8 ms·

What Every Government (Except One) Doesn't Get About Startups

54 points by jlind 15y ago

krmmalik 15y ago
I havent gotten round to reading the book yet, but there is further evidence of this in the book "Startup Nation: The story of Israel's economic miracle" By Dan Senor. He also did an introductory talk which was brilliant, on Fora.tv. I'll post the link here, but it may be affected by the new Pay Wall. http://fora.tv/2009/11/03/Start-Up_Nation_The_Story_of_Israels_Economic_Miracle http://fora.tv/2009/11/03/Start-Up_Nation_The_Story_of_Israe...
- cletus 15y ago
  Israel is a somewhat controversial example in economic terms. Some like to point to it and say "look what they made from nothing" but Israel has, over the years, been the beneficiary of significant economic (and military) aid from primarily the United States. But more importantly (IMHO), Israel was the beneficiary of the largesse and support of a people decimated by the horrors of WW2. It's fair to say that the US probably had a large cultural impact on the development of Israel, both for direct economic reasons but also that the US has a large Jewish population. The lesson I personally take from the success of Israel is how important it is for a country to be bound together by a common set of ideals and purpose. Not that I'm arguing for any kind of cultural homogeny but if people in one country become sufficiently different it tends to drive that country apart. I think you see that in the US today as the red and blue state divide.
  - bignoggins 15y ago
    Jews only make up 2% of the population in the United States. I would argue that US policy toward Israel is motivated more by Christian end-times theology of the religious right than by the Jews themselves.
    - SwellJoe 15y ago
      I'm pretty sure that's looking through a modern lens at a much older situation. The religious right were not in power (or even really existent as a political force) through the entire history of Israel, and yet, Israel has always had US support. I'll buy that the religious right consider Israel a useful political tool, and that it fits the worldview of the people the religious right are trying to herd (I'm pretty confident most of the people calling the shots in the religious right are not particularly religious; it's just useful to them). But, I can't buy a Tea Party conspiracy that goes back 60+ years.
      - tokenadult 15y ago
        Israel has always had US support. No. The comment above that the Cold War set the context for United States friendship with Israel has it right. When the Arab countries weren't as strongly aligned with the Soviet Union, United States policy didn't tilt nearly as much as it later did toward Israel. The 1956 Suez crisis is an instructive example. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/suez/suez.html http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/suez/suez.ht... The United States urged Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw from their military intervention in Egypt to ensure international control of the Suez canal. In that era, the United States was nearer to a middle position regarding Arab-Israeli conflict than several of the European powers. The Six-Day War (which I remember from childhood) was probably the high water mark of United States support for Israel, as it appeared that a badly outnumbered, and uniquely democratic, Israel was able to overcome surrounding hostile countries through valor and strategic brilliance. Since the 1980s, the United States relationship with Israel has had bipartisan support at the federal government level, but I think the American Baby Boom's visceral identification with Israel as a fellow democratic country has diminished considerably since then. The aftermath of the Arab Spring may be an increased balance in United States attitudes toward Israel and the Arab states.
        SwellJoe 15y ago
