As I mentioned in a previous post, we recently had the opportunity to visit the northern part of Israel to meet with some of the more interesting companies in the country. What I didn't mentioned in that post is that between all of the work, we found some time to take in the beautiful sights and scenery of the Galilee region.
Our first stop along this journey was the city of Safed. At nearly 3,000 feet of above sea level, this city provides views over the countryside below filled with vineyards and dotted by pine trees. Dating as far back as its biblical references, Safed serves as one of Judaism's four holy cities, which is noticeable from first arrival. Walking the shop-lined cobbled streets of the old city, one feels as though he were transported back in time.
The team exploring Safed
After Safed, our next stop along the journey into the North was a rafting trip along the Jordan River. Relaxing on inflatable rafts and kayaks, we paddled (or in some cases just floated) down the shady and tree-lined Jordan River which feeds the Sea of Galilee.
Once we completed our trip down the Jordan, we headed towards our hotel at Kibutz Ha'on. Nestled on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, our accommodations faced west across the Sea towards Tiberias, making for an unforgettable sunset.
Galilee sunset
The next morning we were up early to tour a few of the countless holy sites surrounding the Sea of Galilee. From churches:
we took in the best sites that the Galilee has to offer. We capped off our Galilee experience with some excellent hiking with great views of the entire region:
and an offroad jeep tour of the surrounding countryside:
After this weekend, we all came away with a deep appreciation of the history and natural beauty of the Galilee Region. Warm and sunny by day, cool and quiet by night, and home to some of Israel's most hospitable people, I believe we are all eager to one day return.
As a part of our work at the Technion we from time to time have the opportunity to visit some of the cutting edge laboratories here to meet with Technion faculty and researchers. Today, we visited the brand new facilities of the Biotechnology and Food Engineering Faculty housed in the Carol B. Epstein Building at the Technion. There, we met with two brilliant professors, Esther Meyron Holtz and Uri Lesmes, who gave us an overview of their research.
Dr. Holtz prefaced her presentation to us by disclaiming the fact that she is first and foremost a researcher and that her work is therefore intended to further academic understanding and not to produce commercially viable products. With a room full of MBA students currently engaged in technology transfer, this provided us an opportunity to listen to her research through the lens of tech transfer professionals and provide feedback on potential commercial applications for the breakthroughs coming from her laboratory.
Focusing primarily on the role of iron in the body, Dr. Holtz's work has produced considerable insights into the understanding of free radicals in the body and the resulting oxidative stress that causes the human body to age. With continued research on this topic, it is possible that her work could result in treatments for Chrohn's Disease, osteoperosis, cancer, neurodegeneration, insulin resistance and coronary heart disease. As MBA students, we expressed to Dr. Holtz the enormous market potential of her work and encouraged her to seek intellectual property protection around which people like us could one day build businesses.
Then we heard from Dr. Uri Lesmes whose work involves the development of new techniques to produce healthier foods on an industrial scale. With obesity reaching pandemic proportions there is a dire need to develop health foods that are not only appealing to the consumer but also affordable and commercially viable. Much of Dr. Lesmes' work involves investigation into emulsion digestion whereby altering the chemistry of specific foods greatly affects the lipid digestion in humans. The goal of such research is to develop emulsified foods that taste the same but result in less caloric absorption by the body. In other word, Dr. Lesmes, asked, "Who wouldn't want to eat an ice cream that tastes the same but has half the calories?" We immediately understood that the social value and commercial value of such a breakthrough would be enormous, not to mention delicious.
This past weekend the team completed our Tour of Israel with a trip to the northern regions of Galilee and Golan Heights. While there, we had the opportunity to meet executives at two of Israel's more exciting companies: Amiad and the Misgav Venture Accelerator.
Amiad
With the world's population rapidly expanding in areas already challenged by substandard access to clean water, it has become clear that the problem that my generation will be charged with solving is how to provide water to a world population that will exceed 7 billion by the end of this decade. In a country where water is an issue of national security, it is no surprise that one of the world's most innovative water filtration companies has come out of Israel. By providing customized solutions that last a lifetime, Amiad deploys its filtration products across the globe to meet the needs of small African villages and growing metropolises alike. In meeting with their management and touring their facilities, our team left Amiad quite impressed by their innovative approach to tackling this timeless problem.
Misgav Venture Accelerator
An incubator run the by Trendlines Group, the Misgav Venture Accelerator is focused on building businesses out of life science technologies that seek to improve the human condition. Awarded "Best Incubator" by Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist, Misgav is clearly doing something right. Their CEO and Chairman Steve Rhodes walked the team through the Israeli incubator program and discussed its merits and recent successes. By providing mentoring, office support and collaboration among like-minded entrepreneurs, Misgav has shown great promise in creating such innovative companies as ETView and Endo Grab. Their innovations save on healthcare costs and improve healthcare delivery in such a manner that the end user and the healthcare provider both benefit. Before concluding our meeting, we all had the opportunity to pitch the companies we are building at the Technion and receive valuable feedback from experienced venture executive and long time business builder Steve Rhodes, an honor of which many an entrepreneur would be jealous.
