What have we learned from our mistakes? Will the local Israeli venture capitalist’s get in the game? With these questions in mind the Israeli VC Gemini Israel Funds gathered a group of former and current influential from the Israeli Internet scene.
What have we learned from our mistakes? Will the local Israeli venture capitalist’s get in the game? With these questions in mind the Israeli VC Gemini Israel Funds gathered a group of former and current influential from the Israeli Internet scene.
There where people from ICQ, Speedbit, Hotbar, Aladdin, Netsnippets, Spearcast, Maxthon (guess who..) and others I don’t know. The event was opened up by Bob Rosenschein, CEO and President of Answers.com (formerly Guru.net) sharing some of his lessons learned over the years. Afterward Gemini Israel’s Daniel Cohen, gave a presentation to open up a discussion on why it is so quite on the Israeli Internet scene. Where is the next ICQ, Hotbar or Answer.com ? What are Israeli VC’s lacking that the US based VC are not? Why can’t Israeli VC spot an Internet success in the making?
Well, one of the explanations David gave was the geographical distance that somehow does not seemed to be bridged by cutting edge communication like Skype etc. We are just not there in the coffe shops of Paolo Alto or hanging out in Silicon Valley. I agree on that one, but I believe some of the main hurdles of Israeli VC’s are:
- Lack of balls – they are simply to afraid to follow their gut feelings (after having been burned by the previous bubble)
- An obsession with R&D based companies
- A fixation with patents and unique technology platforms
With this in their back heads, they are simply missing the lesson that successful Internet companies are not rooted in heavy R&D, patent and they often lack any particular cutting edge technology. Rather their DNA is made up by
- A cool brand that is community oriented and sharing based, or answers an immediate need (think Maslow‘pyramid) and are often disruptive.
Anyway, I think it was a very good initiative to organise the get-to-gether – and who knows, perhaps the next Internet success in the making is really just around the corner or right under their noses….
I recently finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start“, a book full of good advices for any entrepreneur. I especially liked the chapter called “The Art of Being a Mensch”. Too seldom I encounter any references to being a good fellow human being in business literature, so this one [...]
I recently finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start“, a book full of good advices for any entrepreneur. I especially liked the chapter called “The Art of Being a Mensch”. Too seldom I encounter any references to being a good fellow human being in business literature, so this one is definitely a rare exception and a must read for anybody. For at the end of the day, we are just human beings, father, husbands, monther, children with all the strengths and weakness that implies. We must never forget that.
To my pleasant surprise I discovered today that Guy just started to blog as well and have written a very good post called the 10/20/30 rule of Power Point – Maximum 10 slides, 20 minutes long and 30 points (font). I really like that although I would like to go even further and throw away that Power Point altogether. In my view, a good presentation is a genuine conversation between the presenter and his fellow audience.
I have personally stopped doing Power Point presentation unless when I must and the audience have requested it. I much more prefer just to sit down and tell the story. If you have a good story to tell (some called it a pitch) you can always back it up with a few illustrations if and when needed. Most of the time it is not needed. People much rather like to sit, listen and have a causal conversation. This might of course not fit every one but it works great for me. If you have to make a visual presentation supply a few screenshots or even better do it using Mind Manager from Mind Jet. Mind Manager is a fantastic mind-mapping software with a lot of cool features and easy to use. The audience likes it too.
“That which come from the heart – penetrates the heart” – Talmud
Related post: Blake Ross Predictions For the New Year
- Net Jacobsson is a former Facebook Executive, Advisor and Entrepreneur with many strings on his harp. Founder of Opportunistic Ventures & PlayHopper, Advisor to: CrowdStar, OpenFeint, PadWorx, PixOwl & and Board member of P1
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