develop every two weeks and it actually prevents me from having these seizures. So today I live a completely normal life. But in the past, non-life-threatening seizures would disable me. "At home for 4-5 days, or in the hospital with plasma infusions for a few days until the condition stabilizes. In the case of swelling in one of the internal organs, the attack can be life-threatening."
Matan Liba Cohen, VP of TOGETHER Investment Company (Photo: Courtesy of the Photographers, Private)
family relation
Lavie Cohen grew up in a family where three out of four family members have the disease, "and everyone understands the other's coping."
He says he learned to live with the disease combined with the inclusive approach thanks to the nuclear family who explained to him that even if he had to adjust his life to the situation here and there and be on the pulse, it should not stop him from galloping to success and fulfilling his dreams.
He was not drafted into the army, but after a stubborn struggle with the army authorities, he volunteered for a year in the intelligence department at bases that are up to 5 km away from hospitals.
This was the condition of the army that was afraid to take responsibility. "He continued his life course in economics and business administration at the University of Haifa and as a junior in several financial institutions until he decided to fulfill his dream in high-tech." When I was a child Because it has not happened yet, I am moving this dream to the age of 40. "
In TOGETHER he has been since 2018, and enjoys every moment despite his childhood dreams of retirement.
When I wonder if the disease gave him a particularly significant drive in life he refuses to emphasize it "I live my life normally and describe my life as completely normal, I guess it gave me to bring from a young age what proportions and yes, you might be surprised to hear but also in dangerous situations This life I stood for, I know and always knew there were much worse diseases.So I missed a lot in my life: from trips to test days, and the truth is that I wanted to interview and flood my story for all those young people who face rare diseases and difficult situations and think it will stand in the way Good luck. "
Did you tell immediately about your illness?
Because after all, it has a significant impact on your lifestyle
"A year and a half ago it had a significant impact, I could get up in the morning for a day full of meetings with investors and entrepreneurs that could have been completely canceled because I could not wear pants because of a swollen leg. So it's impossible and not easy. I discovered the zoom before everyone knew what it was. .I would sit with a swollen foot or hand at home, and spend those days virtually.
Tell you it's comfortable? It's not. I know a lot of people who have this syndrome or rare diseases who are afraid to share their workplace for fear it's understandable but I'm here to encourage "Share. It makes it very easy to cope. At first there are those who shy away, but in the test of reality everyone understands that everything is normal. You do not see that I am a sick person, on the contrary."
You look very fit, I must state
"exactly. And that's what's important for me to convey. That's what I want to present in my life."
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Over the years the two brothers suffering from the rare disease have agreed to undergo voluntary clinical trials to help develop a cure for the disease.
As mentioned, Lavi Cohen hopes that over the years she will become more sophisticated and perhaps eliminate the need for injections.
"We were very open to these things. I currently have two little girls at home and it could very well be that they also have the disease. But I know at least that even then, there is a way to deal with it and it is easier than what I went through as a child."
Was there any fear of having children, especially given the family medical history?
"With girls I dated in the past he was definitely personal. There was a relationship that ended because it was personal. But today if you ask my wife, yes she's scared of it, trying to suppress it. She knew me eight years ago and it was a matter but we succeeded. No mother. "I do not want anything to happen to her childhood, but I truly believe that we are in a very good state with medicine and so happy that the drug companies have found a solution for a few thousand in the world who are suffering from this disease."
In Israel, there are 250 patients with the disease and the innovative drug is offered in the health basket.
Along with Lavi Cohen's courageous struggle, it is important for him to encourage others who are in a similar situation or in an initial diagnosis.
"The seizures happened to me in every possible situation you can think of. At the conference, in the middle of a session I suddenly feel my hand start to swell and I die to finish and get home to take care of myself as soon as possible but can not. It happened at a full day conference where I walked around with excruciating pain "It swelled to impossible dimensions inside a shoe. And there are many more, but here you see me here."
As one of the biggest promises in the investment world, how do you see what seems like another explosion of the high-tech bubble in Israel?
"Right now we do not feel it in terms of investment. I guess if there is a crisis of another six months we will feel, but we are not there yet. Just yesterday I was at a conference of a fund that invests in 150 startups around the world in sports-tech and there were over 200 people. "On the other hand, the world is going crazy, war here and war there and the markets are going up and down these days in numbers we have not seen before. It could be a little daunting and makes people keep money in their pockets and not rush to spend.
As one who has lived almost all his life in the North, how do you see the development of the tech field in the peripheries?
"There is still a long way to go. 70% of my clients are still in the center, everyone loves the center and more companies are going there. I really urge investors to invest in both the north and the south. The fact that there are tech greenhouses here still does not make the periphery attractive. "A greenhouse in the north prepares 10 or 12 companies that eventually want to grow and bring in 40 programmers, they may have a problem because there are no workers here. It is more difficult than in the center and it again depends on investments, and of course investment in basic technology education not only in the center.
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Investments
Hi-Tech