Northern Israel Entrepreneurs Active and Working - Technion Conference

The Technion Entrepreneurship Conference flyer, held March 17, 2010 in Haifa

While the venture capitalists in Israel have been concentrating on the big deals, investment in the range of US$10 million, entrepreneurs have been busy away from the spotlights. In Israel venture capital investment has gone down to pre-2005 levels. The consequence is very few large venture capital backed start-ups. There was a talk of this lucrative sector in the Israeli economy turning into different type of financing models. In Israel where high-tech start-ups is a big economic factor many are having a hard time dealing with the drop in companies and jobs. But contrary to predictions from two years ago, this does not mean people stoped innovating. Technologists have been developing new ideas some even building products. Some small teams have started marketing their products.

Yesterday, at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology, equivalent to USA's MIT) about 250 start-up workers and managers gathered to discuss the state of affairs. It seemed to me that most of the attendees were from northern Israel. Haifa is situated in the southern edge of Israel's gallil. Some of Israel's known start-ups are situated in northern Israel. But central Israel (the Dan region) is better known for start-ups, venture capital and entrepreneur services. Nevertheless, the meeting was well attended and a lecture hall in the engineering building was filled to capacity.

The attendees were a mix of young entrepreneurs and more experienced service providers (a law firm, few business development firms, university representatives / incubator / licensing managers.) The talks covered what areas we see entrepreneurship and good potential success, experienced entrepreneurs on falling and getting-up in start-ups, daily dilemmas in running a start-up (from the Technion's "100 club") how to deal with difficult situations, and ending with a competition of start-up projects sponsored by BizTec.

The most noticeable change from other entrepreneur conference is the almost complete absence of talk about venture capital. In the past, venture capital partners, their firms and the process of pitching and convincing an investor to back a venture were topics discussed with great detail. Getting a big fund to back a start-up was a race to the brass ring. Giving a better presentation, writing a better business plan, showing a better prototype - than other start-ups was all one talked about. This time the talk turned into the actual work. Entrepreneurs, specially young ones, have completely accepted the current situation. Venture capital is not where the money will come from. I am sure that this state of affairs will change, we have cycles in investment just like anything else.

The other interesting observation is the rise in number of experienced professionals going into entrepreneurship. There were a few high-tech (electronics, software, marketing) and many bio-tech (biologists, product designers) and even a few aviation (avionic and mechanical engineers) looking to develop products fitting the current market and technology conditions. It seems that at the core of it all, people who want to invent and get a product out are not driven only by a good backing and a safe job with a good salary for five years. These are people who are going to try innovating even without a big venture capital firm backing. This is what we call: "nothing ventured nothing gained"! for real... stay tuned, we may see some of the participants ringing that bell on NASDAQ yet!