A little while ago I posted about our trip to the Bedouin Camp in Southeast Israel. Where the Bedouin Experience left off, a sunrise hike up the ancient and holy site of Masada and a swim on top of the Dead Sea picked up.
Our day began with a wakeup call around 4 AM. Not entirely accustomed to our desert accommodations, the team groggily gathered around morning coffee before driving 20 KM east to Masada. Originally fortified by Herod the Great, this mountaintop construction provides a commanding and impressive view over the Dead Sea below and Jordan to the East. To reach the top of this plateau, we hiked up the Roman Ramp Path that winds up the rear of the facade:
Hiking up Masada before sunrise
Once there, we watched a beautiful sunrise over the Dead Sea that was certainly worth the early wakeup call:
Masada sunrise overlooking the Dead Sea
Once the sun was up, we toured around this 2000 year old site that holds as much historical importance as cultural and religious significance to the Jewish people.
Columns hint at Masada's Roman influence
After a morning full of hiking and walking around in the sun, we relaxed on the Dead Sea, one of Israel's most iconic and memorable attractions. The lowest place on earth collects salt and mineral runoff from the surrounding hills, leaving it with a salt content that makes it almost impossible not to float on. With its mud's famed curative properties and views looking up to Masada and off to Jordan across the Sea, no visit to Israel is complete without an experience like this one.
Our talented photographer and videographer, Jay Zhang, has created and posted the first video of our trip, providing an overview of the program and introducing a number of the team members. With beautiful photographs from Jay, Marc Terada and Ken Chen, plus videos from Julie Mullins, the first in our series of videos features some of our early travels, meetings and accomplishments. Check it out below or here: http://youtu.be/E10i8Sfinqc. And watch this space for more video updates from Jay.
We’re now officially more than one month into the Israeli experience, and what a time it has been. We’ve met the President, slept in Bedouin tents and hobnobbed at high tech and biomedical conferences. Given this incredible diversity of opportunities, this blog has been largely dedicated to these amazing experiences. Amid all of this, we’ve engrossed ourselves in six different technology commercialization projects. What started as patented technologies have evolved into very strong business models. We still have a long ways to go, but the feedback from venture capitalists, experts in the field, and of course Asher Epstein and Ze’ev Ganor, will no doubt help us get there.
On our first full day in Israel, we met the inventors of our technologies and our Israeli teammates. In one short week we scrambled to meet with everyone we could, from the inventor and his or her colleagues to anyone with relevant experience in the field, in order to better understand our technologies and how to apply them in the marketplace. From there, we’ve narrowed down our list of commercial applications from five to one and honed in on real market size estimates. From our presentation skills to our business plans, every single individual has made marked and noticeable improvements over the last month. The venture capitalists continue to poke holes in our arguments, assumptions and models, and we take this feedback into account every week.
While we are still a long ways from launching a business, we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor. Our first presentations demonstrated how little we knew about our technologies, the industry in which we planed to commercialize them and the details of the intellectual property that protects them. Since then, we have all become experts on our patents, performed extensive industry analyses, and become quite accustomed to the tough line of questioning that we receive during and after our presentations. Our presentation slides are polished and professional and where it once took five minutes to explain our technology, we now have the pitch down to 30 seconds.
From financial projections to the final business plan, there is much work yet to be done prior to our final venture capitalist pitches on July 7th. With the training and mentoring we are receiving, I am confident we will get there.
Our first stop along this excursion was at a Bedouin camp near Arad. The Bedouin camp now serves as not only the home for the Bedouins who live in the area but also a cultural experience for travelers such as ourselves hoping to gain a little insight into this nomadic culture. Located in a desert oasis, the place is nothing short of beautiful.
The team entering the Bedouin oasis
While there, we were treated to traditional Bedouin hospitality and storytelling. Our host ground fresh coffee beans for us and treated us to several blends that even a devout tea drinker found delicious.
Our Bedouin host grinding coffee beans in traditional fashion
Our host explained to us the history of the Bedouin people in Israel and how their culture fits into the modern State of Israel. As desert dwellers who have survived as nomads in this harsh landscape for years, the Bedouins' skills serve as valuable assets even in a modern world that has relegated their nomadic lifestyle more of a relic of the past. Currently, many Bedouins serve in the Israel Defense Force as desert trackers. Our host claimed that a true Bedouin is still much more effective than any modern technology when it comes to understanding the intricacies of the desert terrain, and based on his stories, I have no reason to doubt him.
