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The Best Networking Startup Competition

July 3, 2008 – 10:23 am

Am I in the right neighborhood, or what? I know all startups who won the TWS2008 Promising Israeli Startups Competition, held yesterday by “the.co.ils“.   I feel very “in”, to find out I am networked with the selected.

All 10 finalists have been networking intensively and efficiently. You’ve seen the people or the company at every relevant event, on or offline. As all companies are web related, the web, especially the web 2.0 tools, are the main channel of promotion and an essential ingredient in the company’s strategy.

So let me show off and present a partial summary of my networking with these great companies :

Worklight – the natural connection is the Founder and CEO, Shahar Kaminitz. He has one of the best blogs I am following. I met him at his offices about a year ago, learned about his startup strategy and management perception, and understood at once the meaning of investment in people. Shahar, of course, has a distinctive presence on Facebook and Linkedin. Hadn’t seen him in many events though. Worklight is well covered by all web media and was featured on the 2007 Demo in the US. (It was called serendipity at the time).

Nuconomy and Yosi Taguri. I am not sure which is more familiar. Yosi lives and breaths the web. Nuconomy, based in Tel-Aviv and San-Francisco, already got coverage at TechCrunch, ZDNet, Crunchbase, Venturebeat, Readwriteweb, SiliconAlleyInsider, Ynet and many many more. The company was chosen to take part in the IsraelWebTour held last February in the Silicon Valley. Yosi is a compelling web-celeb. He always seems to me like having a blast-in-and-out of parties kind of guy. We met on several occasions including the Eurekamp, a fun get together for the finest web minds in Israel, organized by Roostam Tiger. At every web/industry/entrepreneurs related event I participated I met him: From Meetups to Jeff Pulver’s events, to MashBash and more. One of the promoting agents working for him is the light, humoristic, web-tv program he started to make with Lior Zoref from Microsoft on December 2007. Titled “experimental broadcasts” (Shidurei HaNissayon) it talks about industry news and, well, who doesn’t want to be in these news? Needless to say Yosi can be found in most social networks and is twittering vigorously.

Mo’minis and Aviv Revach can be found almost at every event Taguri is attending. Great minds think alike, don’t they? I first met the very tall Aviv Revach at the Tel-Aviv-Yafo Entrepreneurs Meetup Group I organized. Then we kept meeting at the same events: the Pulver breakfasts, conventions, MashBash, and so on. I was flattered to be invited to his birthday party! Aviv is a warm and smiling guy. His height gives him an advantage, as there is no way he will attend an event and won’ be noticed. Needless to say we are connected on facebook and linkedin and probably several more networks. He and Mo’minis, his company, have great coverage in all blogs that count.

WIX ’s CEO, Allon Bloch was interviewed on several blogs just recently. Among them VCAFE and TechAddress, CenterNetworks, TechCrunch sited VCafe, even on empowerwomennow.com the company has received coverage and at least 90 more blogs wrote about the WIX offering only in the past 2-3 months. But let’s socialize: Allon Bloch is a member of linkedin, of course. I found him in the NY Israeli Entrepreneurs Meetup Group. On facebook too. The mutual contact is Amit Knaani, who is a product manager at wix. Amit and I connected on thecoils, and our paths have crossed on many networks and events since. We’ve been net-friends by public exchange of views and opinions, experiences and mutual friends, without ever having a proper meeting.

Qoof, located in Bet-Shemesh and Manhattan, was founded by Richard Kligman. I first “met” him online when he requested to join my Linkedin group “Israeli Hi-tech Entrepreneurs Wherever” last March. The company was founded nearly two years earlier. I got to see the people in the flesh at the MashBash event in Tel-Aviv last month.

Dapper is one more fantastic winner. They probably spend some effort on SEO to be first on a 9 million Google results for the word dapper. Eran Shir, CEO, has co-founded the company with Jon Aizen, CTO at the end of 2005. Both have nice presence on Facebook and linkedin. Jon Aizen joined my linkedin group last February. Shir hasn’t made contact, yet.

