Israel, The Original Startup Nation

European Straits #96

Dear all,

I arrived in Israel 36 hours ago. I’m still in Tel Aviv, where I had a fireside chat yesterday with Patricia Lahy-Engel of the Israel Innovation Authority (with the support of French Tech Israel). Today I’m travelling to Jerusalem, where I’ll spend the next 48 hours.

So far it’s been a great series of meetings, all made easy by the incredible support of several friends: Emmanuel Bismuth, an expert in digital marketing, who’s the architect of my travelling here to talk about Hedge; Léa Evrard, The Family’s General Counsel, who’s travelling with me and makes a real difference as she used to live in Tel Aviv a few years back; Nicolas de Mascarel, Gregory Edberg, and Saul Klein, who made great introductions to local players; and Mégane Dreyfuss, one of The Family’s former employees who then co-founded the Developers Institute here.

By the way, there’s still time to register to attend the fireside chat I’ll be having in Jerusalem tomorrow with Ben Wiener, the managing partner of the…