And of course, no trip to a Bedouin camp would be complete without a sunset camel ride to experience get the full Bedouin experience:
The team riding through the desert
Ken and Femi looking right at home on their transportation
After our camel ride, our hosts graciously welcomed us into their tents and prepared a delicious traditional style dinner for us. Consisting of chicken and various kebab-style grilled meats over rice with fresh-baked breads, we ate family style on the floor in Bedouin fashion.
We've been in Israel for about a month now, and one question that we consistently receive from readers of this blog, friends and family, and Israelis alike is: what exactly are you doing in Israel? The nature of our project was broadly defined in our first blog post, and I have done my best to update on the most salient and exciting trips, meetings and events. And while our busy schedule has meant that no two days in Israel are created equal, I will attempt to express how we spend our time between travel and meeting important dignitaries.
Asher meeting with the group
After a weekend generally packed with travels, meetings and a little down time on the beach if we're lucky, Monday morning the whole team heads to the Bronica Innovation Lab at the Technion. Located on the sixth floor of the Industrial Engineering and Management Building, we work on our technology commercialization strategies while sitting around a large conference-style table. Between market size research, building presentation decks and meetings with Dingman Center Managing Director Asher Epstein, our office time keeps us quite busy.
While we're at the Technion we also take the opportunity to visit the laboratories where the cutting edge research that we are attempting to commercialize originated. Here, we have the opportunity to not only tour the facilities of the Technion but also meet with the innovators behind the technologies in order to understand the scientific and commercial sides of their work.
Touring the Technion Visitor's Center
When we need a break from the rigor of our work and meetings, the team walks outside our office to enjoy the view from the roof of the Bloomfield Building. From our vantage point atop a hill, we can see all of downtown Haifa, the Old City and even a little bit of the beach. Enough to recharge our batteries and get back to work, anyways.
Today we had the amazing opportunity to visit with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem. We joined the American Technion Society at the beautiful David Citadel Hotel in a small group session with President Peres and Technion President Peretz Lavie who started the morning by discussing the history of the Technion. The institution, which is about to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of its cornerstone laying, has been the backbone of Israel's high-tech industry, training its engineers and producing groundbreaking research for years.
President Shimon Peres with Peretz Lavie
President Peres, whose support of the Technion over the years helped Israel become the high-tech powerhouse that is is today, predicted the need for Israel to now move into neuroscience and neurotechnology with the same vigor that it entered the nanotechnology industry. Specifically, President Peres emphasized the importance of building better computer-brain interface technology to help researchers understand more precisely how the human mind works. With this technology, he suggested, researchers could develop stronger therapeutic methods and devices to better cure neurological ailments such as Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's.
The session ended with an open question and answer session for President Peres, who fielded questions on topics such as how Israel will incorporate the innovations of companies like Better Place into its infrastructure in the coming years. The mere fact that President Peres dedicated his time to our group indicated the importance of the high tech industry in Israel, but in spending 90 minutes of his morning in open and frank discussion with us was truly unprecedented. When a statesman of his caliber is willing to dedicate his day to such a cause, its shows the esteem in which the Technion and its innovations are held and how treasured they are by the Israeli government and the individuals who run it.
Thanks to the great work of Marc Terada and Jay Zhang, we have some really great photos to share with everyone. Check out our photo blog for beautiful pictures of our work, meetings, travels and free time. We'll be updating with more photos throughout the summer so everyone can keep up to date with our experience. The photo site is linked-up on the side of the blog, so check back often to see the latest photos.
Between shopping in the Souq, touring around Jerusalem, floating on the Dead Sea and hiking up Masada, our trip to the south of Israel provided the opportunity to visit some of the nation's leading companies, innovators and thought leaders. From social venture incubator PresenTense to world drip irrigation leader Netafim, we met with a broad spectrum of business leaders whose scope and purpose truly run the gamut:
This Jerusalem-based incubator for social entrepreneurs fosters change in Israel and abroad by providing the right conditions, networks and education for thought leaders to be successful. From the open kitchen and beanbag chair furnished common area to their proprietary pedagogy focused on building an idea into actionable social change, PresenTense understands innovation. During our visit they put this to the test by taking our team through an "idea slam", which is a creative method to combine individual thoughts on an idea and turn them into a single plan to create change.
Before explaining Hadasit (the biomed technology transfer company for Hadassah Hospital), one must first understand Hadassah Hospital. Perched on a massive Mount Scopus campus, Hadassah Medical Center is one of the world's leading medical research companies and certainly the largest facility of its kind in Israel, producing countless patents and innovations for improved medical treatments...which is where Hadasit comes in. The biomed technology transfer company for Hadassah selects the most promising intellectual property coming out of Hadassah and leverages the hospital's facilities to commercialize the technology in-house. With so many of our team members working on medical and biomedical technology applications, this visit showed us one of the several strategic options for our own business plans.
