Start-up Nation

Israel has much to learn from the world, the world has much to learn from Israel. In both directions, the most careful thing, as Peres told us, is to dare.

Acknowledgments

This book began as a long discussion between the two of us in April 2001, when Dan brought to Israel a group of twenty-eight Harvard Business School classmates. The purpose was to explore Israel’s economy, politics, and history. It was at a time of vast business opportunity in Israel but also, with the collapse of the peace process, of escalating insecurity.

Almost none of the students had any previous ties to Israel—in fact only three were Jewish. They came from a range of countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and India. At the end of the week, many were asking the same question: Where did all this innovation and entrepreneurship come from?

We realized that we did not have an answer.

Over the years since then, Saul would write Jerusalem Post editorials about the Israeli economy and Dan would come to Israel almost every other quarter to invest in start-ups and visit family. As Dan would meet with an impressive Israeli entrepreneur or Saul would highlight one, our curiosity grew.

We assumed there must be some book that explained what made the start-up scene so vibrant and seemingly impervious to the security situation. There wasn’t. So we decided to write one.

We are indebted to many people who have helped us along the way. The greatest compliment we can pay to Jonathan Karp, the founder and force behind Twelve, is that he is a true innovator in the book world. Publishing only twelve books each year, he is the quintessential undiversified investor. Jon taught us many things, most important among them was to do less arguing and more storytelling.

With energy and creativity, Cary Goldstein thought through who might be interested in this book and how to reach them. Colin Shepherd was meticulous in every phase of the book’s production and persistent as the deadline reminder. Dorothea Halliday was abundantly patient in the copyediting phase. Laura Lee Timko, Anne Twomey, Tom Whatley, and Giraud Lorber—also all part of Twelve’s team—were a huge help to us.

It was never a dull moment working with Ed Victor, our agent. In promoting our proposal, as with everything he does, Ed was chock-full of chutzpah. Don Epstein and Arnie Hermann were trusted advisers, too.

As a rare truly independent research institution in its field, the Council on Foreign Relations is a special place. It is an honor for Dan to have a home there. Richard Haass, CFR’s president, was immediately intrigued by the idea of a book on the Israeli economy. He contributed important insights and helped us draft expertise from CFR’s diverse scholars and members. We are also specifically grateful to CFR’s Isobel Coleman, author of the forthcoming book Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East (Random House), for sharing her observations with us. Gary Samore, formerly of CFR, provided guidance early on. Jim Lindsay, CFR’s director of studies, made several important suggestions on improving the manuscript. The CFR staff is among the most professional of any organization we’ve dealt with in the private, academic, or public sectors; we would like to specifically thank Janine Hill for all her patient assistance, and Lisa Shields and her communications team.

Part of our book was written in the eclectic Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, which made an invaluable contribution by hosting Saul as a library fellow. Our thanks to director Gabriel Motzkin and librarians Yaffa Weingarten and Paul Maurer for all their gracious assistance.

We are deeply indebted to our industrious and creative team of research assistants: Michal Lewin-Epstein was our lead researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations; Dani Gilbert spent a summer at CFR with us and then continued doing part-time research while at the London School of Economics; Joshua Kram joined our team for a stint after serving as an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign; Talia Gordis brought her own experience in IDF intelligence, and Ian Mitch and Anton Ornstein also helped at CFR as we began the project.

A number of people we interviewed, as well as one of our researchers, came from Arab countries. We respect their request for anonymity, since association with this book could prevent them from working in the Arab world; and we are grateful for their contributions.

With speed and deftness, our friend Judy Heiblum of Sterling Lord Literistic—and a Unit 8200 alumnus—made important suggestions on the structure of the manuscript.

We thank all the friends and family who read the manuscript; your sharp and candid feedback sent us back to the drawing board. We are especially grateful to Dan Allen, Stephen Backer, Max Boot, Paul Bremer, Reed Dickens, Shane Dolgin, Jonathan Ehrlich, Annette Furst, Mark Gerson, Henry Gomez, Alan Isenberg, Terry Kassel, Roger Marrero, Roman Martinez, Jim Miller, Josh Opperer, Matt Rees, Helen Senor, Suzanne and Max Singer, Andrew Vogel, and Pete Wehner, who read the manuscript from cover to cover under considerable time pressure.