Kaltura is located in New-York. It was founded about two years ago by Ron Yekutiel, Shay David and more. All have nice presence in social networks. Shay is a member of the NY Israeli Entrepreneurs Meetup of which I am also a member (you never know…). His call for voting from December 2007 is still posted on the message board of our group.

I could go on to unveil the roots of connections to HiveSight, Mocospace and WikiAnswers, but I think I have made my point: None of the winners of the TWS2008 were new to me. And that’s good news to these companies (and to me). These guys network! And networking is one major task on the CEO/Founder’s desk today. Can’t lead if you can’t network.

Congratulations!

networking

or-tal | Business, Communications, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Web 2.0 | Comments (6)

The lone consultant

June 29, 2008 – 3:34 pm

Being a consultant can sometimes be really, really lonely. And this is true even on the busiest days.

As I write this I am sitting in my office, at home. A small fridge is tempting me, but I can stay glued to my chair for hours, unless I have meetings outside. I got back to work today. Obviously, a busy day. I had one early meeting out of the office, many phone calls to return, email messages and social networks I need to keep alive. All this while I need to complete another proposal and finalize another project. Had to create a small power point. Update an excel sheet….

Just before 14:00 my 10 year old got back from school. This was an opportunity to see another human face and also have lunch. I don’t always use this opportunity. Sometimes the 16:00 deadline, when I need to go pick up my youngest from the nursery school, is too intimidating and I use every last minute I have in my study. Sometimes, I continue even after I get the kid home, when he is only too happy to play peacefully in his room.

It’s not an easy thing, to be a sole consultant. It has some advantages, like: No traffic to the office. No office politics. I run my own timetable – and can be flexible when necessary. I don’t have to take every project landing on my table. I can say “no”.

But there are faults too, like: there is no “work day” or “work hours” or “office time”. The office is at home so there is no escape and no real method to disconnect for hours. Without colleagues, partners or help – availability is a requirement. And without a boss that defines deadlines or demands or a company framework – I need to create the structure by myself and the motivation. I feel especially lonely when I need someone to brainstorm with.

So I thought of various options for strategic alliances. My services can complement those of graphic studios who offer visual branding, various web services companies who offer anything from site development to SEO and web marketing. I can join hands with advertising companies or PR firms as well as other consultants.

But then I found out that Israel isn’t a place for real collaboration. It seems every man fends for himself. Some do not want to encourage cooperation because they fear their alliance may turn out to be a competitor. Some find it a difficult sale: It’s hard enough to convince a client of your own value, why should I bother with someone else’s value? The fact that the joint value may actually be a lot higher is often ignored.

I still think that alliance is the way to go. This is one of the reasons for my vigorous networking. I need someone to talk to, to brainstorm with, and to throw my ideas at. I need someone who will keep me alert and laughing and provide that social and professional camaraderie that will maintain my sanity as a consultant.

There is also one other need. I discovered that I really don’t like the sale process. The whole bonding-presenting-proposal-closing circle is not it for me. However I am in love with the project process. I love every minute of analysis, decrypting the correct strategy, finding the name, the answer, the solution, creating a new business directions. I love it!

Clearly, to succeed, my consulting business would need to align with a professional who can complement my skills. Be the sales mensch, while I get into the details, and still be a partner enough to brainstorm with. But where can I find such a partner and how can I know if this can really make a fine partnership?

or-tal | Business, Career, Entrepreneurship | Comments (3)

Is entrepreneurship hereditary?

June 21, 2008 – 7:26 am

A tribute to my grandmother, who past away last night, 3 months away from her 101 birthday.

My grandmother, Sara Sorkin was a born entrepreneur and a vibrant doer. Startupseeds would have loved to recruit ladies like her. But they came nearly 100 years too late.

