My jam-packed, amazing two weeks in Jerusalem tech
These past two weeks in Jerusalem have been a whirlwind, with so much going on that one has to decide which events they want to participate and which to forgo. In fact, even if (like me) you don’t have a full time job, it’s still difficult to keep up with all the great events taking place.
Let me start with some of the events I was fortunate enough to attend. Monday night, October 15th, I attended the second Blockchain Jerusalem meetup — you can check out my summary of the first event here. The atmosphere at this one was electric: this newly formed community had grown exponentially since inception. The meetup must have had around 60 participants in attendance — about twice the number that attended the first. Two speakers, both passionate about blockchain technology, spoke about different aspects and directions that blockchain and crypto currency may go.
First up was renowned investor Moshe Hogeg, who spoke of his personal encounter with Bitcoin and blockchain. He spoke of how in 2013 he had no idea what bitcoin was and only after some nagging (“מישהו בלבל לי את המוח”) from a friend did he buy 100 NIS worth to get his friend off his back. A few weeks later someone else pushed him more, so he invested some more significant money in bitcoin. When the currency started to jump, it caught his attention. Despite that, only in 2015, when another friend advised him to buy Etherium and after buying it he saw a dramatic rise, did he realize his attention should shift towards cryptocurrency. Here are 3 main bullet points I took from his talk:
- The ability to transfer and maintain value and currency can now happen almost without friction. This is a radical shift from the way that banks and traditional financial institutions work.
- The liquidity of an investment in crypto is unprecedented. This is in contrast to even high-valued startups that do not have liquidity; this creates serious problems even with high valuations.
- The tremendous potential with crypto lies in the amount of talented people that are truly invested in it, like the people in the community here!
Hogeg’s big caveat was that he felt that the UI/UX was a big impediment and that usage of crypto right now is very clunky. He ended on an optimistic note, saying that he felt that if so many smart people are working on these problems ultimately the solutions will come — they just may take some time. He filled the night with some great stories and anecdotes, which you can watch in full right here.
The second speaker, Roy Kedar, special counsel to Yigal Arnon law offices, spoke about some of the legal implications of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Some of the points Roy mentioned were that he felt that countries will begin to adopt national cryptocurrencies because of the efficiency they represent. He outlined the importance and care that needs to be taken with an ICO in 3 main points:
- An ICO allows the small investor to participate in the investment of a company even they are not ‘fit’ investors and do not pass the threshold or meet the requirements for traditional investing and IPOs. This opens up the game to everyone!
- ICOs allow for liquidity even after the investment.
- Legislators protect the investor in cases of stock or investment through requiring transparency (prospects, extensive reporting and documentation). Today there is a ‘white paper’ for ICOs, which takes the place of traditional reporting requirements. The white paper is not standardized per se, but it is binding. Generally it will include the team product and predictions of a company.
Clearly passionate about cryptocurrency, Roy ended off the successful evening by saying that many lawyers today will even accept payment in crypto tokens. Kudos to Avishay Ovadia and Amitai Molko the organizers for the initiative!
Next up was CTO club, held on Tuesday, October 24th, organized by Made in JLM’s Rachel Rosenzweig and taking place at Siftech. This is a club for CTOs to discuss technology and learn from each other, featuring a speaker at each event who highlights different aspects of moving technology forward within their company and experience.
This was my first time attending, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was in for a treat! The guest speaker was Bob Rosenshine, a legend in the Israeli tech world and a true pioneer in many areas. Bob spoke about his path to tech, his career, and his life story at large. Starting out early in the late 60s, when his father asked him if studying computers at MIT was ‘something with a future,’ he ended off with some current projects still in the making. He told the fascinating story of his key role in developing the first Hebrew edition of Windows, revolutionary at the time; his challenge in developing a Hebrew set of letters and typesets; and his many meetings with tech celebrities such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and others. He told us of his successful companies such as Answers.com, a multi-million dollar company which at one point saw some of the highest volume of web traffic in the US. He also spoke of his failures and challenges with companies that did not work out as he had hoped. His life and experience was fascinating and vividly illustrated the birth of technology in Israel (starting out from his research on a ‘computer’ in 1973 at Hebrew University).
One particular element of the talk was very impressive: Here was a man so accomplished in his field, with a lifetime of credentials, who spoke to everyone present as a peer and repeated multiple times throughout the talk the importance of treating others well, no matter what position or how important they may be. A good way to sum up this talk would be with a quote Bob brought from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.” Thank you, Bob.
The last event I was able to attend was actually in Tel Aviv (yes, there is such a place…): the Wework Creator Awards, a massive event hosting over 3,000 people and giving a series of awards to companies and non-profits for the most ‘impactful’ influence, even if not the most profitable.
The ceremony was incredible, with a quite a few Jerusalem-based companies picking up awards, starting with Made in JLM’s very own project HackJLM, a hackathon designed for non-profits in need of tech help. You can read more about this great initiative in my article here. Receiving the award was Roy Munin, CEO and co-founder of Made in JLM and brain behind the idea.
Some other fantastic companies from Jerusalem were QueenB, a company started by a few women studying CS at Hebrew University who created a movement to teach and reach out to high school girls, encouraging them to develop their coding talents. Eyecontrol, a Jerusalem-based company that develops technology helping ‘locked-in’ patients with muscular degenerative diseases won a whopping $130K for their phenomenal accomplishments and goals. A full recap of this event can be found here.
Some events I was not able to attend but seemed like great events as well:
An international conference on 3D printing at Hebrew University; tech community night at Hapoel Jerusalem’s basketball game; ‘Failure night’ event for Haredi entrepreneurs, including attendance by various government ministers and showcasing of Haredi companies; Data conference and hackathon. These are just a few of the events I could not attend with so much going on these two weeks.
If you’re interested in future tech events, every month Made in JLM hosts a happy hour event with some of Jerusalem’s leading companies. This coming Sunday, November 5th, there will be an exciting happy hour for the whole family with Disney, Mattel, and Cartoon Network. This event is open to the public and is intended for anyone interested, involved, or looking to get involved in tech or Jerusalem. Sign up here.
Chaim Finson grew up in Jerusalem and most recently worked as a director of a nonprofit at Cornell University. He is passionate about technology and equally passionate about his home city, Jerusalem.
Photo credits: Rickey Rackman