From its humble roots on a Kibbutz, this company has grown to become the worldwide leader in drip irrigation and is a key part of keeping Israel green and making its deserts arable. With operations all over the globe, from India and China to the US and Argentina, Netafim is a great example of how solving a local problem can lead to a global business solution.
What's better than a delicious lunch served in a trendy cafe? Knowing that the cafe is part of a socially conscious venture that takes at-risk youth and provides them with the tools and opportunities to better their lives. With a great mission and delectable food, this place is definitely worth a visit for anyone passing through Be'er Sheva.
No visit to Israel is complete without a trip to its capital and most famous destination: Jerusalem. As part of a trip to the south of Israel that combined business, pleasure and cultural learning, we had the great fortune to see many of the wonders of this ironically timeless town. I will disclaim this post, however, by stating that I am neither a historian nor a theologian. Indeed, more in-depth coverage of the dates, names and religious significance of Jerusalem’s myriad sites should be sought elsewhere. Rather, I will offer my own perspective on this beautiful city and attempt to express how visiting it has changed my perspective on the country, the region and the world.
Jerusalem is a recognizable name across the globe. To that end, we are all aware that much of the controversy in this part of the world stems from the variety of claims made to his holy parcel of land. And we have all seen news stories about when these claims boil over into conflict – but this what not my experience at all. Throughout my visit, Jerusalem was nothing short of safe and secure. We passed from the Muslim Quarter to the Jewish Quarter to the Muslim Quarter and from holy place to holy place, and never felt anything short of welcome. If nothing else, witnessing local residents, tourists and religious pilgrims all visiting the same places provided a sense of hope that differences are being set aside as the city’s diverse populations find a way to coexist.
My few days in Jerusalem also provided a deeper understanding of the geopolitical landscape of this region. For all of its historical importance, this region continues to dominate the headlines on a regular basis, and walking its streets gave me insight into the city and the region. The Palestinian Territories of the West Bank lie just outside the city limits, and Jordan can be seen from a hilltop on a clear day. This, combined with Jerusalem’s own diverse population, helped put into perspective the meaning of the city and how it factors into the overall geopolitical landscape of the Middle East.
Without question, the most valuable takeaway from my time in Jerusalem is a deeper appreciation of what makes Jerusalem so important to so many people. Jews, Christians and Muslims all lay claim to parts of this city, and throughout its history Jerusalem has been controlled by a host of rulers from all faiths and backgrounds. A simple Google News search tells you that the city is important, but it cannot explain why. Only through walking its streets, shopping in its markets and talking too its residents can the visitor hope to understand the complexity that makes this city what it is.
This last week we had the amazing opportunity to visit the timeless city ofJerusalem. It is at once a holy place for some of the world's largest and oldest religions, a destination for pilgrims from across the globe, a tourist attraction that makes a significant contribution to the Israeli economy, and the cultural heartland of Israel.
Our first introduction to Jerusalem was in the Souq, a large market that was bustling with shoppers picking up provisions before the city shuts down on Shabbat. (Jewish law calls for a day of rest beginning with sundown on Friday, and all shops close for the ensuing 24 hours.)
The market offers every kind of delicious Israeli and Middle Eastern delicacy you could ever crave. The fruits and vegetables were bright and fresh, not necessarily what the novice would expect from a desert where it seldom rains. I guess we have Netafim's homegrown irrigation technology to thank for that.
The fresh-baked breads were especially delicious and ubiquitous. The challah bread was baked special for Shabbat. Challah in the US does not even compare.
All in all, the Souq was a great introduction to the long weekend we would spend in Jerusalem as well as a primer on Middle Eastern markets at large. The tradition behind this type of marketplace dates back to long before we were born, and witnessing it in Jerusalem was a special experience. Eating all the goodies we picked up was just the icing on the cake.
This last week we had the amazing opportunity to visit some of Israel's most beautiful sites. Our first stop along our journey south was Caesarea, an ancient port city on the Mediterranean built by Herod the Great. I will spare you the details, dates and meanings behind the sites we visited, as you could surely find them elsewhere. Besides, any world traveler knows the golden rule of story telling: never bore your audience with the details when all they really want is photos. So without further adieu (all photos courtesy of the talented Jay Zhang):
Like any good Roman settlement, it starts with an amphitheater...
...and a hippodrome...
...for chariot racing.
And what Roman would build a city without columns...
The views expressed on this site are those of Andrew Giessel, hereafter referred to as "the author", and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Maryland, the Robert H. Smith School of Business, or the Technion. All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The author makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this blog or found by following any link on this blog. The author will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. The author will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.
