As any freelancer will tell you, managing finances on one’s own can be a particular pain point for the self-employed. To say that Lilac Bar David, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lili, feels that pain would be an understatement. She’s created a business leveraging AI to help freelancers negotiate their scattershot lives, a mission that’s sure to be met with gratitude.
Bar David’s path to technological innovation went straight through the Israeli army, a familiar path for innovators in the country. Once enlisted, she was hooked, despite it representing a seismic shift away from what was familiar to her. “It was an incredible contrast to my childhood,” she said in a 2021 interview, “but one that brought me the same type of joy in many ways. Learning something for the first time always brings a smile to my face.”
After her service, Bar David began work at max (formerly Leumi Card), an Israeli company specializing in card issuing, acquiring, and processing services, and payment and credit solutions. In 2015, she stepped out on her own to found Pepper, Israel’s first “truly mobile bank,” and within three years had expanded the company from one person to more than 200.
Three years later, Bar David and Liran Zelkha started another company, which they named after their initials: Lili. But they knew what they were after even before they had a moniker. Zelkha’s decade-long experiences as a freelancer had set the path. “We knew what we wanted out of Lili before we ever knew its name,” Bar David said. “We knew the impact we could create for freelancers.”
Seven years on, Lili is helping freelancers and small businesses manage their finances in an increasingly oddly connected world. Bar David is now based in New York, where she oversees the continuing growth of a company that helps individuals survive in the wild, wild freelance world. Every little bit helps, she said.
“It’s simply up to us to make the world a better place,” she said. “This can be done with better products, better services, and so on. Think about a cause that is close to your heart and go after your dreams with the focus and determination to create impact.”
