As Seedcamp continues it’s program of Mini Seedcamps all over EMEA, we are continually impressed by the strength and diversity of the startups who present. Israel was no exception with companies working on applications to help users eat healthily, process data in the cloud, and play augmented reality paintball! However we weren’t surprised as Israel’s passion for startups was clear during our visit, which coincided with a huge festival of technology, including Techonomy, and Kinnernet.
The popular vote highlighted the top 5 teams who impressed other teams and mentors during the day.
These were:
- Fooducate – an app to help you find more details about the nutritional information of foods.
- INEZE – a product search engine.
- SilverCompass – Outdoor ARG gaming on smartphones
- Sparkeo – Helps universities deliver and monetise their videos
- Tucoola – Educational flash games for children
The panel discussion was an action packed discussion moderated by Saul Klein and featuring; Orey Gilliam – Executive Chairman, Bulloonz; Jeremy Berrebi – Founder, Kima; Gig Kaplan – Cofounder, Wix, Anil Hansjee – Head of M&A, Google EMEA, and Yoav Andrew Leitersdorf – YL Ventures. Topics ranged from the strengths/weaknesses of building a company from Israel, to practical advice on how to use PR firms.
The question “What one book would you recommend to startups?” prompted a great reading list for up and coming entrepreneurs which we now plan to share and expand on at future Seedcamp events. The books were:
- Startup Nation (Yoav)
- What Would Google Do (Anil – from Google!)
- 37 Signals (second book) (Jeremy)
- Behind the Cloud (Orey)
- Four Steps to the Epiphany (Saul)
- [bonus post event] Execution (Orey)
A big thanks to our venue The Afeka College of Engineering in particular Mel, Sharon and Roniet, our host Yaron Orenstein, ESOP for sponsoring lunch, and our long term sponsors UKTI and Sun/Oracle.