OurielOhayon

Another sad and stupid reaction on an Israeli company

Following up on my post i have received a few confirmations from other companies suffering from primary racism disguised behind the "politically correct" boycott, expressed by probably decent and smart people in a polished form of language, which does not make it less shocking and disgusting.

Here is another one, on which i was asked to kept secret the identity of the company. I am not even commenting and will let you judge by yourself.

This has deep echoes in the history of man kind. This is happening in year 2009

XXXX

Many thanks for the update. As you know, I have always been excited by your skills and energy.  However, and this is no way personal to you, I was deeply upset by recent events in Gaza and as such have decided not to assist any funds that directly invest in Israeli companies.  In the event you decide to focus on European IT, I would be delighted to help again. I am sure you will be disappointed by this stance and I am disappointed that this stance will prevent me from working with you for the moment.  I know my actions will have no meaningful impact but as a proprietor, I have the capability to focus where I see fit. I am sure our paths will cross again, which I look forward to..... Kind regards


YYYYY

I want to believe those are isolated cases and that the world is full of common sense.

Technorati Tags: boycott israel startups high tech racism

Google is dangerous for your computer

Something is broken with Google today. But what? And what will the world do without Google?

Capture your screen in seconds

Search for Google in Twitter is insane...

update: seems fixed, but wait a sec. Check your spam folder in Gmail...you may be suprised too

Technorati Tags: Google

This is what Israeli startups have to deal with sometimes..

I was in shock when i read this email received the by Israeli Startup Sisense i have known now for some time (providing a great analytics solution btw). A customer wrote them that he would not buy their product because his conscience would not let him. Here is the answer from Elad Israeli (the founder who gave me the approval to republish it), which stands for itself as an explanation and an argument

Hi,

I am contacting you in response to your following comment:

"I think current world politics will unfortunately weigh against some purchase decisions despite the product being good - it certainly does for me make me question whether my conscience would let me buy an Israeli product :("

SiSense is an Israel-based company that sells products all over the world, including but not limited to Egypt, Jordan, Dubai, Iran(!) and of course others.

Like any other business, we try to provide our customers with great products and services for affordable prices. We do not judge our customers/prospects by where they are from or what they believe in, and hope they do the same when they consider us as a possible solution.

Israeli foreign policy is a governmental issue and does not concern us, so I will not defend nor condemn it. In our view, politics have no room in business, and this will always be our company policy. That said - if you are not comfortable buying our software because of where our headquarters is based or our nationality - you are certainly free to go ahead and seek alternative solutions. That is your prerogative and I wish you luck.

Peace.

Elad Israeli
Founder
www.sisense.com

The other day i saw a guy on Twitter saying he dropped using Fring (a great product too made in Israel) because it was backed by an Israeli Investor (To which i answered him he should drop his PC too since it is likely the chip was designed in Israel by Intel)



All those stupid behaviours are translating the basic form of racism Israelis have to deal with. It is not very different from the "old form" of antisemitism the jews have known for a while. It just has found a new cover and a new face which is more "decent" to present. Sadly i am sure those are not isolated cases (if you hear more let me know)

It is purely disgusting

Technorati Tags: israel startups internet racism

The Erdogan/Peres clash is again a case of poor media reporting

Yesterday at the World Economic Forum, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan decided to leave the stage of a debate with Shimon Peres to show his "disapprovement". The debate was about the peace process in Israel and the recent war against Hamas in Gaza.

You will probably see the news in all major newspaper today presented as, i simplify, "Shimon Peres apologized to Recep Erdogan". What people will remember and what most media are covering is that: He left and that Shimon Peres apologized (translate Erdogan was right and Peres wrong).Right. Some context? of course not... Now stop, rewind.

You can't understand this if you did not see the debate. I urge you to see the full video below. The argumentation of Erdogan was simply inadequate and wrong (and prior to him the same goes with former egyptian minister Moussa) and President Peres, did just the right thing by reminding the real context in which Israel is operating. It is easy to say that civilians are killed, and that this is not good, that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza...But what about the context?

Peres did a great job explaining (in the video it starts at minute 39, just drag the player) with passion the lack of options Israel has in front of a country lead by dictators hiding in Tunnels or in Syria. He's explaining a democracy is not a matter of 1-day election but of civilization, that Israeli totally retreated from Gaza and that even invested in some infrastructures (destroyed by Hamas), that since Israeli retreated missiles where shoot everyday and restrained for many years, that Hamas torture and kill his own people in daylight, that Hamas has a charter where they wrote back on white their mission is to kill every single jew (not israeli, jew). All those are facts. How do you make peace with that? What are your options? What would your country do with that?

Erdogan presented the usual PR Bullshit we are used to hear everyday in the news or on the web: but the reality is where are the options? Where are the choices? This is why Peres told Erdogan, in his case he would have done the same thing.

He reminded something that is not heard enough: Israel wants peace, Israel wants 2 countries, Israel wants Gaza to flourish (that's why we retreated from Gaza), Israel wants victory, not in War (like Hamas always love to claim) but in peace. Can you hear this message from the other side? Yes in part from Fatah and not from Hamas.

Erdogan does not remember there is a difference between Palestinian and Hamas and that peace is not possible with the later, simply because they do not want it and created this situation.

Peres speech was passionate and strong, unusual. I personally regret he apologized. He was both right on the content and on the way he presented it for about 22 min (After nearly 40 minutes of anti-israeli speech from Erdogan and former egyptian minister moussa). This is why people applauded so strong at the end. I can understand maybe that for diplomatic reasons Peres apologized, but certainly not for what he said, more probably for the context and the way it ended (which you won't read anywhere in the news). Erdogan left, because he was out of argument (you can feel that in the way he talks and his nervous attitude), not only because he was out of time. I also regret the debate stopped there, because i was curious to hear the answers from Erdogan.

