Yesterday Jeff Pulver’s second Tel Aviv 140conf took place. Conference speakers (“characters”) discussed how they’re using social media in real-time for different things from fashion and food to promoting Israel abroad. Speakers included Kfir Pravda, Yosi Taguri, Yoni Bloch and Answers.com CEO Bob Rosenschein.
Special thanks to Niv Calderon and Roniet Berci who took these photos and let me use some for this video. Check out more of their photos from the conference on Facebook.
Despite the economic downturn, Israel’s startup scene is as strong and vibrant as ever. Just as the innovation hasn’t stopped, neither has the need for outside funding to develop these exciting technologies. Several conferences and forums have been organized in the past few weeks to maximize the access of Israeli startups to the funding they need. One that hasn’t happened yet, but will on June 4th in LA, is the The Israel Conference.
Considered the first of its kind, The Israel Conference will have more than $20 billion in capital represented when it brings together over 50 Israel-facing companies to showcase Israeli excellence in technology and products and to expand business and investment opportunities between Israel and California.
Presenters and panelists include Yossi Vardi (“the Father of Israeli Hi-Tech”), Erel Margalit (founder of Jerusalem Venture Partners, a venture capital fund) and Jeff Pulver (social media guru and VoIP pioneer) . The presentations will cover a wide range of topics from a look at VCs and the CEOs they back (why they were funded and the results today) to green tehcnology (how innovation in that field is helping the earth and changing our lives) and sales opportunities in a slow economy (where the money is, what the current market is like and how Israeli companies are maintaining a competitive edge).
Some of Israel’s overall edge and Caifrornia’s role in it can be attributed to the following:
The conference will also feature a presentation by Bob Rosenschein, the CEO and Founder of Answers.com, one of the Top 20 fastest growing Websites. I recently had the chance to interview Rosenschein and will post about that next in this series.
Tal Chalozin (circa 2000)
Business Week has announced that topping its 2008 Best Young European Entrepreneurs reader poll is Innovid’s 27-year old co-founder and chief technology officer, Tal Chalozin.
Innovid was founded by Chalozin and, CEO, Zvika Netter in 2006 and provides a platform “that allows the integration of brand advertising into relevant video content.” The technology promises to solve the problem that publishers and advertisers have faced regarding monetizing online video.
In a post on TechCrunch about Innovid after it received $3 million in Series A funding in March 2008, Mark Hendrickson explained how the technology works as follows:
“The virtual items facilitated by Innovid are basically 3D objects that producers insert into videos post-production. They’re intended to look as realistic as possible so that they blend in with the real physical environment recorded by the video. And yet, they can’t go entirely unnoticed because users are encouraged to click and perform mouse gestures with them to derive additional functionality (for example, to view a popup description about the particular item with links to external resources).”
While the technology is promising and owes a lot to Chalozin’s leadership and innovation, that’s not the only thing that does. Chalozin and others at Innovid have been very active in the past few years in the Israeli technology non-profit, GarageGeeks, which provides a “physical and virtual space for innovative and creative people to introduce, network, expose, create, brainstorm, innovate and build.” In the past year alone, attendance at its monthly events has more than doubled and there is now a need to limit the amount of participants.
It was originally through GarageGeeks that Chalozin and Netter got to know angel investor Jeff Pulver who provided the early funding before the Series A round that has made it possible for Chalozin and Innovid to reach the international level of recognition it has achieved.
The week of of December 14, 2008 was filled with news from the Madoff scandal, including reports that the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology lost $72 million. Israel’s clean technology continued to draw interest from different states in the United States and reports were releases that U.S. investors are still seeking to invest in Israeli companies. A partnership between IBM and Samsung led to the development of a software reuse technology and WorkLight announced that it partnered with NetVibes to develop new secure widget technologies for the enterprise. For these stories and more, check below for the 13 Israel-related headlines from the week of December 14, 2008.
Cleantech
1. State of Georgia looks to Israel for solutions to energy and water challenges
2. MRI, Israeli firm will create renewable energy technology center
Investments and Economy
3. US investors seek out Israeli high-tech opportunities
4. Peres calls for tax breaks for growth industries
5. Government Gives Boost to Hi-Tech
Information Technology
6. IBM Israel and Samsung develop software reuse technology
8. WorkLight® and Netvibes Pair Up To Develop New Secure Widget Technologies for the Enterprise
Miscellaneous
10. Ron Yekutiel, Chairman and CEO of Kaltura (TV Week interview)
11. Terrorism spurs interest in Israeli tech
12. American Technion Society takes $72 million hit in Madoff scheme
13. USA Hockey to form Intelligym (Applied Cognitive Engineering Ltd.)
Bonus: Angel investor and Web 2.0 icon, Jeff Pulver hosted his famous real time social-networking breakfast twice in Israel this past week. The first one he hosted was in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, December 16th, which brought together over 400 people in Israel’s hi-tech industry. The second one was the following day, when Pulver hosted his first social networking breakfast in Jerusalem. The picture below is from the Jerusalem event. Pulver is in the center wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
When my roommate told me in horror last week that our Israeli landlady friend-requested her on Facebook, my response was that I was not surprised.
“But she’s really old!” my roommate exclaimed. Pushing retirement age, our landlady’s using Facebook does seem to be a bit unusual, especially, since Hebrew is her primary language. However, considering Israeli’s propensity for adopting new technology and the weight that Israeli culture puts on protexia (networking) in general, I figured it was only a matter of time before she would join and search one or all of us out on Facebook.
And, indeed, her having joined Facebook does represent an overall Facebook adoption rate by Israelis that is starting to turn heads. A few weeks ago, when I mentioned in passing my observation that the Facebook Israel Network had over 100,000 members, I was not aware of the discussion that Internet luminaries, Jeff Pulver, Shel Israel and Moshe Maeir were also having about it between their blogs.
Now having read their posts (thanks to a post on Alec Saunders’ blog), I find that they have really put this into perspective. According to Moshe Maeir’s blog, from August to October 15th, the Israel Network grew from 18,000 to 70,000. By October 25th, it reached 100,000 and yesterday (November 10, 2007) it hit 150,000 – that’s 50% in two weeks. Of course, as someone raised in a comment on Pulver’s blog, this number does not even include the many Israelis who haven’t listed themselves in a network (such as my landlady’s adult children).
While this is something to watch, Maeir brought up an even more significant fact by pointing out that “about half [of the Israelis in the Israel Network] are above the age of 24, which means that Facebook is moving away from the college age origins.” (Something that rings true with my land lady’s joining it.) He goes on to state that this is part of a trend of Facebook becoming more of a “serious networking platform for business.” A trend, that given the amount of Israel business groups being created on Facebook, is clearly being taken advantage of and is in full force on the Israel Network.
