51 Where do you most often feel the tension between commercial speed and legal risk, and how do you decide when to push forward versus slow things down? Amir: “The tension is most acute when expanding into new territories governed by unfamiliar regulatory regimes, or when launching new features or partnerships that touch regulated areas such as payments, tenant screeningadjacent processes, identity verification, or handling sensitive data. These initiatives often respond to immediate market demand, but they can raise questions under frameworks such as consumer protection laws, financial regulations, or privacy obligations. Deciding whether to move forward involves assessing both the severity and the reversibility of the risk. After reviewing the regulatory landscape, if a risk is potentially systemic, irreversible, could materially increase Venn’s liability, or could materially affect tenants’ rights or trust (and, as a result, harm our relationship with our customers), we slow down and consider alternatives. If the risk is more operational and can be mitigated through controls, disclosures, or modest adjustments to the platform or services, we may proceed while continuing to refine the legal structure. In those moments, we expect external counsel to be clear, creative, and commercially grounded. We value advisors who can articulate not only what the risk is, but how it can be managed, what trade-offs exist, and what a regulator would realistically focus on in practice.” What legal issues keep you most alert today? How do you use outside advisors to stay ahead rather than react? Amir points out: “Data protection, financial regulatory exposure, and AI regulation are areas that require constant attention. Because we handle sensitive personal and, in some cases, financial information, expectations around transparency, security, and accountability have increased noticeably. Residents are more aware of how their data is used, and tolerance for ambiguity has decreased. Regulatory expectations appear to be moving toward greater scrutiny of technology providers operating at the intersection of the traditional residential housing industry and increasingly active regulatory enforcement. In many cases, these providers do not fit neatly into existing regulatory categories. We use external advisors proactively by involving them early in product design, partnership structuring, and policy development, rather than only at the point of contract negotiation or incident response. This helps us anticipate issues and build defensible positions before questions arise.” How has the role of the legal function evolved inside the company over the past few years? Amir notes: “Before I joined Venn, the company had not had an internal legal function for several years. Although Venn received support from external counsel, certain matters still required immediate, day-to-day attention. When I joined, the immediate need was - as expected - to put out fires: unblocking stalled handling negotiations that needed creative legal solutions, registering trademarks that had fallen between the cracks, and addressing data privacy issues. After reaching a more stable baseline (as stable as you can expect in a fast-paced start-up), the legal function evolved into a strategic partner in product development and business planning. In my view, legal’s role is not only to serve as a gatekeeper (which is critical in a high-growth company operating in a heavily regulated industry), but also to mitigate risk in a way that enables execution and helps the company gain competitive advantage. With no internal legal function previously in place, a significant part of the work has focused on building internal structures - policies, playbooks, templates, and escalation processes - that enable Venn to move quickly while maintaining consistency and compliance. This shift reflects the company’s growth, the increasing complexity of its regulatory exposure, and the need to embed legal thinking into day-to-day decision-making.” Looking to 2026 and beyond, what emerging legal or regulatory issues do you think will most affect your business as you expand across cities and markets, and where will trusted external advisors play the biggest role? Amir concludes: “As we expand geographically, regulatory fragmentation will remain a key challenge. Differences in housing regulation, consumer finance rules, data privacy regimes, AI regulation, and local operational requirements can materially affect how products are deployed. Increased regulatory attention on embedded financial services, datasharing ecosystems, and digital access controls is also likely to impact our model, even if the precise contours of future regulation are not yet clear. US-ISRAEL LEGAL REVIEW GC VIRTUAL SUMMIT
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