In this episode, we speak with Aharon Horwitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Fullpath
Aharon Horwitz isn’t your typical founder story. He didn’t start with a clear roadmap or a VC-funded plan. Instead, he started with mission, grit, and no backup plan.
Before leading one of Israel’s fastest-growing startups, Aharon was fighting antisemitism as a student activist at Columbia University, and founding a social venture accelerator to empower marginalized communities.
Today, as CEO of Fullpath, Aharon is scaling a Jerusalem-based company that’s gaining serious momentum-and doing it in his own way, driven by mission, not ego.
“We didn’t even know we were going to get money to build it. We were just like, we’re going to do this.”
This episode is about resilience, long-game thinking, and the realities of leadership when there’s no roadmap-just relentless belief.
In this conversation, we explore:
What it takes to grow a startup from hustle to scale.
Aharon shares what it was like to grow Fullpath from 30 to over 250 employees-navigating each stage with new challenges and new stakes.
“I remember when it was really difficult for us to get 20 paying customers… and then I looked back and we had 350 clients. Then you just started to feel a change in how the go to market worked, where it wasn't all through this Sisyphean feeling of pushing that rock up the hill. Yes, I'm still pushing rocks, but there's also people who are pulling them up, and it's getting easier and easier.”
The raw early days: bus benches, borrowed spaces, no rules.
From sleeping in stations to squatting in libraries, Aharon recounts the extremes of the company’s earliest days.
“The stories I can tell you of that period were pretty intense… they included running out of money, trying to figure out how we're going to pay our bills, personally and professionally for months at a time…,working out of dirty apartments because we we couldn't find an office, or going to the public library at the Hebrew University, and just working there until they kicked us out”
Mission as a driver-and obligation as a motivator.
Once angel investors came on board, the mindset shifted:
“I have to make this work. I took in other people’s money. This has to become a success.”
The value and risk of design partnerships.
Aharon breaks down the strategy behind building with a customer-even if it doesn’t scale at first-and why Israeli startups excel at this approach.
“build it in a way that doesn't scale with that customer, and you understand it, and then you scale, then you figure out how to scale it.”
Making the hard calls under pressure.
He opens up about rough investor conversations and risky decisions during tough periods-some that led to Fullpath’s most explosive growth.
“We had to take some risks that made me feel like, ‘Oh, this is too much.’ But we decided we're going to take the risks. We're going to we're going to do what we need to do, and if necessary, clean things up afterwards. And you know, in the end, it was one of our best growth periods ever; we grew like crazy.
Leadership as balance-not certainty.
This episode is for anyone who’s ever wondered if they have what it takes to start. It’s for those ready to stop waiting for perfect conditions, trust their instincts, and follow a hunch—even without a perfect plan.
🎧 Listen in - and share it with someone who’s ready to bet on themselves.