Over the past few weeks, the Smith team has benefited from a number of impromptu on-campus meetings and events at the Technion. I've covered some of these in previous posts - such as the bi-weekly e-club meetings, the business ethics seminar, and the Shai Agassi speech. Additionally, in two other instances we've been able to meet with a pair of established Israeli entrepreneurs and discuss with them, both their current and future ventures. These two meetings were very interesting and I think it's definitely worth relating a little about each meeting and describe each entrepreneur.
Photo by Stephen Kushner
A few weeks back we had a chance to meet with Gil Perlberg. Formerly a VP for Business Development at Traceguard, an Israeli military and defense technology firm, Gil is currently the CEO & Founder of a new start-up, Ceronyx. This firm, Ceronyx, develops ceramic nanocomposites that address the increasing demand for advanced ceramic products in high growth fields, such as ceramic armor, cutting tools and medical applications, including ceramic implants for the hip and knee joints. Ceronyx's development is based on a proprietary technology platform developed by Prof. Wayne Kaplan, from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. This is still very early stage - which made all that more interesting.
Last Thursday, we met with Dr. Ze'ev Ganor. Currently an adjunct professor (and one of our judges in class) at the Technion, Ze'ev has been a successful entrepreneur for many years. Over the course of an hour, Ze'ev walked us through his many past ventures, covering both his successes and failures. After his stint in the Israeli military and college at the Technion, Ze'ev began his career at Computer Consoles Inc. (CCI) a US-based voice processing and computer software firm. Through a connection at CCI, he was a principal investor with a start-up that developed a new medical technology, Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA). This technology - a precursor to the MRI - was sold to Elscint for $70 million after 4 years. After this success, Ze'ev had the entrepreneurial bug. Other significant investments and start-ups Ze'ev has been involved with have included ChipX, Nanomotion, and Fiberzone.
Altogether, these meetings were a great opportunity for the Smith team to talk one on one for Q&A with two highly active entrepreneurs. Both Gil and Ze'ev - though they come from very different backgrounds - offered us a terrific inside look at the many diverse challenges faced by entrepreneurs and early stage investors.
After our meeting with Glen Schwaber from Israel CleanTech Ventures, we departed Jerusalem for the trip south to the city of Be'er Sheva. As we drove, the group debriefed from our earlier meeting and also prepared questions and exchanged information in preparation for our two upcoming afternoon company visits.
Photo by Kristin Thompson
At the time, unbeknown to the team, our group's driver had mistakenly taken an unintended detour on Israel Highway 60, which cuts directly through the heart of the West Bank, past the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, before reentering Israel proper just outside Be'er Sheva. We were all definitely caught off guard when - after two hours of very fast driving - we entered an armed checkpoint to reenter Israeli controlled territory. Definitely an interesting experience, to say the least! I would write more, but that story is for another time.
After a quick schwarma lunch at a local mall, we arrived at our second meeting of the day, Netafim. Founded in 1965, Netafim is jointly owned by three kibbutzim - Hatzerim, Magal and Yiftah. As of June, 2010 they have over 2,000 employees, operate in 112 countries, and have annual sales over $400 million. Netafim is the global leader in smart drip irrigation solutions for a sustainable future. Since introducing the world's first drip irrigation solutions they have led the way by developing products that help our customers optimize results.
Photo by Kristin Thompson
Our host and guide at Netafim was Naty Barak, the Head of Sustainable Development and a 30+ year veteran of both Netafim and the Hatzerim kibbutz. Naty offered the Smith team a fantastic overview of Israel's first cleantech firm (before anyone even knew about sustainability or clean technology), its history and its future. After a 20 minute presentation, covering the technology of drip irrigation, as well as a few current case studies of its use and impact in global agriculture, we departed for a tour of the Netafim factory. We walked the production floor, inspecting up close each machine along the way.
Photo by Kristin Thompson
Our next visit was to Yitran Communications Ltd., another Be'er Sheva based company. Yitran is a company based around power line carrier technology. In particular, they produce fabless semiconductors and integrated circuits that allow for command and control applications including Energy Management, Automatic/Remote Meter Reading, Home/Building Automation, Switching and Lighting, HVAC Control, Street Light control and more. Now 10+ years since its creation, Yitran is still looking for its first big win.
