The Unstoppable Startup: Mastering Israel's Secret Rules of Chutzpah

Statistics shows that more than 75% of startups fail, but the good news are that there are practical actions that startups can adopt in order to significantly increase their chances of success. Based on the book written by Uri Adoni with the above title (published by Harper Collins in the US and by Tsinghua University Press in China), Uri shares the insight from top successful Israeli startups, never shared before. At the heart of it, there's the unique Chutzpah mindset, the audacity, the go-to approach, which in many cases could be the key element for the success of a startup. According to Uri, you don't have to be born with this mindset, it could be taught. In his talk, Uri explains ‘The Rules of Chutzpah’ in a practical manner that can be implemented to any startup, and how entrepreneurs could adopt this unique mindset as part of the company's management culture.

There is a work-book developed based on the above, which is a practical tool for startups to work with, and if interested, working groups ans operational sessions could be done on top of the talk.

Listening to a Hundred Singers to Find Your Next Star – How to Become That Star in Your Investor’s Eyes

Many entrepreneurs and early-stage startups try to raise capital from venture capitals. For many of them it is the first time to engage with a venture capital firm, and thus they don't always know what is the best way to approach them, how should they pitch their company and how to manage an effective due-diligence process.

Having spent almost 20 years as a partner in leading venture capitals, Uri shares in this talk the way a venture capital operates, and specifically the decision-making process of the fund and its investment committee. He elaborates on the quantitative and qualitative criteria the fund is taking into consideration when making an investment decision, and give many practical advise how to increase the chances to fund raise.

Strengthen Your Strengths, Not Your Weaknesses – An Innovative Approach for Building a Successful High-Tech Ecosystem

During the last decade, many cities and countries around the world wanted to join the high-tech trend, and started developing their local high-tech ecosystems. Cities, regions, states and countries that previously were not part of the high-tech scene, have ‘joined the high-tech ride’, some in a small tactical scale, and others in a more aggressive strategic manner.

Most high-tech ecosystems today are what is usually referred to as ‘generalist’ ecosystems, which means that they develop and support startups from various high-tech verticals. In a ‘generalist’ ecosystem one can find startups in verticals such as fin-tech, agri-tech, health-tech, food-tech, space-tech, ed-tech, cyber-security, renewal energies, advanced materials and many more. However, as these number of ecosystems grew, the competition between them has grown dramatically. They compete on entrepreneurial and technological talent, on investments and capital, on international corporates’ presence, on intellectual properties and much more. In most cases, they’ve tried to develop their ecosystems by attracting the various stakeholders, believing they should all be geographically located at the same location. These stakeholders would include the talent, the startups, the investors, the corporates, the government and the academia.

In this talk, Uri shares his experience in building and developing local high-tech ecosystems, both in Israel and in the US, and explains why the traditional approach of having all stakeholders physically be in one geographical location belongs to the past. He explains why in order to be competitive, each of these ecosystems need to find its main strength, its competitive edge, and build on it, rather than to try and strengthen its weaknesses.

Complete The Mission – Adopting Combat-Elite-Units’ Disciplines & Methodologies to Running a Successful Tech Startup

A startup is always in a combat mode. And, just like a combat unit, the startup works in a dynamic and constantly changing environment - new competitors, new technologies, and new business models arise constantly; changes in personnel and in distribution and marketing channels can throw off the best-laid plans. Just as a combat unit does, the startup needs to react to these changing circumstances in real time, in a highly effective manner and with a high sense of urgency.

Uri is a Major at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and prior to his roles in the high-tech industry, he has been a commander of a combat unit for many years. As such, Uri has identified the many similarities between a combat unit and a startup. In order to simplify it, Uri has created the S.U.C.C.E.S.S acronym, which stands for:

• Shared purpose – the team must have one clear vision and purpose which they all know, from top management throughout the whole team.
• Unified – the team needs to act as one. They should be proud of their unit, their team, their brand, logo and symbol. Moreover, they are one organism, and as such each member should know that he or she can fully trust and count on their team mates.
• Complete the mission! What the IDF engrains in its commanders the most is not the importance of courage under fire, or the need to execute according to plan (although those things are important), it is the imperative to complete the mission! You must complete the mission, even if nothing goes as planned: your communications network fails, you are short on ammunition, your weapons malfunction, your soldiers are wounded, and the weather changes unexpectedly. Since you are the commander in the field (even if you are a junior officer) and have all the immediate information, you must make decisions in real time, even if they don’t fully fit the orders you have received. You are fully empowered and expected to improvise, come up with creative solutions to complicated situations, and do anything within your power to accomplish your goal. As the saying goes, failure is not an option.

This is a very powerful mindset when bringing into a startup. Just like in combat, the startup is active in a constantly changing environment – the competition makes moves, new technologies are being introduced, strategic changes in the market, new regulations, geo-political events that reflects on the markets, and many more. Even though many of these events are not under the control of the startup, the management of a startup must react, and must always have the mission in front of its eyes. The startup needs to improvise, be creative, change plans, and adapt itself to the new situation in the best way possible.

• Communication and Coordination – open, honest and respectful communication between all levels of the organization. Like an orchestra, each member has to know what the others are doing and be fully synchronize with the team – both on the planning phase, but even more critical when it is acting operationally. This is the only way the team could work in an effective manner, be results driven, measure its performance and have a constant drive to improve.
• Experts – each member should be an expert! One cannot compromise on the level of the individuals’ professionalism and capabilities, since such compromise jeopardizes the whole team. Each team member must be highly skilled, and be the best person for the role.
• Self-example – just like the commanders of a combat unit will be the first to charge and the first to put themselves in danger, the startup managers should lead by self-example. They should be the first to arrive and the last to leave the office. If there’s any kind of crisis they should be fully engaged, the first to react, and the ones to support the team when ties get rough.
• Shared values – the team needs to have personal, cultural and business values that they all identify with and work according to. These values should be clear and concise, brief and memorable, action-oriented, reflective and adaptable. Examples for such values are: Integrity, Creativity, Chutzpah, Accountability, Passion, Fun, Risk-Taking, Diversity, innovation and such. Preferably, a startup shouldn’t have more than maximum five values.

Entrepreneurship, INTRA-prenership & Other Models for Corporate Innovation

In today's highly competitive markets, large corporates are in a constant need for innovation. In many cases, the differentiating edge and the competitive advantage is based on adopting and implementing new technologies. This could be at any level of the company, product or service, such as new production capabilities, new materials, new robotic solutions, predictive analytics platforms, implementing AI into the systems on so on. In the past, many corporates were fully dependent on their internal innovation capabilities, but as the competition became more aggressive, various corporates adopted different policies and methodologies to address this need.

This talk introduces various approached to corporate innovation, and the way it can engage with new innovations and technology startups. These approaches include a Corporate-Venture-Capital, launching a dedicated verticalized early-stage incubator, investing in an existing fund as a Limited-Partner, having a dedicated scouting team to constantly scout the markets, working closely with academic institutions, and many more. This talk also discusses the needs for internal changes need to take place at the corporate. These would include dedicated personnel such as VP Innovation, internal innovation competitions and changes needed to take place in order to be an ‘industry-friendly’ corporate (simple proof of concept, access to data etc.).