        I was making no argument about why the US has historically supported Israel, to a lesser or greater degree, as you note. I was merely pointing out that saying that the religious right are the cause of US support of Israel is obviously wrong. Your assertions about when US/Israel relations were at their peak are in agreement with my statements, since the religious right has only become a political force at the national level in the last 20 years or so, and your water mark events preceded that rise to power. I was just pointing out the obvious wrongness of the comment above mine, not making any sort of political argument about US/Israel relations.
  - krmmalik 15y ago
    I'm afraid i'm not familiar enough with the politics and dynamics of the situation to be able to comment, but i hear what you are saying. Like you, i think its more important to focus on being bound by a common set of ideals and purpose.
  - alexqgb 15y ago
    I think the point is that lots of countries have received aid from other much richer countries. But only Israel has viewed this cash as national seed capital. Instead of any number of other possibilities, they directed a lot of it - along with their legislative priorities - in a direction that allows its citizens to respond the same way with their own lives, ambitions, and resources.
  - jerf 15y ago
    It is true they haven't really started from nothing. But there's been lots of other groups of people who have tried to do this sort of thing with a lot of resources of their own and failed miserably, and even the US success wasn't really something created by government. It's still worth studying how they may have actually created this success... though I daresay the lessons are lessons that most modern government simply do not want to hear, and are almost incapable of conceptualizing... which also goes a long ways towards explaining why they haven't been successful.
sequence7 15y ago
Wouldn't a better (read less link baiting) title be. What one country got right in one example of funding start-ups? The article basically describes a bunch of different business models and then hails the Yozma program. I don't know anything about it and maybe it's been immensely successful but I would have thought it would be far more interesting if it told me why and how it had been successful. To be honest I would have thought a better explanation of the success of entrepreneurs in Israel would be the large number of highly skilled/motivated first/second/third generation immigrants moving into the country.
tptacek 15y ago
Briefly: this reads like Steve Blank is wandering the Earth trying to get companies to legislatively promote venture capital as the preferred vector for starting companies.
- alabut 15y ago
  An amendment to make it more accurate: "...trying to get countries (not companies) to legislatively promote venture capital as the preferred vector for starting scalable startups (one of the 6 types he outlined in the article and not just any company)."
  - tptacek 15y ago
    Countries/companies was a typo. Thanks. The 6 types of companies Blank outlines: * "Lifestyle companies", like the companies associated with individual professional surfers. * "Small businesses", like money-losing corner groceries. * "Scalable businesses" (ie, your typical YC company, "born to be big") * "Born to flip" companies that are conceived of as features of some other company's product * "Large companies" like Google * "Social companies" with missions other than making money The implication of my brief comment was specifically that this way of breaking down companies suggests that he's promoting venture capital.
myth_drannon 15y ago
The main point these types of articles ignore is the huge wave of immigration from Soviet Union in the 90's. It was extremely skilled population with many phd's , professors that worked on pretty amazing stuff back in USSR. Then to help these 1 million (20% of country's population) the government just helped everyone a bit with their ideas. THAT'S ALL , the rest is history! I remember my backwater desert town 50k population where they quickly build cheap office buildings and stuffed them with all these 1-2 person "startups" full of bearded Soviet Phd's. They called them "hothouses" (of ideas). What happened to Israel can not be repeated again unless US collapses and 1 million of Silicon Valley engineers(not that they have so much) will move back to India or China.

