We’re not too proud to admit it: the book, Startup Nation is pretty darn similar to our worldview at OurCrowd.
Israel is a country brimming with ideas and aspirations. Combined with a little chutzpa and you’ve got a great petri dish of startup goodness.
I think many of us are familiar with what makes Israel such an interesting and compelling destination for investing dollars. But what happens after Startup Nation? What are the challenged faced by startups after they’ve raised their first rounds of money?
Case study: New Dimension Software and Roni Einav
That question is addressed square-on in an article today on the Times of Israel. The article profiles Roni Einav, founder of New Dimension Software which was ultimately sold to BMC for $675M. Thankfully for us, Einav has written a new book cataloguing his experiences, From Nordeau to Nasdaq.
Unlike Startup Nation, though, which focuses on the big picture opportunity of investing in Israel, Einav’s new book addresses the skills required to ride the startup roller coaster.
[bra_blockquote align=”right”]”Nordau to Nasdaq is not the ‘bad news’ antithesis of ‘Startup Nation,’ but more like a sequel, telling you what things are like on the ground for entrepreneurs just starting out,” said Einav. “It’s a document that tells what happened, and as such, it doesn’t try to set rules, like ‘Startup Nation.’ But it does have many lessons, for entrepreneurs, investors, and workers in the high-tech industry.”[/bra_blockquote]
Ultimately, there’s no recipe for success and the early Israeli exits like ICQ and Einav’s New Dimension attest to this. Each one had its own set of circumstances that made it successful. But what’s happening now — and we see this daily with the quality of entrepreneurs and deal flow we’re seeing at Our Crowd — is that experienced, serious (!), and extremely capable founders are launching companies already groomed for battle. There’s no “we’ll monetize eyeballs” business models — these lean startups are launching with customers, with initial revenues and traction.
And that’s something Einav and Nordeau to Nasdaq would totally support.