Israeli VC on Sand Hill road

Spontaneity in the lives of the Israeli entrepreneur

Much has been said about the cultural differences between the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley and Israel (as well as other places in the world).  Israeli’s can be difficult to work with because they don’t take things at face value, continually question authority, can be stubborn, are not process oriented, etc., etc., etc.  However, it’s many of those seemingly “annoying” qualities that make our entrepreneurs unique…   Those qualities are difficult, if not impossible, to learn.  It’s something into which one becomes socialized.  Thinking about what in the Israeli environment breeds this culture, I would like to address spontaneity.

Nobody can say that Americans do not plan ahead.  A slight example of this comes from my own personal experiences with summer camp.  Huh?

This past February, I felt that I was really getting my act together (finally!), and decided to sign my 9 year old son (Yoav) to camp, since in previous years I was always late.  However, I was STILL late.  I had him on the waiting list for Stanford Sports Camp, near the top of the list, from February, and by the time July rolled along, we still didn’t make it into the camp.

When we arrived in Israel in August, with a whole month of summer vacation, in which summer camps had not been prearranged, I was in a state of mild hysteria.  However, my friends and family told me not to worry (which for those of you that “understand” Hebrew, when somebody says not to worry, it’s exactly what you should do).

Yoav has always wanted to surf, and I thought that surf camp would be a great way for him to have a positive first impression of life in Israel.  Within 2 phone calls, I found a camp not far from home, and I signed him up on a Thursday, for camp that started the following Sunday!  That’s spontaneity.  At the end of the week, he wanted to go for another week, no problem.  After the second week, he wanted a third… no problem either. (Worth noting, that during the second week, one of the other campers was the daughter of Yael Elish, the CEO of eSnips … it’s a small swamp here).

Here are some photo’s.  For his 9th birthday, he got a very “cool” Billabong surf board.  Life in Israel is great - and Spontaneous

technorati tags: surfing camp israel

SiliconBeat: Zend raises $20 million to ride the Web 2.0 "PHP" boom

Congratulations to Zend on completing a $20M raise.  Zend is an Israeli company (in which Gemini didn’t invest when the company was very early stage…), that delivers the premier web application platform products and services for PHP applications.

There has been much discussion in the investment community about the ability of Israeli start-ups to be successful Web 2.0 companies.  I think that Zend is demonstrating that Web 2.0 is not limited to Silicon Valley start-ups.

There are some other visible start-ups, including Metacafe, Myheritage.com and of course, Gemini’s own eSnips.  We continue to see very healty deal flow through the Lightspeed Gemini Internet Lab as well. 

Israeli companies have no plans to ignore Web 2.0!

 

 

 

 

technorati tags: zend esnips metacafe myheritage.com Israel web2.0

No TV for ME

When you move, it’s a great opportunity to make some changes that you’ve been thinking about for awhile, but never get around to making. In our family, we’ve had discussions about removing the television from our lives for a long time, but never had the guts to act on it.  It’s well known that television has many negative effects on our kids, ranging from increased obesity to violent behavior, etc. It has plenty of negative effects on adults as well, but it’s such a great form of entertainment that we just seem to ignore these issues.

Setting up the cable was not top of the list for this move, so we’ve essentially been forced into living without TV.  What can I say - it’s wonderful!  My 9 year old son, Yoav, who will watch anything available (including the commercials even though we had TIVO), has now resorted to reading when he’s bored.  He’s finished the entire book supply that we had brought from the states, thinking it would easily last at least until my October visit to Silicon Valley.

Ben (my 3 year old) hasn’t asked to see the same old Shark Tale again and again and again.  Instead, he’s been playing with his tractors, trains, etc.  It’s more work for me (sometimes, an hour break would be nice), but overall, good for them.

We will get the DVD set up, so we can rent movies, etc..  I don’t think that a strict “no TV” law is the right approach, as kids have their ways of breaking these laws. But this hybrid model will hopefully bridge between the need for entertainment and down-time, without the negative effects.  We shall see…

technorati tags: no tv effects of television

Relocation blues - part II

There is a reason why my last blog entry was August 14th, and that was really just a link to somewhere else.  I’ve been blogging for just over 6 months, and try to stay focused on my subject – broadly things relating to Israeli start-ups and venture capital.  Every once in awhile, I stray… These past few weeks have been, how shall I say it, STRESSFUL!  If I were to blog somewhere around last Friday, it would have sounded something like this: “Stop the world, I want to get off” or “Take me back to Palo Alto NOW”. Therefore, I used the only reasonable approach – avoidance. 