54 points by jlind 15y ago

I havent gotten round to reading the book yet, but there is further evidence of this in the book "Startup Nation: The story of Israel's economic miracle" By Dan Senor. He also did an introductory talk which was brilliant, on Fora.tv. I'll post the link here, but it may be affected by the new Pay Wall. http://fora.tv/2009/11/03/Start-Up_Nation_The_Story_of_Israels_Economic_Miracle http://fora.tv/2009/11/03/Start-Up_Nation_The_Story_of_Israe...

cletus 15y ago
Israel is a somewhat controversial example in economic terms. Some like to point to it and say "look what they made from nothing" but Israel has, over the years, been the beneficiary of significant economic (and military) aid from primarily the United States. But more importantly (IMHO), Israel was the beneficiary of the largesse and support of a people decimated by the horrors of WW2. It's fair to say that the US probably had a large cultural impact on the development of Israel, both for direct economic reasons but also that the US has a large Jewish population. The lesson I personally take from the success of Israel is how important it is for a country to be bound together by a common set of ideals and purpose. Not that I'm arguing for any kind of cultural homogeny but if people in one country become sufficiently different it tends to drive that country apart. I think you see that in the US today as the red and blue state divide.
- bignoggins 15y ago
  Jews only make up 2% of the population in the United States. I would argue that US policy toward Israel is motivated more by Christian end-times theology of the religious right than by the Jews themselves.
  - SwellJoe 15y ago
    I'm pretty sure that's looking through a modern lens at a much older situation. The religious right were not in power (or even really existent as a political force) through the entire history of Israel, and yet, Israel has always had US support. I'll buy that the religious right consider Israel a useful political tool, and that it fits the worldview of the people the religious right are trying to herd (I'm pretty confident most of the people calling the shots in the religious right are not particularly religious; it's just useful to them). But, I can't buy a Tea Party conspiracy that goes back 60+ years.
    - tokenadult 15y ago
      Israel has always had US support. No. The comment above that the Cold War set the context for United States friendship with Israel has it right. When the Arab countries weren't as strongly aligned with the Soviet Union, United States policy didn't tilt nearly as much as it later did toward Israel. The 1956 Suez crisis is an instructive example. http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/suez/suez.html http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/suez/suez.ht... The United States urged Britain, France, and Israel to withdraw from their military intervention in Egypt to ensure international control of the Suez canal. In that era, the United States was nearer to a middle position regarding Arab-Israeli conflict than several of the European powers. The Six-Day War (which I remember from childhood) was probably the high water mark of United States support for Israel, as it appeared that a badly outnumbered, and uniquely democratic, Israel was able to overcome surrounding hostile countries through valor and strategic brilliance. Since the 1980s, the United States relationship with Israel has had bipartisan support at the federal government level, but I think the American Baby Boom's visceral identification with Israel as a fellow democratic country has diminished considerably since then. The aftermath of the Arab Spring may be an increased balance in United States attitudes toward Israel and the Arab states.
      - SwellJoe 15y ago
        I was making no argument about why the US has historically supported Israel, to a lesser or greater degree, as you note. I was merely pointing out that saying that the religious right are the cause of US support of Israel is obviously wrong. Your assertions about when US/Israel relations were at their peak are in agreement with my statements, since the religious right has only become a political force at the national level in the last 20 years or so, and your water mark events preceded that rise to power. I was just pointing out the obvious wrongness of the comment above mine, not making any sort of political argument about US/Israel relations.
- krmmalik 15y ago
  I'm afraid i'm not familiar enough with the politics and dynamics of the situation to be able to comment, but i hear what you are saying. Like you, i think its more important to focus on being bound by a common set of ideals and purpose.
- alexqgb 15y ago
  I think the point is that lots of countries have received aid from other much richer countries. But only Israel has viewed this cash as national seed capital. Instead of any number of other possibilities, they directed a lot of it - along with their legislative priorities - in a direction that allows its citizens to respond the same way with their own lives, ambitions, and resources.
- jerf 15y ago
  It is true they haven't really started from nothing. But there's been lots of other groups of people who have tried to do this sort of thing with a lot of resources of their own and failed miserably, and even the US success wasn't really something created by government. It's still worth studying how they may have actually created this success... though I daresay the lessons are lessons that most modern government simply do not want to hear, and are almost incapable of conceptualizing... which also goes a long ways towards explaining why they haven't been successful.

sequence7 15y ago

Wouldn't a better (read less link baiting) title be. What one country got right in one example of funding start-ups? The article basically describes a bunch of different business models and then hails the Yozma program. I don't know anything about it and maybe it's been immensely successful but I would have thought it would be far more interesting if it told me why and how it had been successful. To be honest I would have thought a better explanation of the success of entrepreneurs in Israel would be the large number of highly skilled/motivated first/second/third generation immigrants moving into the country.

tptacek 15y ago

Briefly: this reads like Steve Blank is wandering the Earth trying to get companies to legislatively promote venture capital as the preferred vector for starting companies.

alabut 15y ago
An amendment to make it more accurate: "...trying to get countries (not companies) to legislatively promote venture capital as the preferred vector for starting scalable startups (one of the 6 types he outlined in the article and not just any company)."
- tptacek 15y ago
  Countries/companies was a typo. Thanks. The 6 types of companies Blank outlines: * "Lifestyle companies", like the companies associated with individual professional surfers. * "Small businesses", like money-losing corner groceries. * "Scalable businesses" (ie, your typical YC company, "born to be big") * "Born to flip" companies that are conceived of as features of some other company's product * "Large companies" like Google * "Social companies" with missions other than making money The implication of my brief comment was specifically that this way of breaking down companies suggests that he's promoting venture capital.

myth_drannon 15y ago

The main point these types of articles ignore is the huge wave of immigration from Soviet Union in the 90's. It was extremely skilled population with many phd's , professors that worked on pretty amazing stuff back in USSR. Then to help these 1 million (20% of country's population) the government just helped everyone a bit with their ideas. THAT'S ALL , the rest is history! I remember my backwater desert town 50k population where they quickly build cheap office buildings and stuffed them with all these 1-2 person "startups" full of bearded Soviet Phd's. They called them "hothouses" (of ideas). What happened to Israel can not be repeated again unless US collapses and 1 million of Silicon Valley engineers(not that they have so much) will move back to India or China.