Traveling Geeks

A Chat with JVP's Erel Margalit

JVP’s Managing Director Erel Margalit talks to our blogging group this week about start-ups and innovation in Israel.

Their Jerusalem outskirts office is not unlike a Silicon Valley-based VC office except that the printers and fax machines might be a tad older and like every other Israeli company kitchen, they’re well stocked with Nescafe instant coffee. The latter is an integral part of the culture here in the same way it was 20′ish years ago.

We learn about their DreamWorks-like initiative Animation Lab, which extends beyond a typical technology play. “The line is blurred between where technology ends and content begins,” noted Margalit. As the former head of MSN Israel, he has a background and perspective on digital rich content.

Erel and his team ‘get’ social media. We were introduced to three stealth mode companies and saw ‘on-screen’ demos. I can’t talk about them just yet, except to say that they’re dabbling in virtual worlds, interactive games, social networks and online video.

When asked about entrepreneurship and why there’s so much innovation coming out of Israel, Erel says, “Israelis don’t think about what they can lose but about what they can gain. Unlike Europe, they don’t have a plate on their door in a town where their family and history was rooted for 1,000 years. Israel is new and full of immigrants from all over the world. So its much easier for us to take risks.”

JVP is currently the king VC in Israel, having launched between 20 and 40 companies, with most of their exits in the communications and media space. “We’re on our 5th fund,” he added. English to Armenian “The key is to make a few home runs in each fund.”

We got the impression that they’re on track and that the climate was ripe with opportunities. Eran continued to rave about the opportunities that Israel has over Europe and the states…..and why. “Silicon Valley is very engineering driven versus the rest of the world. Not having that as a major driving force gives us an opportunity.”

He sees other opportunities in Asia where they’re developing a lot of interactive content. During his last trip to China, he observed that 500,000 were playing online warfare games. In LA, it was all about broadcasting entertainment. In Europe, mobile continues to take a leadership role.

I captured the tail end of his interview on video – see below (also uploaded to Flixwagon.com). Click play to tune in.

if you’re wondering…

…why all the blogs all the sudden, there are two reasons.

1. we got a new bus. THANK YOU ISRAELI GOV’T! we are not actually sitting on top of one another in sweltering heat. (although craig is still sitting in scoble’s lap….we’re not quite sure why*) most of us are just clacking away happily on keyboards.

[* may not be true. may be just inserted to see if valleywag has discovered my blog]

2. we are going to Jerusalem today!

i think that’s pretty much a dream for anyone of muslim, christian or
jewish faith whether they consciously realize it or not. i can’t wait
to see what affect it’ll have on me. in silicon valley, you almost
never hear anyone talking about religion. it really might be the only
taboo subject. it’s such a macho-intellectual culture and i think for
many entrepreneurs and techies admitting a belief in a higher mystical
power is almost a sign of weakness, naivety or even stupidity. (don’t
yell at me, i’m just telling you what i hear)

i’m not sure if i’ve made it a point not to talk about religion myself or i’ve just never been asked. either way it’s fair to say i don’t wear it on my sleeve, wave it like a banner or whatever other cliche you want to use. we’ll see if today changes that. true test: if i BLOG about it.

Solel on Solar Energy

I know very little about solar energy, partly because I have my head buried in Internet stuff and partly because I live in a country that doesn’t understand the urgency of alternative energy solutions. So, while the Googles of the world and wealthy visionaries pay attention to this issue, its not a topic of discussion in small towns throughout America.

We remain a wasteful country and have never been hit hard by rations, whether its energy, gas or water in the same way others have experienced around the world. Prices go up but we continue to overuse our natural resources.

Living in South Africa in the 80s, two and sometimes three children would use the same bath water, and then we’d use the same water to feed our gardens. People were always conscious about electricity since they had so many power outages and it was expensive.

Spain is doing the right thing by investing in solar infrastructure. It’s not rocket science. Solar thermal power is inherently local, is a free and secure resource, is widely available and its highly predictable. Most people understand that solar essentially uses reflectors to concentrate the sun’s energy and create heat.

After these tubes cool down however, its tricky to keep things warm for long, even though you can store some of this heat using molt and salt, which takes the heat from the oil and then stores it for 5-6 hours so it can be usable in the evening.

Let’s look at the facts and what our options are. Coal is expensive. Once you pay off the loans from solar, its free. Those who think about the long term picture and benefits that can be derived will win in the end.

I went to Solel’s plant today, a world leader in the development and implementation of solar thermal technology in northern Israel. Solel’s technology converts sunshine into useful thermal energy and subsequently into electricity by way of parabolic mirrors that concentrate solar energy onto solar thermal receivers containing a heat transfer fluid.

