"We will change the world": She gave up a promising Treasury career to lead a Jerusalem AI company
Shoni Mendel-Laufer, having left a promising career at the Ministry of Finance's Budget Department, has become a key executive at LTX, a new company spun off from Lightricks to focus on Physical AI.
When Shoni Mendel-Laufer joined Lightricks in 2022, the company was identified mainly with photo and video editing apps. A few months later, the artificial intelligence revolution arrived, and the company began to change direction. Today, as it splits into two companies, one of which, LTX, will focus on generative models and the vision of Physical AI, Shoni is already sitting in the management and leading its business strategy.
The road there went through an unconventional decision. Mendel-Laufer was already on a promising career path in the public sector. While a student for a bachelor's degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) at the Hebrew University, she began her path as a research assistant to the former Governor of the Bank of Israel, Karnit Flug. From there, she continued to the Budget Department at the Ministry of Finance as a housing referent, was promoted to the position of energy coordinator, and was a partner in shaping significant reforms in the fields of electricity and gas.
But four years ago, just as her career was gaining momentum, she made a decision that seemed incomprehensible to many: to leave a promising career at the Ministry of Finance and start over. Within less than four years at Lightricks, she went through a series of roles, each of which expanded her areas of responsibility - from investor relations, through planning and strategy, business development and leading partnerships, to being appointed Chief Business Officer of LTX, the new company born out of the split of Lightricks.
Today she sits around the management table and leads the business strategy of one of the most ambitious companies in the field of Physical AI: strategic partnerships, business model development, building the infrastructure for go-to-market, and investor relations. In practice, this means turning LTX's technology - an open world model - into a business: building the pricing and revenue model, closing partnerships with strategic partners and clients, and establishing the infrastructure that allows the company to sell and grow. These days, the company is conducting advanced negotiations with major Hollywood studios, big-tech platforms, hardware and robotics companies, and emerging AI companies.
