Noam Bardin

Noam Bardin is an Israeli-American entrepreneur best known as the long-time CEO of Waze, the crowdsourced navigation app. Born in the United States, his family moved to Israel when he was an infant, and he grew up there. He earned a BA in Economics (with Political Science) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the mid-1990s and later a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002–2003). Before Waze he led Intercast Networks, an HD content-delivery venture.

Bardin joined Waze around 2009, roughly a year after its founding, and ran it as CEO through its global expansion, growing it to roughly 150 million users. In June 2013 Google acquired Waze for approximately $1.15 billion. Bardin remained with Google for about seven years, keeping Waze operationally independent with its own engineering, marketing and sales teams, and was eventually promoted to Vice President leading cross-platform growth. He departed in 2021, publishing a widely-read LinkedIn essay critiquing how large-company incentives can undermine product success.

In late 2022 he founded Post (post.news), a New York–based social platform positioned as a Twitter/X alternative focused on real news, real people and civil conversation. Alongside operating Post, Bardin is an active angel investor and startup advisor, and following October 7, 2023 he has been engaged in Israeli civil-society and government-reform initiatives. He is also a frequent keynote speaker on entrepreneurship, community-driven products and technology.

• Invests personal capital as an angel, with checks ranging roughly $1K–$500K and a typical sweet spot around $50K.
• Backs early-stage companies — seed through Series A/B — often as an advisor as well as an investor.
• Sector interests span mobility/TransportationTech, consumer health, IoT, robotics, and real-estate/PropTech, reflecting his operating background in navigation and community platforms.
• Strong believer in community as a core product primitive: *"Community has to be the DNA of the company. It has to be ingrained in day one."*
• Prizes focus and transparency in founders: *"Strategy is a tool for saying no to 95 percent of the great ideas your great team comes up with,"* and *"I believe in transparency at the core... as soon as you start sugarcoating things, you're down a very dangerous path."*