START UPS
START UPS
START-UPS
SAUL ADLER
line when it comes to start-up companies and a start-up
industry. Is it perhaps the fact that there is an energy
amongst Israelis isolated in start-up villages in Tel-Aviv,
Haifa, Jerusalem, Herzliya and more? Is it perhaps the
increasing angel investor network that makes someone
feel that their idea really can become a reality?
Perhaps it’s the demographical context where Israel
needs to develop ahead of the curve to survive? Perhaps
it’s the innate need of a Jew to do tikkun olam which
manifests in solving any of the world’s problems (think
outsmarting traffic with Waze).
According to mappedinisrael.com, a crowdsourced
website that aggregates data about the Israeli hi-tech
ecosystem, there are currently 1446 start-up businesses
in Israel. Enterprise, Bio-tech, e-commerce and
advertising are but a few of the industries where Israelis
are trailblazing an energy of innovation, technological
advancement, creativity and problem solving.
ADALLOM, a start-up that specialises in
cyber security, has been Israel’s latest start-up to be fully
acquired, this time by Microsoft for a cool $320 million.
But, is that the aim of a start-up? Some would argue
that Israeli start-ups are in it for the blaze sale. Build up
enough of a cool thing to sell to a Google, a Microsoft,
a Facebook or any large corporate and then either retire
young or move onto the next one.
Others, including Liron Smadja, the marketing manager
at Fiverr, one of Israel’s successful start-up companies
now in it’s 6th year, maintains that the aim of an Israeli
start-up is to disrupt that particular industry. This
smacks of what we have come to love about our Israeli
brethren: Chutzpah and challenging the status ][