Amit Grauer, Yitran's current VP of Product Management played host to the Smith team during our visit and walked us though Yitran's short, but eventful history - walking us through its ups and downs - and explaining the path they see to eventually achieving success in the future. As many in our group aspire to become entrepreneurs in the future - it was certainly interesting understanding the false starts, missed opportunities, etc. that come with any new venture. Yitran is certainly an interesting company with a valuable product. The question is twofold though: 1) Can they convince the right industry players to adopt them as the standard? and 2) Can they stay afloat long enough to see the first part become reality?
The weekend in Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva was highly rewarding. By the time we rolled back into Haifa late Sunday night - without a doubt - the whole team was exhausted. That being said, everyone agreed that they wouldn't have missed anything we'd done.
Our video blogger, Stephen Kushner, captured some great highlights from the conference, including two panel discussions, as well as Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's keynote address (posted here). I've posted the two panel clips (with descriptions) after the jump.
I'm definitely quite a bit late in getting a post out about this, but every time I thought I'd have a free moment to start putting down my thoughts, I'd get distracted by something else. Anyway, better late than never!
This past Sunday, May 30th, the team visited two venture capital firms in the Tel Aviv area before returning back to Haifa in the late afternoon. Our meetings at both locations lasted a little over an hour, and in both instances we were given an opportunity to ask questions. Given the differences in each visit, I've decided to break up my coverage of each into two separate posts.
The first meeting was at DFJ Tamir Fishman, the local affiliate of Menlo Park, CA based Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson (DFJ). DFJ and its worldwide partner organizations (including DFJ Tamir Fishman) manage a portfolio of companies and assets worth approximately $6 billion. DFJ Tamir Fishman itself is actually the venture capital subsidiary of the larger Tamir Fishman Group, which is a full-service financial management firm.
At DFJ Tamir Fishman, our host and point of contact was Moshe Levin. Currently a managing general partner, Moshe is a 25 year veteran of the Israeli venture capital industry, having previously served as a partner at Pitango, Israel's largest VC firm. It was pretty clear from the get go that Moshe would be able to offer us a wealth of information and experience - and we were not disappointed.
Moshe's presentation was in some respects a recap of Start-up Nation. That being said, his presentation did dig into some prime examples of Israeli created technologies that many of us had not been aware prior to our meeting. I realize I've already gone into some of this in previous posts, but it still bares repeating.
It is quite extraordinary how many technologies - upon which our current global economy is based - that were created in Israel. To be honest, these contributions are drastically out of proportion relative to the size of this country, its population, or its economy. Listed below are a just a few of these technologies as well as the Israeli (or Israeli subsidiary) that was responsible for each creation.
Seriously, it is astonishing the range of technological innovations that have emerged from Israel over the past twenty years! From the internet, to personal and portable computers, to telecommunications, and medical devices, each of the above technologies was critical to the development and evolution of these markets and industries. Given their impacts, it would be hard to imagine a world in which these technologies had not been invented.
The views expressed on this site are those of Daniel Branscome, hereafter referred to as "the owner", and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Maryland, the Robert H. Smith School of Business, or the Technion. All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this blog or found by following any link on this blog. The owner will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The owner will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.
Last Thursday, we met with Dr. Ze'ev Ganor. Currently an adjunct professor (and one of our judges in class) at the Technion, Ze'ev has been a successful entrepreneur for many years. Over the course of an hour, Ze'ev walked us through his many past ventures, covering both his successes and failures. After his stint in the Israeli military and college at the Technion, Ze'ev began his career at Computer Consoles Inc. (CCI) a US-based voice processing and computer software firm. Through a connection at CCI, he was a principal investor with a start-up that developed a new medical technology, Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA). This technology - a precursor to the MRI - was sold to Elscint for $70 million after 4 years. After this success, Ze'ev had the entrepreneurial bug. Other significant investments and start-ups Ze'ev has been involved with have included ChipX, Nanomotion, and Fiberzone.