I am not sure I know all her stories or that my knowledge is accurate. But I know that she established her first venture at the age of 14. Young Sara loved to read and discovered “the pain” very easily when there was no accessible library anywhere near her small town in Poland. So she began traveling, touring and collecting books and opened a town’s library, to the joy and happiness of the youth and the whole community.

At the age of 19 she was busy with her second entrepreneurship, hiring assistant dressmakers to help supply the demands for cloths of the town.

The biggest entrepreneurship move was coming to Israel as a pioneer and helping to build towns and villages.

She settled in joyful Tel-Aviv during the 40’s of the 20th century. A party girl, very much like the young entrepreneurs I am meeting daily. “Oh, the beach parties,” she sighed longingly when she told her history to my daughter, only 2 years ago, “the movies, and the dance halls…”

beach parties

That’s when she met my grandfather and married him. In Tel-Aviv she continued her sewing business, on Nahalat-Binyamin Street.

Always working, always managing, she continued to supervise the family’s cloths and affairs for ages… An active, strong willed women, who loved to laugh and gave us a lot to grow on.

We are saying goodbye now. You will always live within us.

or-tal | Entrepreneurship, Women, Writing | Comments (3)

Can the network do it? Peace on Earth?

June 16, 2008 – 12:18 pm

I recently joined a social network called mepeace.org. This network, built on my favorite NING platform, suggests a platform for peace making in the Middle East. Let’s start by communicating, says Eyal Raviv, a relatively new immigrant from New-York and a former Yeshiva student who established this network about a year ago. The network now has 843 registered members to date and a nice regular rate of page hits a day.

Communicating is indeed one of the key factors of peace making. Without it there is no way for one party to understand the hopes, fears and constraints of the other side, both of which form the agreement environment.

Peace is a good, solid agenda. Not to mention sexy. In fact, world peace, and the Middle-East peace specifically, are so attractive that there are about a million web sites who offer various platforms for connecting Israelis, Palestinians and others for an open dialogue of some sort or method, aimed at reaching understanding or cooperation, which will lead to a peace agreement. Some of the sites offer online conversations while others only raise money and awareness online, but manage the dialogues in conferences, lunches and events, preferably further away from Sderot or Gaza.

Here are some examples randomly picked from the Google search results:

“The Middle East Peace Dialogue Network Inc” is a company founded by Richard C. Goodwin who was born in Philadelphia and lives in Snowmass Village, Colorado. His business is building, but he founded the organization, that according to their site  supports over 65 Israeli and Palestinian groups to promote peace.

“Scholars for Peace in the Middle East” is another Pennsylvania based organization with an interesting board of directors.

The Carter Center offers “conflict resolution” programs all over the world, including the Middle East. “One Voice” is an organization offering a little more content online. You can read about it here . Unlike other organizations they state: we are not a dialogue group. We are action oriented.

“Search For Common Grounds” was established in 1982 and aims at various conflicts resolution around the world. They have an office in Jerusalem. They have been active in the area from 1991 and increased their actions since 2000, especially through development of independent media solutions. Read here.

Facebook offers hundreds of groups dedicated to peace making in the Middle East. Some link to other sites like the pro-pro-pro group, with its 1739 members linking to http://www.btvshalom.org/, an organization with chapters in America, but not in the Middle East. Some are simpler groups like “This group supports peace between Israel and Palestine” with its discussion board open for its 850 members. There are groups who have thousands, tens of thousands and even more than 177 thousand members, all using the peace as an anchor.

Other groups who use peace as their key words are the hate groups. When you search Facebook for peace related groups you encounter many of those. No dialogue invitation there. A one sided collection of hate declarations and calls for violence, killing and destruction - and that’s it. The amount of hate promoted on Facebook questions this specific medium as a peace promoting environment.

