WE Summit
The event is put on by the US Israel Business Council. This years mission was to to promote high-growth women-led Israeli businesses. There was a competition to selection three women entrepreneurs in Israel and then bring those winners to NYC to meet, greet, network and showcase their companies. The winning companies were HDH Medical that is working on creating innovative surgical solutions, Sol-Chip an innovative solar company and Tipa-Corp that is bringing a new world of biodegradable and recycable package solutions to market. Each using technology to create innovative products.
I sat on a panel with two women, Dorin Miller, a partner at the Cedar Fund and Michal Tsur a second time entrepreneur currently of Kaltura. Both women are beyond impressive. Smart, thoughtful, entrepreneurial, analytical and strategic. I am looking forward to sitting down with each of them individually in the future because certainly the conversation was for the audience and except for shaking each others hands before and after the event we really did not get a chance to talk.
Israel has always been an entrepreneurial hub. It isn't so surprising that many of the ideas that come out of Israel are ripe with new technology platforms. All Israelis serve in the military where much of that type of training takes place. I have only had the pleasure of meeting with a few Israeli companies in the past year that have contacted me about their businesses directly and we have talked on Skype. Each entrepreneur impressed me with their razor focus and intellectual intensity.
After the panel ended I spoke to a few people including the group behind the conference. It was small and intimate and I was impressed with everyone I spoke to at this event. I love that the Israeli Government is focusing their efforts on highlighting women entrepreneurs by supporting them financially and bringing them to the US to showcase their companies globally. Would love to see more countries to that.
Comments (Archived):
There’s a good book called Start Up Nation (http://www.amazon.com/Start… that looks at what Israel has done.It’s downloaded on my audible and has been on my listen list for a while. Should get to it!
Love the title
Let’s hope the book lives up then!
Oh @rrohan189:disqus and @gothamgal:disqus the book is fantastic. Was reading the post, coming to comment about the book and Rohan beat me to it. I highly recommend it. Rohan I had to give it a second listen. There are numerous audiobooks I have to re-listen to every year or two and that is one of them. Love audible although two I want to buy now thinking fast and slow http://www.audible.com/pd?a…andJim Collins Great by Choiceall sayWe’re sorry. Due to publishing rights restrictions, we are not authorized to sell this item in the country where you live.This often happes with audible books due to rights not being allowed to be given for Africa.Its so frustrating as I always have to end up tracking down the author and trying to get it from them directly. After months I succeed but with these two its been difficult.sorry for the rant, but find it interesting and frustrating
oh and @gothamgal:disqus http://littlebits.cc/ looks incredible!
Audible does that outside the US every once in a while Tyrone. I have the same problem when I try to download Too Big to Fail or Switch. So, it’s not only Africa. And I’ll check out Start up nation, now that I’ve got your double recommendation! 🙂 It’s in queue. Steve Jobs by Isaacson still on for now! 😀
@rrohan189:disqus didnt think only South Africa, but its mostly the case, they themselves have even said so, as its not worth there while having rights to Africa. Hence why I have to go elsewhere sometimes. Have no choice, I’m an addict. To Big to Fail is superb. Tried to get as much as I could on that theme. You know my thoughts on Switch, havent gotten into to it that much but did love Made to Stick.Cant express how much I love Start up Nation.Steve Jobs book was such a delight, nearing the end now, very sad. But also wonderful.
as for documentaries on that theme, Too Big to Fail is worth watching but if you havent seen Inside Job I highly recommend it.
I have done a lot of work in Israel (was an exec. at Check Point for 4 years) – I found Israelis to be very accepting of women in business – more so than here. At Check Point there were several female exec’s besides me – VP Engineering and CFO. Plus, as Startup Nation explains it is an incredibly entrepreneurial culture.