Innovation in Israel: no fear for failure
Innovation in Israel: no fear for failure
Innovation in Israel: no fear for failure
“She Means Business: From Woman Entrepreneur to Woman CEO” – this was an empowering talk of the Israeli startup mentor and business trainer Inbal Rahav that she did as a side-event for TechChill 2023 in cooperation with RigaTechGirls and Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. Latvian female startup founders, Uzbeki female entrepreneurs, as well as the Ambassador of Israel to Latvia, H.E. Sharon Rapaport have discussed those tricky and painful points on the way to becoming a CEO.
Having a degree in chemistry, as well as in business management, Inbal has devoted 15 years of her career to the marketing strategies of the large international corporations. She has worked for the innovation consultancy agency in Israel and led the teams of innovators who have founded the startups within the low-tech industry in Israel, in all kind of sectors: retail, food, agriculture, plastics, mobility. Inbal came to Riga as a partner of Two Dots Connection which she has created with Priel Manes. “Our focus is on Eastern Europe. We see how can the Eastern European startups and ecosystems gain from our experience. So that’s how we reached Latvia in 2023 and have mentored a wonderful group of founders at the Vefresh “City to Sea” accelerator.
Inbal Rahav and Priel Manes have mentored 16 founder teams of Vefresh City to Sea accelerator earlier in 2023. What’s amazing – 40% of these teams were women founders of the startups that deal with the complicated water treatment technologies: “They had their scientific degrees in physics or chemistry, very high skilled people with great English language and also very coachable. They were ready to act fast and implement their marketing strategies within 48 hours. I had a super-positive impression and I am glad we have another program with Vefresh soon”.
It is widely known that Israeli innovation is rooted in the history – starting from Torah (which says “be clever, invent the new”) and to the modern life under constant stress conditions. So, life in Israel is very much turning around the “innovate to survive” principle. But how can we transfer this approach to other geographies in the world? Inbal and Priel actually train the founders to think like an Israeli – providing examples of how the Israeli entrepreneur would act in a certain situation.
And one of the critically important skills Inbal mentions – is how not to be afraid of a failure. Also, Inbal is praising the Eastern European entrepreneurs, their new generation for being more open-minded, for daring, and not being afraid of obstacles. “What we have seen within the Latvian ecosystem, is the ability to accept the rollercoaster of ups and downs of the fundraising process and be agile. Yes, you can train your mindset! Read the book of Uri Levin, the founder of Waze “Fall in Love with The Problem, Not a Solution” – Inbal recommends.
When government accepts your journey
Another very important aspect of Israeli Innovation - is the government involvement. The Israeli government has invested in startups for the past three decades in the very early stages. “We give 10 times more money to our startups than Germany for example, or the entire EU. We believe in our startups. We create spaces to push them; we arrange industry events where they can pitch to both Israeli and foreign investors. Many of the startups receive the pre-seed and seed capital from the government and start their private fundraising from rounds A or B”, Inbal continues.
What’s unique about the Israeli state approach: if you fail, you don’t need to re-pay the money back to the government. The system is built so that the founders cannot take personal advantage of this money, and fail deliberately, and pay themselves salaries out of the state grants. The entrepreneurs do not wish to fail, they want to win. There are 92 unicorns in Israel. The ones who did the exit have failed once or twice at first. Those failures are totally accepted by the government: every failure is part of the journey. This is the key takeaway from the Israeli long-term government strategy that can be adopted in Latvia.
Can we walk this path together: Latvia and Israel, towards the innovation
Inbal thinks that the toughest area for cooperation among our countries would be between the R&D and universities where the intellectual property issues arise traditionally. But the knowledge exchange visits would be highly benefitial, first of all for the Latvian science: e.g. the Latvian DeepTech knowledge and research could be commercialized by the traditional industries in Israel.
Another topic where Israel can share its knowledge with Latvia – is access to venture capital. Latvian founders are very smart and eager to succeed, as observed during the TechChill event in Riga. But there is an obvious lack of access to the venture capital for them. This is a reality of any small country. Startup founders simply have less opportunities to practice pitching in front of investors.
When an Israeli startup is on a fundraising round – they would meet approximately 20 investors per week. They receive a lot of feedback, so they can constantly improve their pitch deck. In Latvia or any other small country a startup would meet 2 investors a week and that is not enough to gain that valuable feedback and build confidence around your idea. So come to Israel and practice pitching in front of the dozens of VC’s, PE or Angel investors: Two Dots and LIAA representative office are here to support you.
Information prepared by Irina Rubinchik, Head of Representative Office in Israel, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. Contacts: Irina.rubincika@liaa.gov.lv