Back to Mepeace. On their homepage you can find a calendar of peace related events in Israel, Palestine and the US. Following is the list of forum discussions started by members, called here “peacemakers”, who try to keep an optimistic air, in spite of difficult events that take place daily.

mepeace homepage

Of the recent forum discussions I especially like that little bit naïve, but so straight forward discussion  started by Marwa Yassine. She is a 22 year old student from Canada, who was born in Iraq, raised in Lebanon, never was in Israel or Palestine, and yet has a complete Palestinian identity based on the fact that her grandparents used to live in Haifa. This open communications, revealing thoughts and feelings of “the other side” does reach. I am not a political person. Can’t define a specific line of views. But communicating with Marwa and her friends makes a point: It’s time the Israeli and Jewish recognize the “Palestinian Zionism”. It’s exactly the same emotion that brought my ancestors from Poland, Russia and Germany to Israel at the beginning of the 20th century, after 20 centuries of exile. It doesn’t go away.

The big question is, can web 2.0  really contribute to advance a solution? Or are we aiming at web 21?

or-tal | Communications, Education, Entrepreneurship, Uncategorized, Web 2.0 | Comments (1)

Walk backwards into the future

June 4, 2008 – 12:02 pm

“We look at the present through a rear view mirror; we walk backwards into the future” is one of my favorite Marshall McLuhan quotes. The man who said “The medium is the message” and “The user is the content” tens of years before the web 2.0 made its first steps has a unique perspective on evolution.

I was thinking about the medium and the user following several education-related video presentations I watched recently. I would like to mention two; both are talking about today’s education, in relation to the past.

It will be wrong to say that we live in an era of great changes or a surprising rise of new technologies. It will be wrong, because this is not an era. This is it. It started with the invention of the writing, moving us from pre-history to history. The next great leap was the industrial revolution. Evolution has been on that course of rapid developments and constant changes ever since. Some aspects of life keeping up and some being left behind. Unfortunately, one of the most important aspects of civilization is having trouble keeping up. That’s education. Individuals are doing great jobs sometimes. But as a whole, education is in trouble.

How relevant to today’s education can a 40 year old quote be? How relevant can a 160 year old quote be?
“Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment, where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules”.
This opening statement, to a presentation made by university students, quotes “Marshall McLuhan, 1967″.
The same presentation ends with another brilliant quote: “The inventor of the system deserves to be ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not the greatest benefactors of mankind”. Quote by Josiah F. Bumstead, made in 1841 on the benefits of the chalkboard.

presentation

Looking back at the invention of the chalkboard this was the previous revolution to education. At the time it was perceived more as an innovation than as a revolution. A revolution is happening nowadays too. And surprisingly, it is also perceived more as an innovation than as a revolution.But an Australian school is demonstrating its full grasp of the revolution in a series of 9 short videos, linked to from the Flickschool blog.
Watching them I felt happy: Someone has finally got it and is actually saying it out loud.While the teacher’s role in the past was to teach, to pass on material to students, the teachers today need to understand that their role in the society has changed. It’s a revolutionary transition from a giver’s role, where the students are passive, to an enabler role, where the students assume an active role. Moreover, as a learning-enabler or adviser, the teachers themselves become active learners. And they learn from their students too.

Many teachers complain about the downgrade in the teacher’s status in the eyes of their students. Students hardly look up to teachers as they used to do some 30 years ago maybe. Teachers who are respected are those who respect their students. And I can see it every day as a mother and as an active PTA member.

As a communications strategist, working with hi-tech companies, I can honestly say that learning enabling is the highest value of all and the only expectation I have of school. If in the past a teacher would be preparing his students for a well known set of professions, it is clear, and even clearer over the last 20-30 years, that teachers couldn’t have prepared us, for those professions which they had no idea would exist. Who would have thought of a New Media specialist 20 years ago? E-business? Homeland security? Organic agriculture?

