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Startup Lounge #45 meets Founder Talk Tel Aviv Special - Follow up

Startup Lounge #45 meets Founder Talk Tel Aviv Special - Follow up

On November 21st, we welcomed Jonathan Glick and Oran Goldstein from Tel Aviv as well as Florian Fischer from Startup Mannheim at our Startup Lounge meets Founder Talk Special. The event was hosted together with Startup Mannheim at the Café L3. The two successful founders talked about entrepreneurial differences between Germany and Israel and what we can learn from each other. The discussion was moderated by Florian Fischer of Startup Mannheim.


Jonathan Glick is co-founder of Techbrücke and Entrepreneur in Residence of Startup Mannheim in Tel Aviv. Prior, he founded his own startup and was the deputy consul general of Israel in Southern Germany.

Oran Goldstein is an entrepreneur and Partner at Techbrücke. Before starting his own startup and leading Israel´s biggest entrepreneurship club, he served as a captain in a cyber unit of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Florian Fischer worked for startups in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. His mission at Startup Mannheim is to connect tech-startups from Germany and Israel with the Industry of Baden Würrtemberg.

Based on their personal experience, the speakers shared insights on entrepreneurial spirit, how to start a business and differences between Israel and Germany. In Tel Aviv, there is a huge density of startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem has the charming character of a village, meaning that everyone knows each startup, knows which ones are successful, which ones made a successful exit, etc. Successful entrepreneurs have a culture of giving back to the community, which strengthens the local ecosystem. In Germany, on the other hand, there are a lot of companies which are more successful at managing business growth over decades and managing larger-scale businesses. But graduate students are more motivated to start a classic corporate career than to start their own company.

The speakers insisted on the fact that future entrepreneurs should talk about their company as much as possible. In Israel, it is more common to share your ideas, as it is considered that you will get more benefits than disadvantages from it. Furthermore, startups should talk more about their users, a point often forgotten in big cities, where it is all about the product.

Oran challenged the audience to be persistent. “Don´t take no for an answer!”. His first startup experience was in Fintech, about 5 years ago. Back then, he had to keep nagging the same people to make them change their mind. In fact, mindsets evolve and realities changes. He encouraged the students to take chances, to get as much experience as they can and to build up their network wisely.

Jonathan was amazed to find a new side to government activities in entrepreneurship. It can make a clear difference at the ecosystem level and contribute to the system´s evolution. He pointed out one of the main difference between the German and Israeli mindset: Germans work on long term goals and Israelis make quick decisions. Both countries complement each other well! Right now, he is working on mapping out the ecosystems, resources and relevant people in South Germany.

The evening ended around drinks with a networking session. Special thanks to our co-host startup Mannheim and Café L3 for making this event a most enjoyable time for our guests. And of course, a big thank you to Jonathan and Oran for their very interesting talk and presence during the networking session.

 

 

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Sponsors

  • University of Mannheim
  • Institut für Mittelstandsforschung
  • Gründerverbund
  • ESF
  • Europäische Union
  • Baden-Württemberg - Ministerium für Finanzen und Wirtschaft
  • Absolventum