18 No country has pulled off Project Startup Nation as successfully as Israel Israel is known as the ‘Startup Nation’ for a good reason; it’s a small country which manages to leave a substantial mark on the global startup ecosystem. ‘Startup Nation’ is instructive in many ways, but perhaps most importantly, by contributing a definition and prescription for creating an entrepreneurial culture: blend a culture of assertiveness, willingness to question, good judgment, courage, willingness to risk, resilience, and esteem of experiential learning, along with an appreciation for real solutions, instructive failure and experimentation. These characteristics, when present together, make an excellent environment for entrepreneurship. The Israeli startup ecosystem is a cash cow, generating tax revenue for the country both from exits and high salaries. Israeli apps like Waze, Wix, Fiverr, and Viber have made their mark around the world, but a few, like Mobileye (sold to Intel for USD 15 billion) and Wiz (raised USD 1 billion at a USD12 billion valuation), are the hidden powerhouses within the ecosystem. A small country that leaves a substantial mark on the global startup ecosystem Name a technology multinational, and they probably have a presence in Israel. Microsoft, Google, Apple, Siemens, Sony, Intel, and more than 300 others have either established R&D centres or recruitment operations in the country, or both. When you’ll ask the executives of these global giants about the importance of their Israeli presence, they probably will say: “we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams. It’s much more than just outsourcing call canters to India or setting up IT services in Ireland. What we do in Israel is unlike what we do anywhere else in the world.” Over 80 Israeli unicorns are now operating in the US. Part of this exodus can be explained by the need to be close to clients and major markets.
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