You can look around you and see who the people who learned-how-to-learn are. The teaching and studying environments change. But if you think that computers are the new teaching tools – you are greatly mistaken. Computers, like the chalkboard, mark the environment. The tool has never changed throughout the history of mankind: curiosity remains the single most important quality and tool of the learner.

or-tal | Communications, Education, Motherhood, Web 2.0 | Comments (2)

Quoting an entrepreneur…

May 25, 2008 – 10:58 am

Internet entrepreneurship is a tricky thing. You really can’s say what will work and why. All this talk about a bubble really isn’t relevant to the actual businesses. Some may flourish in spite of a bubble, and others may hang their failure on a so called bubble.bubble

Bubble or no bubble, here is an inspiring bubble: quotes!
My friend and colleague, and an inspiring serial entrepreneur, Maya Elhalal launched quotesdaddy.com earlier this month. I think its potential might be unpredictable.

The site offers an endless number of quotes of famous people. Quotes are friendly, inspiring, amusing, easy entertainment. They can serve as a useful tool of expression and communications. Speech writers use quotes a lot. Students can use quotes in their papers. Quotes can be used as a reference; one can lean on a quote of a famous person or celebrity, while writing a letter, a message or request.

While searching the site you immediately run across a favorite quote. What will you do with it? Copy and paste? Where to? Obviously, the option of saving it under your user name on the web site is welcome. And so you register, an immediate simple registration, which assures the Quotesdaddy site that you are going to be a returning customer.

Researches may show that quotes appeal to older and wiser web users. Scholars will enjoy it and other people who do not find quotes intimidating or overshadowing. Let’s just say it is not the usual hang about for teens who are still searching for their own voice. But, here is a different prospective on the subject: teens enjoy quoting each other and their teachers. Tag it under fun or funny. These are not the same type of quotes, but what it you could save your own collection of quotes too? And choose who to share it with? Over the years you can enjoy the growth and maturing of your collection of quotes. Not to mention creating your own quotes, quoting yourself…

or-tal | Business, Communications, Entrepreneurship, Web 2.0, Women | Comments (2)

Getting younger by the minute

May 21, 2008 – 7:49 pm

A funny realization came to me last week. I am getting younger by the minute. Professionally.

When I started my career, my working life, I was a 16 year old journalist among veterans 20-30 years older than myself. Had to prove I was worth something, had to work hard and grow fast.

When I left my journalistic career 15 years later and started my career on the web I worked with people who were about my age or older.

My path in the hi-tech avenue has lead me to meet new and exciting people. Gradually age has become insignificant. In this new world, everyone with a good idea has a respectable place. Which makes it even more exciting.

In the past several years I worked a lot with people younger than myself. I crossed the 40 barrier without hesitation, enjoying the shocked faces and went on to network with even younger audiences, from whom I learn constantly. The growing number of party invitations are the main hint to the age-environment I am now a part of.

In the past several months I have been getting deeper into networking and more and 572533211.jpegmore into games and virtual worlds. I crossed the 16 and plunged into the 12 year olds. Now I am the hip mom, who discovers to her kids and their friends all the great news about the latest games and virtual worlds. My kids’ friends send me messages and emails and I am in a very young place. Exactly where I should be to design my startup. But really, very, very, young…

or-tal | Business, Career, Education, Entrepreneurship, Motherhood, Web 2.0, Women | Comments (0)

Never take a candy from a stranger!

May 14, 2008 – 3:14 pm

Isn’t this the first lesson a parent gives his kids? I was reminded of it earlier, as I watched the Frontline show “Growing Up Online“, thanks to a post by Steve Hagardon.

If someone had asked me, I’d have to admit that I more easily identify with teens on the story than with the parents we’ve seen. I sometimes feel torn between the parental obligation and the general tendency to get involved and have my say, and the very strong knowledge that you can’t go on controlling your offspring’s lives. You must allow them to find their own way, operate their wits, develop their street wisdom. And my oldest isn’t even 14.

In my view, one of the most important facts this story revealed was, that teenagers are net-savvy not only technically. They know not to take a candy off a stranger. Some teens there say: “well, if a new network friend suddenly asks me where I live - I’m going to shut him off. What business is it of a stranger to know where I live?”.

