Benchmark Dinner

Updated July 11, 2010:

We had another amazing TAMID Fellowship group dinner this past Thursday, and this time it was with Benchmark Capital’s General Partner Elie Wurtman at Mamilla Hotel’s rooftop restaurant. Benchmark Capital is one of the most well-known venture capital firms in the world and has invested in companies like eBay and Twitter. Ever heard of them? Judith Phillips, an analyst at Benchmark, and Hod Fleishman, Founder and Chief of Safety of GreenRoad, also joined us for dinner. GreenRoad is one of Benchmark Israel’s (the Israeli branch of Benchmark Capital) portfolio companies.

After admiring the stunning view of the Old City and munching on some delicious food, we talked about entrepreneurship, innovation, start-ups, and venture capital in Israel and why we see a lot more of these things in Israel than other place in the world. There are two main reasons: First, the skills and traits an Israeli develops during the military are the same skills and traits required to be a successful entrepreneur. These skills and traits include leadership skills, collaborative skills, poise, and, most importantly, decisiveness.

All of the decisions made by an entrepreneur in the early stages of his company pretty much dictate the fate of that company. Hod essentially explained that the difference between an Israeli entrepreneur and a non-Israeli entrepreneur is that if a window of opportunity presents itself, a non-Israeli entrepreneur will wait until the window is fully open, whereas an Israeli entrepreneur only needs a slight crack. A non-Israeli entrepreneur might want to see all the details and make the safe bet, whereas an Israeli will take a chance and ~~try his hardest~~ make it happen. There’s no second-guessing—just execution.

For example, let’s say you’re the CEO of a start-up that manufactures custom eco-friendly natural gas generators. You have 10 employees, an office, and a small manufacturing plant and you currently supply the generators (one at a time) to households and local businesses. You get a call from the executive of an overseas restaurant-chain that has 500 different locations. He loves your product, but he doesn’t have that great of an idea of the size of your company. He tells you that he wants your company to supply generators to each of the 500 locations. What do you say?

Here’s what the typical non-Israeli entrepreneur would say:
“Well, we would love to do business with you in the future, but I’m afraid we do not have the capital or labor to take on a project of that magnitude at this moment”.

Here’s what the typical Israeli entrepreneur would say:
“When do you want them by?”

That wraps up reason one: entrepreneurial spirit is in their DNA and they are able to naturally apply their military experiences to an entrepreneurial setting. The second reason why Israel is a world leader in innovation is necessity. Israel is a tiny country—smaller than the state of New Jersey—in the middle of the desert with scarce resources, especially water. It is surrounded by hostile countries—Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan—and doesn’t have a friendly neighbor like Canada to import all of its oil from. As a result, Israeli entrepreneurs have pioneered the major advancements in solar energy and water-saving technologies.