Israel: the new destination for hedge fund managers

Keinan, an Israeli fund manager, was ready for the question he’s always asked when he met with investors in New York in October: Why put your money with a manager whose country Iran has threatened to obliterate? “We tell them ‘if the Iranians attack, the worst thing that can happen is you lose your money manager not your money,'” Keinan, chief executive officer of Tel Aviv-based KCPS & Company, which oversees $1 billion in assets, replied. “The notion is trade global markets with global assets and clients, but just do it from Israel because of the concentration of talent here.”

Tel Aviv ranks second worldwide for Tech Startups

The Startup Genome released the first half of its massive 160-page report on the world’s top startup ecosystems. The ambitious, collaborative R&D project was created by three young entrepreneurs, Bjoern Herrmann, Max Marmer and Ertan Dogrultan, who set out to take a comprehensive, data-driven dive into what makes startups successful.

The comparative analysis, produced in collaboration with affiliates from UC Berkeley, Stanford and Telefónica Digital, covers a host of topics, including how the landscape of startup ecosystems has begun to extend beyond Silicon Valley to become somewhat of a global phenomenon. The report compiled a global ranking of startup ecosystems based on a 50-variable, 8-component index, which includes Startup Output, Funding, Company Performance, Talent, Support Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Trendsetting Tendencies and Ecosystem Differentiation.

Startup Nation now on the map

Michael Eisenberg (Benchmark Capital) set a challenge a few days ago, asking developers from Israel to create a similar map to the one Michael Bloomberg unveiled in NY and that showcases more than 500 local companies based on their location as well as the available jobs within these companies.

Inspired by the NY map, Eisenberg's challenge and probably the promised free wine, one developer has decided to take on the task and created a simple tool to help Israel-based companies quickly add themselves onto the map. There is also a "who's hiring" section where companies can post job openings and that will definitely help job hunters who want to find those hot jobs in Israeli startups.

Amazingly, Ben Lang, who created this map, did it while he had some time off from the army. Hopefully someone will help him take it to the next level because some features are missing: wider map, company search, clickable links, street view, related photos, etc.

Meanwhile, If your company based in Israel, make sure to add it to the list now available at mappedinisrael.com.

Source Go2web20

Tel Aviv's Silicon Boulevard

Israel is a juggernaut of R&D: 4.5% of its economic output is immediately reinvested, making Israel number one in the world for R&D as a percentage of GDP. The Holy Land is home to R&D departments of some of the world’s most important tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Intel. And since Israel is such a small country - it takes just 50 minutes to drive from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv - it allows startups and established tech companies to choose office space on cost rather than location.

That said, there are clusters of high-tech industry in the town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, and in Ramat Gan and Ramat Hachayal in the city's northern suburbs. The country has a thriving tech-camp scene. TechAviv, a startup founders' club, has 2,000 members and meets monthly in Tel Aviv, New York, Silicon Valley and Boston, to showcase new work.

But the real buzz can be found in the cafés of Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard. Stretching from Neve Tzedek in the south roughly to midtown, Rothschild is an elegant, treelined avenue popular with pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers enjoying the city's almost unending sunshine. On the pedestrian walkway that runs down its centre, a strip of hip, outdoor cafés is home to creative types on their laptops, thanks in no little part to the city's free, widespread Wi-Fi network.

This is why Rothschild Boulevard - also known as the Silicon Boulevard -- has transformed itself into the home of many hot start-ups such as Face.com and Soluto. Some of them do not mind following in the footsteps of ICQ, 5Min, LabPixies and others, who have been scooped up by international tech giants.

Take the Gifts Project, for instance, set up by a handful of young enthusiastic employees sharing a tiny office with a balcony that looks out to Rothschild Boulevard and sports a huge logo of a pink pig. They've just been bought by the world's biggest online store eBay. Others want to strike out on their own. One of them is Soluto, a firm that aims to make computers more user-friendly and crowdsources technical support that helps computer users anywhere in the world, for free. Whatever their strategy, it seems that they are here to make an impact.