Cyber safety is one of the main obstacles standing on the way of technology, mainly web, to education. Both parents and teachers are concerned about child safety on the internet. But researches quoted on that story claim that kids today are a lot net-smarter and won’t fall that easily. Unless they want to. That’s a different story.

The other fear delaying technology in education is of the net-savvyness of the students as opposed to their teachers and parents. While I watched the interviews with the teachers on the Frontline show I realized a whole generation (or two) of teachers may find themselves outdated if they don’t adjust to the new world, and fast. Let me stress that this is not an age thing. Teachers who want to teach will learn to use every tool that allows them to better communicate with their students. Some teachers want to teach but cannot grasp technology. They can be the best teachers in history, but without the means to communicate with their students, they won’t achieve the same title in the future.

In the meantime, the evolution in education is supplying us with technology VS. technology with solution like plagiarism.org and the turnitin.com. Some teachers simply ask their students to go back to pen and paper “technology” with their projects. And Sparknotes? Well, on the bright side, students can now be exposed to a lot more literature, if they can finish off Romeo and Juliet in an hour or two.

or-tal | Communications, Education, Motherhood, Web 2.0 | Comments (0)

Kids 4 Kids Networking Homework is off the ground

May 13, 2008 – 9:57 am

I am exploring a vision of kids helping kids complete their homework assignments. A believer in social learning, I think a community of kids helping each other can be the best enhancement for toady’s learning process.

Still doing my very early stages on the way to achieving this dream I have created a network at: http://kids4kids.ning.com/.

Of course, as web goes, this network is subject to changes. You can say it’s an ALFA stage. I am seeking feedback from teachers, parents and of course, the most important – students. At the moment the interface is in English, though submitting content can be done in many languages.

I am using this opportunity to invite you and all kids that you may know to join in and start helping.

or-tal | Communications, Education, Entrepreneurship, Motherhood | Comments (0)

The “Israel is 60″ Brand

May 9, 2008 – 10:01 am

Israel marked its 60th independence day yesterday. The celebration actually began on May 7th, at 19:45, when the Memorial Day ended.

barely 60Israel has marked 60 years of existence accenting its younger generation, with the slogan “today and tomorrow”. Some cynics were quick enough to produce the poster where the “60″ is shown like a grade on a test page, supported by the verbal description of the grade: Translated freely from Hebrew it reads “barely enough”… I liked the double meaning here. However the official 60th Independence Day brand was not that smart or brave.

In fact, what bothered me the most was, that while 60 is a nice round number, and people tend to make a big deal out of it, the brand of this year’s Independence Day was no different than previous celebrations.

We are still celebrating our independence day closely to 2 memorial days: the Holocaust day and the Memorial Day dedicated to soldiers killed in the wars and to victims of hatred. It’s like a Jewish state cannot be simply happy. A sad, melancholic, streak must always be present. Look at our national anthem for example. Slow, difficult to sing, with words that are totally irrelevant to the present day 60 year old Israel, not to mention about quarter of its citizens.

There are many definitions to branding. There are those who perceive branding as a name or symbol. Walter Landor said “a brand is a promise”. David Aaker defines looks at the brand equity and suggests it is “a set of assets… linked to the value of…”. But the more general definition looks at a brand as “a collection of perceptions in the minds of the consumers”.

So if when you say Coka-Cola your mouth waters and you want to quench your thirst, and when you have a head ache you think Advil, that’s brand for you.

I am a consumer of the brand of Israel. For me Israel is first and foremost – home. But when I am thinking about its 60th independence day it is a unique brand, separate from the national or political or geographical brand of the country. What I really would have expected from that brand is feelings of joy and pride, festivity, hope and unity. This brand never delivered it for me. We just went through one more Independence Day.

or-tal | Communications, Marketing | Comments (0)