
Why Does Israel Have So Many Startups? - mhb
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/at-work/innovation/why-does-israel-have-so-many-startups
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cik
There are so many different reasons, across the culture that this article is
missing it.

The government has introduced forced savings for Israeli employees, returned
to the employees every 7 years. This means that EVERYONE (well, nearly)
receives a mass amount of money that is theirs, every 7 years. The number of
people I know who start companies as a result is out of control.

The Tel Aviv-Haifa corridor has trains connecting several cities, and in
general mass transit means that small towns, villages, etc are all
(reasonably) well connected. it's valley-esque.

We have an entire country full of people who grew up with stories about their
parents and grandparents' struggle establishing themselves when coming with
nothing. It's a classic immigrant can-do attitude situation.

Folks who want to extend their army service by an extra 3+ years can have
their first degree paid for. This has led to countless friends doing so, in
order to get their "free" CS degree.

Simply put, our country is built to aim for growth. Now if only we could start
to lower our taxes :(

~~~
cik
Replying to myself - there are way, way more reasons. This was the <1 minute
version.

~~~
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
If you don’t mind, please write a longer version. It’s very interesting to
hear how other countries operate. This one-minute was already intriguing.

~~~
cik
I'm not even sure how to answer... so I'll just post some random bits.

* Part of it is cultural. From a young age regardless of whether religious or not, critical thinking is taught. Frequently that comes from studying the Talmud (~30% of the population is religious, ~85% of the population takes some Talmud class). That extends to the fact that dissension is seen as positive, and argument valuable. There's a long running joke that Israel's problem is that no one knows how to think inside the box.

* Military service is mandatory - this helps a tremendous amount with regards to organization, "just getting it done", work ethic, etc.

* Military protocol - Israel's military is very, very different from the US. Whilst there's plenty of "just do it", questioning is very much encouraged, though there's a time and a place.

* Entrepreneurship - I've never, ever met anyone (<50) in Israel who doesn't have some form of a side hustle. Stay at home moms will sell food, the janitor at the local school will sell knowledge. The woman down the street runs a tea and cakes story hour in the park. It's not always for money, but it has goals.

* Super intense community - Everyone knows everyone else, always. The number of ways people are connected to each other is rather intense. There's a famous story where a woman drives 5 hours north to attend the funeral of her mother, only to find out that she was her next door neighbour's teacher, and her other next door neighbour's camp counsellor - and no one grew up in the city they were in.

* No excuses attitude - it's just unacceptable period to have an excuse. When things fail, there's a why. When you or I fail, we fail, no sugar coating. The issue is learning from it - or not.

* Chutzpah - and this is huge. If you run into someone (say a VC) in an elevator and you have anything close to an idea - there's a 100% assumption by everyone in that interaction that you're going to pitch it, good or bad.

There are TONNES of bad things that come out of this too. But the above are
some of the things I love.

------
Zanni
Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle [0] is an excellent
book on this topic, and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QZ9P6K/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QZ9P6K/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

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GrantZvolsky
The article fails to mention [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_post-
Soviet_aliyah](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_post-Soviet_aliyah), the
mass immigration of, on average, a highly educated demographic, through which
Israel gained cca 17% of its 2007 population.

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pmdulaney
As John Gielgud's character in Chariots of Fire says, "Perhaps they are God's
chosen people after all."

