Its population is just 8.5 million, but Israel has become a high-tech start-up powerhouse and is attracting major Japanese and Chinese players on the hunt for ingenuity.
To begin to understand Israel’s remarkable rise as a magnet for technology start-ups, it is worth listening to serial entrepreneur Eynat Guez.
“In Israel, you execute first. You say ‘I can deliver this’ and you think about how to do it afterwards,” says the founder of Papaya Global, a Tel Aviv business that automates international companies’ workforce and payroll management.
Guez is one of a large cohort of intelligent, ambitious business people in Israel who are cementing the small Middle Eastern country’s status as a serious rival to other technology and venture capital ecosystems such as California’s Silicon Valley, Shanghai and London.
Just don’t expect the focus in Israel to be on carefully executed business plans. The Israeli emphasis is on ideas, speed and rollout. If that means the innovations are slightly unformed, so be it. If that means some entrepreneurs crash and burn, no problem.
“You can say it proudly,” Guez says. “Failing in a venture in Israel is not something you try to hide. It’s part of your growth.”
Read the full article by Cameron Cooper at In The Black.