Today, things are much calmer.  My new house is pretty much organized, WiFi works great, no more technicians running around (thank god!!!), my kids have found some sort of rhythm (more to come on that in future entries) and I’ve discovered some great new cafe’s and shops close to home.

My first Relocation blues entry, addressed the fact that during these transitions, you’re just not running at full speed.  Those words were too mild.  During relocation, and especially international relocation (or perhaps it’s just relocation to Israel?), things don’t run at any speed at all!  They don’t even crawl.  You essentially disappear from sight.as the mind stops functioning, since its too busy thrashing (like your OS). However, given a few weeks, that too passes.

On that note, I wish my readers a relaxing weekend and Shabbat Shalom. 

technorati tags: relocation moving back to israel

Technology's promised land

Last week, Michael Kanellos, published a news.com special report  – ‘Technology’s promised land, Industy, investment thrive in Israel despite violence”.  (Thanks to Deborah Schultz for sending me the link.) The first article called “A culture of survival drives growth” offers terrific insights into what makes people tick around here.  The special report also features a gallery, which includes one of Gemini’s portfolio companies –Mirage Innovations – which provides a new paradigm in personal displays.   Creativity is quite plentiful in the land of milk and honey. 

technorati tags: Michael Kanellos cnet israel hi tech

Not to worry, all is fine...

Eight days since we moved back to Israel and my email is overflowing with notes from  friends and colleagues checking in to see that we're alright.  Thanks to all of you for your concern!

As remarkable as it may seem, things here remain pretty "normal", or perhaps "life goes on" is a more appropriate description.  It's not "normal" to turn on the radio and hear about funerals for the fallen soldiers and civilians.  But as remarkable as it may seem, people just go along with their daily lives.

This is not a political blog (-- although, you can imagine, I have plenty to say on the subject), so I'll stick to the impact on Israeli technology companies and the VC industry.  Yes, there have been reservists called to duty from our companies, but no changes to delivery schedules or customer installations have occurred.  Everybody shares the load.  At Gemini, we are working very hard on diligencing several new exciting opportunities... no change there. 

Certainly worth noting that it's August (very HOT one at that...), which means vacation time. It's always a pretty quiet month. I don't think that in the workplace, it feels different than any other August.

Sadly, the Global Technology Mission that I have been working on as part of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce has been postponed.  Even if there is no real threat to the safety of the participants, travel advisories (and thus insurance for corporations), would have prohibited many from joining, regardless of other considerations.  Not to worry, this too shall pass.

If I could upload photo's to my computer (yes, those technical glitches are not totally gone yet), I would share some shots taken this morning at one of the cafe's on the beach... a picture is always worth, as the cliche goes, a thousand words.

technorati tags: israel venture capital life goes on

ISP customer service - Israeli style

There are so many things to take care of when you move.   There’s a very long list of items that have been prioritized and allocated to various family members for their execution.   Now that my blackberry (!) is working, next on the list is Internet connectivity, allocated to my husband Nitai. 

After a few attempts at getting us on-line, Nitai called Netvision customer support.  (They offer excellent customer service.) But here’s the Israeli twist.  A few minutes into the call, the agent said: “The sirens have just been sounded and we need to seek shelter in a protected area, we’ll call you back”.  After about 30 minutes, they called back, and not too long afterwards, we were on-line and ready to roll.

One needs to get inside the minds of the Israeli’s – “Life Goes On”.   This LGO mentality serves our entrepreneurs and start-ups well, as they face never-ending changes in the business environments in which they operate.   Believe me, this is not a situation that anybody would choose, however, it certainly keeps the senses sharp and maintains that “nobody will stop me” way of thinking, be it political or business.

technorati tags: israel lebanon life goes on

No wonder it's called a Crackberry

Hello, my name is Tali and I’m an addict. 

Yesterday, upon my arrival in Tel Aviv (following a VERY long trip from SFO to TLV with my younger 2 kids, one which was sick most of the way),  I realized that my blackberry service from Cingular was cancelled and I am now without email.  Wow.  Instead of being relieved, I felt a restlessness that was shocking.  What if somebody was sending me something important and I’m not responsive (note:  I make it a top priority to answer emails that I receive promptly).

I figured when I arrived at my parents house (which is where we’re living until we get settled into our own house), I could hook up to their Internet, but NO!  They had some problem with theirs, and very sadly, the neighbors WiFi, which was always available to me in past trips, was now secure-enabled.

So, first thing this morning, I left the kids with my folks, to get to the office to sync my computer and see if something important happened during the ~18 hours in which I had lost contact with the world.  Guess what, all is well.

There is a reason why the blackberry is a crackberry.

technorati tags: blackberry crackberry