touboul's career began in earnest with the founding of shani (or shany) computers in 1985. the israeli company and its california subsidiary were sold to intel in 1994 for between $15 million and $20 million. this sale marked the first time a united states corporation had come to israel to purchase a startup. he went on to work for intel as a manager in their network management business unit. in 1996, he founded finjan software inc. the company designed and patented antivirus software and anti-spyware software. in 1997, the company received $10 million in investor funding.