Saul Singer

Excellent primer on how Israel has used its dramatic creation story, its history, its land, its military, and its very diverse people to aggressively shape the country into something livable that could produce food and provide shelter for an increasing number of immigrants. And… propel it forward from a poor swampy and arid land of a backwater into a hugely successful country humming with business opportunities as well as a center of advanced education.
Because Israel is surrounded by show more enemies on all sides, David Ben-Gurion had the foresight to prepare before Israel’s founding for a strong military, knowing the country would be attacked. Gun runners found weapons and ammunition around the globe, hid and smuggled them into country. Ben-Gurion and Simon Peres convinced Al Schwimmer, a Jewish pilot to buy old planes, and parts, repair them and get them to Israel. And then convinced him to start an aeronautics company to continue to make and maintain the planes Israel would need.
And while neither Ben-Gurion or Simon Peres were business men, and despite the nay sayers, they helped foster and support an environment to create businesses. And Israel became incredibly motivated in developing and founding small businesses. Why and how?

The Military
Senor and Singer suggest that Israel’s military plays a huge part in its success. The military forges strong citizens with independent and resourceful thinking. It creates units that are trained and work together for years as soldiers and then as reservists. This generates into friendships in which people exchange all kinds of ideas, ideas that lead to business plans. Also Israel’s military is much smaller and therefore much less formal than most armed forces, including the US’. If Israeli soldiers believe that a senior officer is mismanaging a situation, or is putting his unit into danger, they will complain about it and get him removed. That can’t be done in most countries. The philosophy is more of a bottom up, than a top-down strategy.
In Israel, military service counts for more than a college degree when one is job-hunting. In the US human resources often don’t know how to use/apply applicants’ military service. Seems they are blind to the value of the exceptional experience it provides.
Because so many Israeli citizens have served and continue to serve in the IDF, there is a strong connection between citizens and the military. That is why everyone knows someone. The US experienced that strong civilian to military connection during and after WWII but not so much since then.

Education
Israel’s universities often rank higher than world-renowned universities. Teachers and graduates of Israeli colleges are highly sought by universities and companies in other countries.

Diversity
Jews returned to Israel from all corners of the world mostly because it is home. And also because other countries made it crystal clear they didn’t want Jews. Many Soviet Jews who were highly educated in math, science and engineering contributed greatly to Israel’s development. Unfortunately, Israel did not have enough high-level jobs for all of them. Jews came from North Africa, like Morocco and Tunisia; from Iraq and Yemen; and Central Asia. And from communities in Ethiopia and India, and Europe and the US and Canada.
All these people required housing, food, clothing, education. Each culture contributed to Israel by working the land, producing goods, providing services and developing so many ideas to move the country forward.

Arab Boycott
Arab countries have boycotted Israeli products for years prior to Israel’s founding. Coercing Israel to seek out markets for their products thousands of miles away. And because the shipping costs of large products would be prohibitive, Israel focused on creating small innovative products, i.e. telecommunications, medical devices, biotech, etc.

Terrorist Attacks and War
Israel has had to live with unexpected violence from surrounding enemies throughout its history. Some countries may have decided not to invest in or do business with Israel because of this. Israelis being smart and insightful knew they would have to virtually guarantee their global partners they would deliver orders on time even during a war! Employees made sure their families were safely sheltered, and came to work despite bombings to meet expectations.

Clusters
Locating businesses in the same industry into the same geographic zones, along with auxiliary companies generates more interaction, partnerships and ideas leading to more start-ups and patents.

Travel
Israelis travel the world possibly because they aren’t welcome to visit neighboring countries. And to take a break from the intensity required in serving in the military. But also to see, learn and discover. They have an ambitious curiosity. Some Israelis live in other countries for years, and some return home with degrees, and experience, and great ideas. Some Israelis who live and work abroad convince their companies to open offices in Israel. Everyone wins when that happens.

Israel is a courageous country of idea creators, ambitious dreamers, independent thinkers and doers; men and women who want to help discover, create and develop the next miracle medicine, or safety device, or the next big thing that will help save and/or improve lives globally.

This book is very compelling and surprisingly kept me reading and learning about Israel’s business efforts, endeavors, and its many programs supporting start-ups. show less

I'm always interested in economic history, and while Start-Up Nation offers more cultural analysis than straight-up history for most of its length, there's enough to make it worth a read for anyone curious about why Israel has such a high density of startup companies compared to most other developing or even developed nations. Senor & Singer point to a few factors to explain the unusually high density of entrepreneurship: Israel's history as a country that's had to invent things on the fly show more under pressure, the near-universal military service coupled with a very informal military culture, a well-educated founder population, large and early investments in education at all levels, high rates of immigration from a heterogeneous mix of countries, and a strong network of foreign benefactors.

