

Wired presents Tel-Aviv’s top 11 start-up companies - wslh
http://english.themarker.com/wired-presents-tel-aviv-s-top-11-start-up-companies-1.378957

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cek
I was fortunate enough to visit Israel this spring and be immersed in the
start-up scene there for a brief time. I was blown away by the energy and
excitement.

The book "Startup Nation" by Saul Singer was given to me while there, but I
haven't read it yet. What I understand from talking to a bunch of
entrepreneurs while there was:

\- Israeli's serve in the military between HS and college. Thus when they get
to college they are more mature and ready to learn. \- Many Israeli's in their
military service are exposed to "interesting" tech research due to Israel's
geopolitical situation and resulting posture. \- Israel really has no export
other than intellectual property/ideas. So they have invest in education,
particularly in the sciences. I visited both the University of Jerusalem and
Technion University in Haifa and was very impressed with the directed research
I saw. \- There is a deep undercurrent of entrepreneurship due to what my
friends there call "the Jewish mother syndrome": It used to be Jewish mothers
would harp on their kids "You will be a doctor/lawyer". Now it's "You will be
Bill Gates/Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg".

