“I have three passions in life. Achieving great results for my clients and myself, pushing back the limits of the possible and my family. I am a lucky man. I get to do all three.”
Udi Cohen,
Founder, Practical Dreamer, Lt. Colonel (Ret.) IDF
Professional Highlights
Serial entrepreneur who has grown businesses from start-up to sales through effective business planning and innovative marketing
Successfully established corporate culture and built up teams for high performance, high engagement, and company-wide positive culture
Sourced seed, 1st and 2nd round investment for growth & scale-up for his own companies and on behalf of clients
Successfully created a new overseas executive team for his own product line
Established winning market and product strategies for international sales with a focus on the US
Expert at creating DTC strategies starting with the definition of the online value proposition while adding overall company value
Creator of a proven extended brand digital ecosystem blueprint that establishes to a digital first marketing mentality focusing all available resources to superior online experiences
Established a unique product development process that reduces time to market, and streamlines launch events
Highly skilled at developing Technology & IT roadmaps to implement business & marketing automations to scale turnover
From the very beginning, I have been driven by the need to prove and achieve. The army gave me so many opportunities to do so, and I took all of them. This led me to reach the grade of Lt. Colonel in the top commando unit of the Israel Defense forces, Intelligence.
It is an amazing training for every aspect of one’s being. From the body and the physical challenges imposed on all of us commandos to merely be part of the elite units, to the decision-making skills required to deal with real-time risk or tactical and/or strategic problems.
As you can imagine, I did not get much sleep for almost 30 years. However, what I did acquire was the intimate conviction that like in the army, most situations allow low margins for error. Risk is omnipresent and the only way to address risk consistently is to combine, caution, commonsense and innovation. Creativity when used efficiently will always yield great solutions.
When I retired from the army, it was with mixed feelings. On one hand, I would be free to do everything I had secretly been dreaming for many years. But from another perspective, my training ground for all my ideas and the daily challenges that pushed my limits to the extreme were no longer there.
I had no option but to find an outlet for my dreams and energy. I quickly found a venture that would feed my restless energy.
In 2014, I met up with a group of like-minded special forces friends, all with over 20 years in commando units, to come up with a simple, sleek, field survival tool that would outperform anything in its class. We wanted to offer more to consumers than the old axes, trench shovels and survival tools issued to the ground forces for generations so far. We even found a slick name for it: COMBAR. It was to be the ultimate tool for today’s elite warfighters and for serious adventurers like us.
We went to work on our quest by reviewing patents from the last 100 years to see if others had found a solution to the issues we had. We were surprised to find the many inventors who had tried and even patented a few tools, never managed to turn ideas into real products.
We were looking for the one easily carriable tool that could be trusted in any situation. Equally, we made extensive market surveys evaluating different types of tools but none that met our uncompromising standards.
After three years of research, experimentation and ten generations of prototypes, we finally had our COMBAR! We founded ACLIM8, a company whose vision was to offer an entirely new category in pioneering high-quality adventurer tools.
We raised $1 million and recruited for the project a team of expert adventurers, engineers, metallurgists, industrial designers, graphic designers, and artists.
In April 2018, ACLIM8 unveiled COMBAR to the world. We discovered that consumers were hungry for a high-quality product such as COMBAR. They shared our vision and values and ordered hundreds of COMBARs in pre-sales and thousands of accessories totalling approximately $250K. We shipped all the COMBARs in 2019, without a single return, making it a complete success.
The following two years were spent in the transition from product design to mass production. We contacted military units, law enforcement agencies, and Search and Rescue forces from around the world who are currently testing the COMBAR as an essential part of the kit for their teams.
We dreamt big and managed to use all the skills I acquired over 30 years effectively to make a dream a reality.
This initial success and the rapid growth of ACLIM8 was welcome, but not a surprise. When you have a good idea, a great solution, in-depth market research that shows you what your customers want, and you have the know-how and skills to manage a production program in addition to a go-to-market strategy, success will come your way!
But this was not enough. I had the feeling that I could do more, especially share with others how getting your ideas and vision become a reality and make money in the process.
That is how and why I created Practical Dreamer. My intention was and remains to share my knowledge with entrepreneurs and companies and empower them with the methods and skills to make and earn so much more.
I have been called a visionary strategic Entrepreneur & CEO, but I like to see myself as a person that has learnt that any idea needs an effective implementation to become a reality. Now I help others do the same.
I extend my proven track record in achieving innovation & leadership for premium consumer hardware goods global brands to any sector and any company willing to achieve more, quickly! I have been blessed to work with many companies allowing them to gravitate from startup status to sustainable business.
With the acceleration of technological demands on even the smallest venture, I focused my business mentoring around both organizational needs of companies as well their IT infrastructure and Digital Marketing requirements.
During my years in the army and while launching my first venture, the realization that any solution needs to be a holistic approach to be effective was omnipresent. As I progress on my own journey, learning every day from my clients, I have the opportunity to put my skills in systematically upgrading business capabilities to good use.
My strong foundation in manufacturing and IT extends to every aspect of a business, regardless of their activity. Everything is a production line in the end. It also allows me to live daily my passion for creating a high-performance culture that leads to accountability and a positive workplace.
Having lived through the startup cycle, I also developed a methodology to increase the probability of investment. This knowledge of investor mindset and the world of private equity and venture capital has helped me help others raise funds for their companies.
