For thousands of years, people lived in tribes. These were not symbolic collectives, but practical ecosystems: shared spaces for labor, security, parenting, decision-making, and survival. The tribe wasn’t optional. It was infrastructure.
Modern society rewrote that script. As we industrialized, globalized, and digitized, the dominant cultural narrative shifted toward independence. The solo architect. The lone genius. The self-made founder. Today, we celebrate autonomy and individual achievement in nearly every domain, particularly in technology and entrepreneurship. But we’re starting to see the limits of that model – socially, emotionally, and strategically.
The truth is, most leaders, even the boldest ones, reach a point where isolation becomes counterproductive. They are expected to make complex, high-stakes decisions in environments of extreme volatility, and yet they often do so without a trusted circle to process with. And in those moments, what they need isn’t another dashboard, mentor, or book. They need a village.
This realization isn’t theoretical for me. It is the through-line of my own journey. I’ve been exploring it curiously for many years.
In my twenties, I founded Spectrum, a forum for young leaders to ask questions, share insights, and collaborate on creative and professional challenges. It wasn’t about scale. It was about quality conversation and real connection that inspires. Years later, I was one of the founding members of XIMUS, a leadership circle for emerging business builders. There, we bring together Founders, CEOs, and other business leaders – not to pitch products, but to reflect. We created space for networking and thinking. And something powerful emerged.
One day, a founder looked around the room and said, “I have a board of directors for my company. But who’s on the board of me?”
The room went quiet. Everyone felt the power of what he said.
What he was articulating was the absence of a framework for shared clarity – not oversight from above, but understanding from alongside. That moment birthed the idea of a Board of Life: a small, trusted circle of peers in similar positions and stages who know what you’re navigating and can offer honest reflection on the journey.
A real Board of Life is a structure. A rhythm. A space where leaders can show up as humans, not headlines.
As Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
And as Amy Poehler put it, “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever.”
That’s what the Board of Life offers: perspective. A mirror. A compass. In a world that rewards output and speed, this is the operating system for sustainable clarity.
That insight and journey is also what brought me to Team8.
Team8 – Designing for Context, Not Just Capital
Team8 is not a traditional VC firm. It is a venture fund that builds companies from scratch alongside investing in them, with the conviction that capital isn’t the most valuable early-stage resource. Context is.
We call our model: The Village. In addition to being supported through capital, founders are embedded in a living, breathing network of domain experts, domain leaders, former regulators, product operators, and prospective design partners.
Some of the most promising companies in our portfolio weren’t just fast. They were clear because they were built within a Village of like-minded peers, not in isolation.
Nowhere is this model more important, or more alive, than in the world of cybersecurity and cybersecurity leadership.
The CISO Village: The Board of Life in Practice
Cybersecurity is a uniquely high-pressure domain. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) operate in asymmetry: infinite threats, limited resources, shifting regulations, and unrelenting scrutiny. And yet, most CISOs don’t have a real peer environment. No quiet space. No room to think or decompress.
That’s why the CISO Village was created almost 10 years ago by the co-founders of Team8, Liran Grinberg, Nadav Zafrir, and Israel Grimberg.
And it has evolved over the past ten years into one of the most exclusive and vibrant communities of CISOs worldwide. It is active in real-time, acting as a space for CISOs and security leaders from the world’s most mission-critical companies to share, reflect, challenge, and grow, without ego or agenda.
Today, over 100 top CISOs out of our 700-strong Village are arriving for our annual CISO Village Summit in Florida, a four-day experience in nature designed for deep exchange, trust-building, and future-shaping.
In that room, they’re sharing stories, they’re talking about mental load, organizational politics, tech fatigue, and trust. And out of that honesty comes something we rarely talk about in cyber: safety for the protectors. The CISO Village has become a strategic and professional home for the people who carry security on their shoulders every day and, most importantly, exit with tools to navigate it, together.
From Spectacle to Substance
This shift isn’t unique to cyber. We’re seeing it across industries. People are leaving behind giant, performative collectives and seeking substance. The future of leadership is being stripped back and simply lies in trusted circles rather than transient experiences. It lies in curated, thoughtful, honest communities that challenge you to lead better, not louder.
That’s what the Village does. That’s what the Board of Life gives you.
And that’s what we’ve built at Team8 – not only for the companies we back but also for the people we believe in.
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my “board of life” – the five to ten people who consistently reflect, challenge, and support me. Alongside them, a slightly larger circle of leaders at Ximus has become a space for honesty, growth, motivation, and shared values.
They’ve taught me that real success doesn’t come from going it alone, but from surrounding yourself with people who see you clearly and want you to grow.
That’s the spirit of the Village. Maybe this week, you’ll begin building a board of your own.