The heat transfer fluid is circulated and heated through receivers, which is then released to a series of heat exchangers to generate super-heated steam. From the moment the sun rises until it dips over the horizon, all of its rays are captured and converted into usable energy. Solel is doing remarkable things and attempting to change the way we think about energy.

sarah the hero!

me rescuing scoble’s camera. believe it or not, he left it at the restaurant! it’s a facebook photo so hopefully the link works… Brasov . peta dunia satelit

Geeks and Heroism in the Holy Land

Our little ragtag TravelingGeek posse has had quite a time this week. Through our array of experiences – from the unsinkable Sarah Lacy battling what may well be Pneumonia and the startling experience Craig Newmark had while visiting Seambiotic – the wandering geeks have bobbed and weaved through minor adversity, managing to maintain a mostly jovial energy throughout.

But unexpected experience is part and parcel of life here, and I believe are also central to why, as one of my TravelingGeek compatriots, Robert Scoble, commented today, Israel is probably the only place outside of Silicon Valley where the pulse of entrepreneurship beats as powerfully.

From where I sit (which I should mention is on a brand new bus that the Israeli Government got the TravelingGeeks today for our trip to Jerusalem!), it’s clear why innovation and entrepreneurship thrive here.

It’s about fear … or perhaps better to say, lack thereof. Brasov . peta dunia satelit .

Garage Geeks, Bloggers, and More

T.G.: Bloggers, entrepreneurs, women

On Tuesday, had a chance to talk with a broader range of Israeli women bloggers and tech VCs and entrepreneurs. Some pictures in advance of real words.
Brasov . peta dunia satelit

Israel: a country too far from Mike Arrington’s house

This headline is only a little in jest. But as I’ve gotten around to various tech companies here in Israel I’ve started noticing a trend: that the further away a tech area is from Silicon Valley the less respect that area will get. The headline is also a bit unfair to TechCrunch/Mike because he’s actually been to Israel and has a couple of writers covering the tech scene here, but if you’re a blogger and let the facts get in the way of a good headline you’ll never go anywhere.

I’ve noticed this when I visited MySpace: they were so excited when I visited because they say that tech bloggers never visit. I was thinking back to my own experiences. Yes, that’s true. Facebook employees regularly meet up with us at parties and dinners and conferences. We run into MySpace employees far less often. These personal connections turn into stories on blogs.

Same when I visited San Antonio. These were companies I never hear about in conversations in the valley. We don’t have personal connections to their employees. Ask yourself, have you ever heard of PerfTech? Kulabyte? Rackspace? Newtech?

Anyway, I’ve been all over to the world. Shanghai. Tokyo. Frankfurt. London. New York. Cork. Dublin. Hamburg. Geneva.

I’ve never seen the entrepreneurial spirit outside of Silicon Valley like I’ve seen here in Tel Aviv. The companies here are doing technology that’s deep, varied, and highly profitable.

Anyway, I’ll write more about this topic over the weekend, because right now we’re about to leave to see Jeruselem and meet with some Venture Capitalists to further understand what’s going on here in Israel.

In the meantime, go to TechCrunch and check out Fring’s new iPhone app. (Fring is headquartered here in Israel, and shows another trend that I’ve noticed here that Israel is WAY ahead of the United States in use of Mobile apps — another thing that’s surprising is how many iPhones you see here, even though there isn’t a single Apple store).

One other thing, Twitter has been where we’ve been having interesting conversations. It was amazing. The other day we were in a van between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Talking with Arrington back in California. Christineleu in China. GiaGia in London. All at the same time.

The advent of Twitter is one thing that’s bringing far away lands into the PR machinery that exists only in Silicon Valley.

I wish I had a month to spend here, so many startups want to get my attention, but I just can’t see them all. But there still is nothing better than meeting face-to-face over a beer to find out interesting stories about people, companies, countries.

For instance, last night several people begged me to write about the proposed Israel Censorship Law. Global Voices Online has already done that, but if it weren’t for being here I wouldn’t have known about the issues that they really care about.

Anyway, off to Jeruselem, stay in touch with us on my Twitter account.

Do you agree or disagree that people, companies, countries can get the respect and/or tech industry PR they deserve if they are far away from Silicon Valley?

religious freedom hits home…

i feel horrendous again today. turns out walking around in the heat for 12 hours then capping off the evening with champagne and immense laughter isn’t a great cure for the flu, or whatever plague this is. ALL i wanted was a bagel this morning. an american christian girl like me wouldn’t have expected that’d be impossible in israel. peta dunia satelit English to Armenian . apparently, at passover time it is. looking back on the time in elementary school i thought it was “awesome” that my jewish friends got to eat matzah with whole new eyes….

ethnic profiling also hits home…

yesterday i found the most rad present EVER for my super hip husband geoff. (who it feels like i haven’t seen for MONTHS) it was a black t-shirt with this rad panther jumping from behind hebrew letters that said “black panthers.” the shop keepers refused to let me buy it because i was american. in fact, it was worse than that. they all fled the store and went upstairs and just yelled at me from up there. after making me wait 15 minutes. it was the most passive aggressive ethnocentrism i’ve ever seen. peta dunia satelit WTF? i thought we were allies?

everyone seems to be *aghast* saying things like this “never” happen in super progressive, hip tel aviv. guess there are just jerks everywhere.