Post on 30-Jun-2015
description
Aviram Eisenberg, Ignite Ltd
Why war is a proper time to launch your own startup?
StartupDnepr, Dnipropetrovsk 2014
Are you Crazy?
“A lot of people ask me if I am crazy?““You are living in Ukraine? In these times???”
Well, I live in Israel, we are kinda used to state of war…
I am just replacing this:
With this:
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The First Time I Came to Ukraine…
8 Years ago I came to Ukraine for the first time…
I put on a nice suit (so I thought) and went shopping for a good development partner
Everybody was talking with me about the IT Industry (and I thought this “High-Tech” with Russian accent)
IT = Selling Development Services High-Tech = Selling Developed Products
How do we turn the Ukrainian IT industry to High-Tech? (and actually become a startup nation)
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About Me
Father of 3 wonderful children
High-Tech professional for the last 30 years
- computer geek in my teenage days
- platoon commander in the Army Intelligence (computer related)
- computer Science Graduate from the Technion
- chief Architect at Mind CTI
- founder and CEO Of Ignite – a global IT company
- chairman of the Israeli R&D Managers forum
Lives in Kiev (Ukraine is my second home!)
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Country History
66 years
22,072 km2
23 years
603,628 km2
Territory
Age
Population
8,14 mln 44,29 mln
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Israel – the land of the entrepreneurial spirit
Wars
10 wars (every 5-10 years)
1947-1949, 1956, 1967, 1967-1970, 1973, 1982-2000, 2008-2009, 2010, 2012, 2014
Daily living under possible terrorist attacks
now
WarsWars
High level of risk tolerance!
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Just remember the proverb,“the entrepreneur that died without ever going bankrupt had a premature death…”
Israel is the Startup Nation
Tel-Aviv comes is #2 in the top startup ecosystems in the world
450-500 startups are established every year
each month 10 companies move to New York
distributed and powerful angel investors network
most venture capital per capita: 2.5 times more than the U.S. and 30 times more than Europe
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Israel - Silicon Valley in the East
spend the highest percentage of GDP on scientific R&D: 4.4% compared to 2.7% for the United States
R&D centers of Intel, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, etc.
19 companies listed on London Stock Exchange
combined market capitalization on LSEG $6.9 billion
62 companies are traded on NASDAQ, totaling $ 36 billion
* according to the World Bank
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How Did it Start?
But, it was not always like that!
30 years ago Israel’s was very much like Ukraine – selling IT services to the USA
The Israeli Army produced excellent developers
International companies came to shop for good (and cheap) developers and established branches (Motorola, then Intel, them Microsoft…)
With time, developers left the big companies and started small innovative product companies in the same vertical
Investor-friendly government policy brought more big companies
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How Did it Start?
Few startups were sold to international companies
Then came the VCs and the private investors
And the rest is history…
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Startup ecosystems in numbers
70
2000
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50
500 +
Angel investors
VC funds
Active startups
5000 +
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Areas of IT Expertise
Israel
Homeland Security - military software - airport and objects - personal surveillance control
Cyber
Telecom
Medical equipment industry
Scientific researches
Gambling and Forex
Ukraine
Programming frameworks and platforms
Computer games
….. It is your turn to continue the list!
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War Factors
Low psychological threshold to risks of business failure Boy, you are alive! And someone is not…
Strong desire to control your own fate No fate but what we make (Terminator 2)
Individualism The curse and the blessing of Ukraine
War creates opportunities… The cycle of nature
High level of mobility War stirs things…a stirring is what you need to generate something
new
It is time to get out of comfort zone and do something useful,solve someone's problem in a quality way and money will come later!
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Challenges for Ukraine
Corruption elimination Build new and well paid army forces, police, court judges, prosecutors
Guaranteed equity rights Open registry lists and cadasters for all equity rights and assets (land, real estate, stocks, financial obligations, etc.)
Education system reform Decentralized, more privately held kindergartens, schools, universities curriculums created by professional communities
Transparent and low-level of bureaucracy E-government, ease of doing business
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Ukraine’s Strengths
High motivation for High Education
Hunger to Succeed
Individualistic and entrepreneurial spirit
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Conclusion
It's YOUR time to take action..
Just DO something!
300 kg carrying robot for ATO & Army
1 month project from Lviv
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www.igniteso.com
+38 0412 46-61-79
info@igniteso.com
Questions?
“no pain, no gain, no champagne.”