11 Will Israel be the next Silicon Valley? (aka "we need more meetings")

The Innovation Engineer Podcast

Will Israel (or better: Tel Aviv) be the next Silicon Valley? They sure already claim to be and call themself Silicon Wadi. But is it true, or is it just clever marketing? Why do people in Israel need more meetings? And where is Tarek? L'chaim!

In today's episode, we have a special guest - Henrike Hedel. She's the Head of Tech Program at the FreeTech Academy and recently returned from a trip through Israel. Plus she's a fan of nerdy mugs. In fact, when COVID first started out, she made a series of Instagram posts featuring her particular mug of the day. She's a huge space nerd, building Lego models of the ISS, and even tried to become an astronaut herself.

Thanks to her role in the FreeTech Academy Henrike had the chance to go on a weeklong journey throughout Israel to learn more about their approach to Innovation. And Waschi did a similar journey some years ago and he was the supervisor for a Bachelor thesis about “Innovation Factors in Israel”.

Welcome to The Innovation Engineer Podcast, your favorite place for picking brains of your favorite engineers. This time we ask ourselves will Israel be the next Silicon Valley? Or is it already? What is even so special about the Silicon Valley?

Hosted by two former CTOs, both veterans of the industry, you can expect many stories from current and past ventures. Meet Innovation Engineer Tarek Madany Mamlouk and Principle Engineer Sebastian "Waschi" Waschnick.

Key Takeaways

• ICQ started the whole VC and tech scene in Israel when it was sold for 200M$ in 1998
• The "Silicon Wadi" is mainly concentrated in Tel Aviv
• Not many well known products come from Israel, except the SodaStream (at least well known for Germans)
• Most people in Israel aim for a fast exit and don’t think about long term success, that’s also why many Israeli products are now actually part of other companies (and you may not know that they are from Israel)
• From the absolut numbers Israel VC scene is not that big, but per citizen it’s no. 2 world wide in terms of VC volume
• Israel is a walled garden and that makes it hard to be as attractive as the Silicon Valley, as the access is limited and specific people have even the option to go there
• Most foreign people would not feel safe enough in Tel Aviv or in Israel in general to consider living or working there
• It's more a marketing claim from Israel itself to be the next Silicon Valley, even if they are very successful in founding and creating new companies and products

Show Notes

• 0:00 Intro
• The infamous Star Wars XMas episode

Stuff we mentioned

• 🫧 SodaStream for making sparkling water
• 💦 Brita Water Filter
• 📺 Star Wars XMas episode on YouTube
• 🥛🍫Koawach, Cocoa powder with caffeine
• 📘 Startup Nation Israel (Book)
• Startup Investments → https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/countries-most-startup-investment/
• VC Investments → https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=VC_INVEST

What should we talk about next?

• YouTube: The Innovation Engineer
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• Check our website and find everything you never knew you needed

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