Presentation delivered to the JCCA, November 2, 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel. Zack Miller presented on the Israeli high tech industry and provided case studies and lessons on how to emulate Israeli technology tactics to help grow local Jewish Community Centers.
2. 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
4. 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
6. 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
11. BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
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
12. “IT MAY TAKE A
VILLAGE TO RAISE A
CHILD, BUT IT TAKES
AN ECOSYSTEM TO
RAISE A SUCCESSFUL
STARTUP”
- Zack Miller
18. 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
BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
25. BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
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
27. BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
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.
32. “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
34. BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
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
35. BRINGING ISRAELI HIGH TECH HOME
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
36. 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
37. –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:
zack@tradestreaming.com