That their explanation is cultural makes sense; as a result of Israel's unique history, Israelis have developed an extremely informal society that, while it can strike outsiders as pushy, encourages its members to do things for themselves and take risks. This results in a lot of new companies and inflows of venture capital, and as a result many foreign companies have important branch offices in the country. There's an extensive array of profiles of various entrepreneurs who developed major businesses that were either purchased wholesale by foreign companies or are still having a major impact as independent entities. I also thought their exploration of how paradoxically communal yet individualistic Israeli society is, as illustrated by, e.g., the publicly annotated travel books Israeli tourists leave all over the planet, or the effects that near-universal military service has on networking, was effective at showing how the factors that explained entrepreneurship also explained other aspects of the society.

The main failing of the book is that it spends most of its time rhapsodizing over how great Israel is rather than getting down into the weeds regarding what other countries could do to duplicate this mix. In fairness, perhaps that would be nearly impossible for most other countries, even if they have one or two of those factors:

"Singapore has a strong educational system. Korea has conscription and has been facing a massive security threat for its entire existence. Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Ireland are relatively small countries with advanced technology and excellent infrastructure; they have produced lots of patents and reaped robust economic growth. Some of these countries have grown faster for longer than Israel has and enjoy higher standards of living, but none of them have produced anywhere near the number of start-ups or have attracted similarly high levels of venture capital investments."

Even a country like Ireland that's seen dramatic, traumatic changes over the past century still has a cultural and historical legacy that would make a transformation into a similar startup hub difficult, yet it would have been nice to see some concrete recommendations, or at least a slightly more detailed comparison. Another questionable aspect of the book is that the hundreds of billions of dollars that the US has given to Israel over the years aren't even alluded to. This is a huge omission, but then again, the US has also given plenty of money to Egypt, which hasn't developed nearly the same startup culture, so foreign aid alone is unlikely to be the deciding factor. Still, even though the US has not always been the closest of friends with Israel, the lack of attention paid to the nature of this relationship is a glaring flaw. One final quibble is that the writing style can feel a little lightweight at times, in that the copious personal profiles are written in a somewhat breathless, credulous manner that contrasts poorly with traditional economic histories heavier on the macroeconomics that this book conspicuously lacks. Still, even though I've never been to Israel and don't have any connection to the country at all, overall this was a fairly effective overview of all the different factors that go into making an innovation cluster on a national level. show less

This audio does not live up to its title. There are some very interesting stories of Israel’s entrepreneurial landscape and success; however it is biased to the point of being a marketing pitch. He made Israel sound like without them there would not be a laptop and makes one wish they could be in the army and the US subsides had little impact on their success etc. While his theories may be true they were not backed up and mixed with their biased perspective it did not come close to show more explaining Israel’s Economic Miracle. show less

What has made Israel such a successful country? The Israelis approach entrepreneurship in a very unique way. They do not fear failure or recriminations for failure. They pick up and start again, persevere and have unremitting focus in their effort to succeed.
Members of the military start many of the businesses. They are selected carefully for their jobs in the military, (right out of high school, as they prepare for mandatory service)…after rigorous testing, rather than randomly as in show more some armed forces. As a result they excel in the business world, as well as in the military.
All students are not educated in the same way, but rather they are chosen for specific skill sets that they possess. In this way, their education is used to the best possible advantage. Students are trained because they qualify, not because they are entitled to the education. They are taught to question constantly and authority is viewed differently so that a lowly worker is perfectly free to question someone in authority without fear of repercussions.
There is no real hierarchy in the service. Rank is not the most important thing, accomplishment is more respected. Those beneath an officer in the field may request his dismissal if they feel he is not engendering the respect and command required for them to perform well.
When Israelis pitch a business idea, they stress the importance of the opportunities for Israel, not for their own personal reasons. Often, they do not tout their own business but they do praise their country and encourage investment there. They are not as profit driven personally but rather nationalistically.
Their success is largely due to the approach to education, the universal, mandatory service in the military with its rigorous training right out of high school, the stress on the need to question authority and the ability to learn from one's failures and move on, the absence of the fear of failing is huge, since it is not viewed negatively (failure is not looked upon with disdain but rather as a learning experience from which to jump off and succeed), the stress on learning from experience, and because higher education begins after military service, the more mature work force that is able to think on their feet. Isrealis go out to work in other countries and bring that knowledge back. The Israeli immigration policy, also fosters economic growth, although, in some instances, it has also been a tremendous drain on the economy with those that remain unemployed.
Israelis react quickly to ideas, develop them and move on. If they make a mistake they think of a way to fix it and continue. They must find a way to show strength and get the upper hand. Technology has been their strong suit. They don't spend time they don't have, pontificating on the positives and negatives. They are doers. They must be, because they are a small country in a huge world filled with many enemies. show less