Ukraine - the next startup nation

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Ukraine – the next startup nation Investor Day Central and Eastern Europe, Kyiv 2014 Aviram Eisenberg

description

Why is the high-tech industry called IT in Ukraine and is it always going to be like this? Undoubtedly we are optimistic about Ukrainian future. Ukraine has all the potential to move from selling development services to selling development products like Israel. Even though Ukrainians can't rely on their government, they are able to create the next startup nation by themselves.

Transcript of Ukraine - the next startup nation

Page 1: Ukraine - the next startup nation

Ukraine – the next startup nation

Investor Day Central and Eastern Europe, Kyiv 2014

Aviram Eisenberg

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Are you Crazy?

“A lot of people ask me if I am crazy?““You are living in Ukraine? In these times???”

Well, I live in Israel, we are kinda used to state of war…

I am just replacing this:

With this:

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The First Time I Came to Ukraine…

8 Years ago I came to Ukraine for the first time…

I put on a nice suit (so I thought) and shopped for a good development partner

Everybody was talking with me about the IT Industry (and I thought this “High-Tech” with Russian accent

IT = Selling Development Services High-Tech = Selling Developed Products

How do we turn the IT industry to High-Tech (and not just by changing the accent)

* according to the World Bank

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About Me

Father of 3 wonderful children

High-Tech professional for the last 30 years

- Computer geek in my teenage days- Platoon commander in the Army Intelligence (computer related)- Computer Science Graduate from the Technion- Chief Architect at Mind CTI- Founder and CEO Of Ignite – a global IT company- Chairman of the Israeli R&D Managers forum

Lives in Kiev (Ukraine is my second home!)

* according to the World Bank

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Country History

66 years

22,072 km2

23 years

603,628 km2

Territory

Age

Population

8,14 mln 44,29 mln

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Israel – the land of the entrepreneurial spirit

Wars

10 wars (every 5-10 years)

1947-1949, 1956, 1967, 1967-1970, 1973, 1982-2000, 2008-2009, 2010, 2012, 2014

Daily living under possible terrorist attacks

now

WarsWars

High level of risk tolerance!Just remember the proverb,

“the entrepreneur that died without ever going bankrupt had a premature death…”

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Israel is the Startup Nation

Tel-Aviv comes is #2 in the top startup ecosystems in the world

R&D centers of Intel, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, etc.

450-500 startups are established every year

each month 10 companies move to New York

distributed and powerful angel investors network

most venture capital per capita: 2.5 times more than the U.S. and 30 times more than Europe

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Startup ecosystem

70

2000

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50

500 +

Angel investors

VC funds

Active startups

5000 +

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How Did it Start?

But, it was not always like that!

30 years ago Israel’s was very much like Ukraine – selling IT services to the USA

The Israeli Army produced excellent developers

International companies came to shop for good (and cheap) developers and established branches (Motorola, then Intel, then Microsoft…)

With time, developers left the big companies and started small innovative product companies in the same vertical

Investor-friendly government policy brought more big companies

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How Did it Start?

Few startups were sold to international companies

Then came the VCs and the private investors

And the rest is history…

You can read the bookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start-up_Nation

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Israel and Ukraine – different but alike!

High motivation for High education (the Jewish mam factor)

The hunger to succeed

Individualistic and entrepreneurial spirit

The need to control your own destiny

Tolerance to Risk

Flexible mind – the ability to overcome difficulties

Opportunistic mentality – the other side of difficulty is opportunity!

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So how do we do that???

You are barking at the wrong tree!!!

The bad news: the public sector WILL DO NOTHING!

The good news: Ukrainians are practical people – they ALWAYS JOIN SUCCEESS

The private sector has to ACT!

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Ukrainian startup incubators

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The next step is for IT companies to open on-site incubators, R&D and startup programs encouraging more entrepreneurship!

Example: Cikklum announced opening of own incubation center.

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Conclusion - new incubator coming, join!

Ignite plans to open a new incubator in Kyiv

Focus

Homeland and cyber security

Medical devices

Social and Mobile gaming

SW tools and SW Infrastructure

If you are interested to take part in any form, come to talk or drop a line to [email protected]

We are looking for

Angels

VC investors

Startups

Mentors

Tech advisers

Entrepreneurs

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Thank you for attention!

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