Bringing the Startup Nation Home: Lessons from Israeli High Tech

BRINGING THE STARTUP NATION HOME

LESSONS FROM ISRAELI HIGH TECH

Zack MillerNovember 2, 2015

BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME

AGENDA• Little about me

• More about what makes Israel the Startup Nation

• Examples of Startup Nation successes

• Discussion, Q&A: How to apply the lessons you’ve learned in Israel to your JCC experiences

ABOUT ME

General Partner, OurCrowd

Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Tradestreaming

Forbes columnist

Published author (Tradestreaming Your Way to Profits: Building a Killer Portfolio in the Age of Social Media — Wiley, 2010)

Financial technology industry consultant

About me

GROWING UP IN A JCC

A PERSONAL STORY

Growing up in the JCC, my family was:

• Connected Jews (though not religious — we became more religious later)

• Went to public or private, non-denominational schools

• Zionistic

• Socially Jewish (camps, holiday activities, Federation, March of the Living)

• Active in local Jewish organizations

• Friendly with Jews across spectrum

• Present at most JCC events, camps, sports leagues

OLD MIAMI BEACH JCC

All in the family

The New MB JCC

IN 2002, THE MILLER CLAN MADE ALIYAH

SECRET INGREDIENTSISRAEL AS STARTUP NATION


ISRAEL HIGH TECH LANDSCAPE

• 4000+ startups

• 50+ accelerators, working spaces

• 250+ R&D centers

• #1 startup ecosystem outside the US

• #3 in NASDAQ traded companies

as per Rackspace’s Alan Weinkrantz

“IT MAY TAKE A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD, BUT IT TAKES AN ECOSYSTEM TO RAISE A SUCCESSFUL STARTUP”- Zack Miller


WHAT IS A TECH ECOSYSTEM?


PROOF IN THE PUDDING: ISRAEL IS THE TOP STARTUP ECOSYSTEM OUTSIDE THE US

Israel vying with Silicon Valley as the best place to launch an innovative company

MICROSOFT IS ALMOST AS MUCH AN ISRAELI COMPANY AS IT IS AN AMERICAN ONESteve Ballmer

Israel’s greatest resource is its ingenuityLack of resources creates resourcefulness

IF YOU’RE GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST TO LOOK FOR OIL, YOU CAN SKIP ISRAEL. IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR BRAINS, LOOK NO FURTHER.

Warren Buffett


$10M $650M

$67M $1B

$30M $900M

$6.5M $475M

Israeli companies tend to be more capital efficient

WHY COLOR IN THE LINES WHEN YOU CAN DRAW YOUR OWN MASTERPIECE?

Rest of World Israel

Contemporary Rorschach Aptitude Proof

Creating the Israeli Banana Peeler Machine

CROSS POLLINATION IS KEYISRAELI SCIENCE


ISRAELI SCIENTISTS FIND NOVEL SOLUTIONS TO NAGGING PROBLEMS

▸ Example:

▸ Problem: Blood borne diseases are hard/expensive to detect in emerging economies, where testing is needed the most

▸ Solution: Take engineers, computer programmers, algorithm developers, machine vision experts and biologists and come up with a machine that detects blood borne diseases quicker, better, cheaper than human lab techs

SCRATCH YOUR OWN ITCHSOLVE PROBLEMS IMPORTANT TO YOU


ISRAELI SCIENTISTS SCRATCH THEIR OWN ITCHES

▸ Spinal injuries confine people to a life in a wheelchair

▸ Solution: Create a bionic exoskeleton that with a push of a button, enables a paraplegic to stand and walk

▸ How: Amit Gofer experiences an injury that left him paralyzed. He envisioned a world not of better wheelchairs but of getting people back on their feet, moving.

https://youtu.be/rGumsKyLJZo

IF IT’S STARTED UP, SCALE IT UP

WE ARE NOW SIMPLY SEEING COMPANIES THAT START HERE HAVE BIGGER AMBITIONS.Ravi Mhatre, Lightspeed Ventures

WIX.COMCASE STUDY #1

http://wix.com

“Maybe it’s time for us to think about ourselves as a country going from a startup nation to a high-tech nation, where startup is the first step, but companies are still built in Israel, maintained in Israel and grow from Israel.”

— Wix’s Avishai Abrahami

Scaling up Israeli high tech

WAZECASE STUDY #2


ACCORDING TO ALLTHINGSD:

• Google acquires Waze for >$ 1billion

• Facebook acquisition talks with Waze in 2013 failed in part because of conflicts over whether or not the Waze team could remain in Israel


SUMMARY: THE STARTUP NATION

▸ Create ecosystems

▸ Establish a culture of resourcefulness

▸ Color out of the lines

▸ Cross pollinate

▸ Scratch your own itch

▸ If it’s working, double down

How do you bring the lessons of the Startup Nation back to your local JCC?

Think about:Local ecosystems

Culture of resourcefulness

Cross pollination

Scratching your own itch

Doubling down on success

–Mick Weinstein, VP Marketing, BillGuard (formerly, Editor in Chief,

Seeking Alpha)

“Zack is a must-read for anyone in fintech. ”

Published author, sought-after speaker, top podcaster, Forbes columnist, About.com Expert

Contact:

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Bringing the Startup Nation Home: Lessons from Israeli High Tech

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