What Jerusalem’s Tech Ecosystem Needs In 2017

Jerusalem has been making headlines this week. starting with Mobileye’s spectacular $15B acquisition by Intel, and then getting closer than ever to Startup Genome’s Top 20 Tech cities List.

While we have truly come a long way as a startup ecosystem in the past 5 years, a more important reflection is how much still remains to be done, and who can do it?

Earlier today Deena Levenstein asked this great question on our Facebook Group.

This is exactly the kind of question we need to ask if we want to inspire the next generation of community leaders. To get involved, community members need to know what’s not being done — how they can still influence and make a dent in a strategic way.

What is something everybody knows should be done, that nobody is doing, and that maybe you could be uniquely positioned to achieve?

Here are some issues that I would personally love to see someone tackle in 2017:

Top Challenges

• Training & Courses (A-la General Assembly)
• Attracting senior tech Talent from LA & NY (with help from Aliyah Orgs)
• Creating a platform where Jerusalemites can beta test for other startups and if interesting, blog about it.
• Discount card with benefits for techies at Jerusalem small businesses (to encourage going out)
• Coordinating internships city wide.
• Matching mentors city wide.

The answer above is the one I posted in response on Facebook. But this really is just the tip of the iceberg. To show how much more there is to do, here are a few more ideas worth stealing for things you can do independently, theoretically without having to rely on current organizations, that can bring tremendous strategic value to the city:

Meetups

• Deeper, technical developer meetups.
• Meetups sponsored by multinational brands in Jerusalem (twitter developers, instagram photographers etc…) — which create an actual connection to the global community teams there.
• Meetups bringing corporate scouts / M&A to pitch their R&D needs, how they partner/acquire, and scale of budget they have available to solve their biggest problems.
• 4 big VIP conferences a year to present startups to investors coming to Jerusalem to visit for the holidays.

Community Growth

• Projects to connect and develop the East Jerusalem and Arab tech community.
• Find ways to invite local multinationals to host, support and get employees engaged in community gatherings and projects.
• Help get students in local academia and high-schools more involved.
• Create meetups and projects for the cinema communities (videographers, animators etc.)
• Start a community for technologists in the visual technologies (VizTech) — computer vision, image processing, video, displays, and their applications in future mobility, imaging etc.

International Relations

• Help coordinate and share opportunities for Jerusalem companies abroad.
• Develop Jerusalem’s international network, especially with access to market and multinationals.
• Help build campaigns to target talent in cities like LA & NY.

Matchmaking

• Offer to meet every company or person who wants an introduction to Jerusalem’s tech scene for coffee.
• Help connect Jobs & Talent.
• Help companies meet great designers.

Infrastructure Development

• Attract Real Estate Entrepreneurs to build office space for growing startups and thousands of new jobs the city is preparing for.

If you want to do any of these projects as part of Made in JLM, join us at the HackJLM hackathon, and our weekly hacknights.

There is so much more that can be done. What did I miss? What is your most strategic idea for a better Jerusalem tech ecosystem this year?