In my third book Pulling Her Resources, I weave in a financial scam subplot to complicate the lives of my love-besotted heroes. In this blog post I want to tell you about the woman who inspired the scam in my book.
I first met Illit Raz in April 2018.
She was pitching her brand new and promising startup, Joonko, to the women investor group I was part of.
Illit checked all the boxes: a woman at the helm of her own startup, which was dedicated to crafting solutions for companies looking for diversity, equity, and inclusion in their hiring practices.
Not only that, but she was also an incredible person—charismatic, sharp, and ready with an answer to every curveball question.
I almost invested in her company. It only fell through due to a technicality. Still, others did, and I stayed in the loop, gaining insider insights into the company’s trajectory.
In a May 2019 email, Illit’s amazing progress was outlined:
“Without pouring funds into advertising, marketing, and public relations, Illit managed to amass a pool of about 80 companies spanning different industries and around 10,000 diverse candidates, all while maintaining an impressive conversion rate…”
She raised over $38 million(!) from venture capital funds.
But only a few months later it turned out that much of the information provided to investors, including presentations and financial data, was fabricated. The numbers, the clients,- it was all a sham.
The story became front page news.
Yet, was Illit fundamentally different from other startup CEOs who adopt a "fake it till you make it" approach?
I’ve personally encountered two similar cases:
The Phantom Sale
A CEO claimed a significant sale had been finalized in an investor presentation. The truth? It was entirely fabricated. But the CEO’s super-connected father, friends with a leading VC, buried the incident. The son stepped down quietly, and the company moved on.
The CTO’s Big Lie
A startup CTO exaggerated the product’s capabilities to major auto companies and lied about a successful Proof of Concept (POC) to investors. Once exposed, he was pushed out quietly, leaving his co-founders to continue without him.
The truth is, startups lie about their numbers all the time. But their founders’ faces rarely end up plastered all over the news.
Here’s why Illit was different: Illit was a she.
Most of the lying is done by well-connected men, protected by their networks of fathers, friends, and male investors. Illit had no safety net. No one to hush her mistakes. So her case blew out of proportion. I maintain that if Illit were a man, her fall from grace would have been much quieter.
In my low angst/high steam romance, "Pulling Her Resources," ( it's free if you have Kindle Unlimited) I explore this “fake it till you make it” mentality.
Divorced and craving passion, Dafna has a fling with a young, tattooed bartender. Days later, he reappears—as the CPA auditing her struggling startup. Now, the man who set her heart racing holds her company’s future in his hands.
Hint: there's a Happy Ever After.
Yours,
Mia
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