Turkey has recently taken strong positions against Israel surprisingly after having been a moderate and efficient intermediary in the peace process. Why this sudden change? I think you have to look at what happens inside Turkey with the slow but sure progression of Islamism (which is btw creating some issue with the EU integration). Erdogan has in my view a schizophrenic attitude to Israel: he wants to be their friend, but on the other side can't show support towards his own people and public opinion.

Conclusion: the media say "Erdogan left, Shimon Peres Apologized". I say "Erdogan could not hold a debate, Peres defended a brave and honest position". Again do not stop at what you read in the media and see this full video.

What do you say?

Technorati Tags: WEF worldeconomicforum israel turkey erdogan peres gaza hamas war

Ginger Software

Last year i made a private investment in a startup, which i do very rarely (for obvious reasons since all my focus goes to supporting LightSpeed and Gemini). Here is the story:

I have been cursed all my life with spell checking for two reasons: i hate to check myself after i have done something (which i am working on to improve in life) and i am very good at making typos. I nearly failed major exams because of that, and every day on blogs i am contributing to readers, rightly so, warn me on the insulting mistakes i make. Most of them are attributed to the fact i work fast. But still this is not an excuse.

Therefore this is an area i have always been interested in, and when i met last year the team behind Israeli startup, Ginger Software they got all my attention: they created a truly revolutionnary spell checking software that will be embedded directly in the places where you need them (starting with Word) and that will find and correct mistakes very smartly.



OK, i hear you already "But what about existing spell checkers?". Without going into much details they suck. They work if you speak very well the language you are writting and if they understand the context on your text which is not happening. Ginger has been designed originally for supporting and helping people suffering from dyslexia who can't really know if the word they write is actually correct or not. They could write Bahss and mean Bus: there is no way a classical spell checker (which should better be called typo-checkers) would correct that.

Ginger Software is dedicated to empowering children and adults with learning difficulties to write  error-free texts independently. Thanks to Ginger Spell, Ginger Software's breakthrough automatic error-correction solution, writers will, for the first time, be able to independently generate error-free texts for business and personal use. Ginger’s spell-checker and frequent-error reporting function also provide an invaluable tool for professionals and parents to monitor progress and evaluate and personalize instruction.

Actually Ginger words even if they are spelled correctly but do not appear in the right context eg "The house is note white" (update: see the mistake i made on "Ginger words even if they are spelled"). A live example....

It just so happens it is also very useful for people whose english is second language. Like me. You can try there solution on their site or by downloading their tool bar for Word.

Therefore when Yael Karov, the founder, asked me last year if i would join the private investors (first class) in their first seed round, i did not hesitate a second.

This week Globes covered the company this week. But they already managed to get some impressive PR, although they are rather under the radar for now.

Their solution is truely compelling and the need is huge. I am quite proud to be (a little) part of this company

The Best Pizza in Tel Aviv? Il Teatro

I am a big Pizza fan. I have spent my youth in the best region in the world for Pizzas: Nice in the south of France. Since i have been chasing that standards all over the world. Very hard to find as good (but sometimes i do). Since i arrived in Israel i have been very very very very frustrated with Pizzas. Most people order here the disgusting Pizza Meter, Hut or Dominos. There are a few "boutiques" that until now have been good choices: il Pizzaiolo has been a point of reference and recently i discovered Iceberg in tel aviv Port. Time Out rates Tony Vespa as #1: so i went to checkout and don't loose your time. Not even #10

But the award goes, by far, to a Pizza restaurant that is just down my street, in Yehuda Hamakabi 40 in Tel aviv hold by 2 french guys that came in Israel a few years ago: il Teatro. Actually i am quite frustrated to discover it only now because it's been there for a while (in place of the mythical sandwhich place Theodor) and i never thought about going.

I will save you long explanations about why it is so good. Just see for yourself in the slideshow below how thin, crispy outside, good looking and yummy

It is made in an genuine stone oven a yosu can see. Here you can see a video of the pizza



The prices are very decent. The restaurant is Kosher. Take Away but no delivery...Often full

And just a final note: no wonder this is a great pizza place. The Pizzailio is from....Nice



update: mentionned in the comments: Agvania is good but 1. expensive 2. too big 3. no delivery 4. not as good...Dan Peguine is recommanding on Pizza Piano in Tel Aviv. Will have to try. Here a post by Haaretz on the matter about the best pizzas in Tel Aviv: i disagree with most of the name mentionned here but at least you can compare

Technorati Tags: pizza israel tel aviv ilteatro

Who are the TOP 10 Israeli internet startups?

This is the question my VC neighbour Michael Eisenberg at Benchmark Capital, tried to answer on his blog. He came up with a list of pretty good names. He completed the exercize eliminating a few risks leaving aside only those who are still private and likely to end up with an exit (a big one). The only problem i have with this list (except the biais of being an investor, but i can't blame him for making good investments..) is that once a startup is already out there for a few years and has passed the revenue stage it is easier to spot the winners.

This list should better be called the "best VC backed later stage Top 10 israeli internet startups". I instist on VC backed because in Israel there many very successful internet startups that can't/won't be funded by capital risk: mainly in the gambling industry (like Play65 or now what has become PlayTech or 888.com that are publicly listed) but also in the dating space (Jdate) or the Forex services.

Anyway Michael's list is below and is ranked in alphabetical order. I would personnally put Oberon in #1 position for the rest i am not so sure. I was surprised to see Dotomi, but i need to take an update on this company.

• Conduit (Benchmark, Yozma)
• Dotomi (Yair Goldfinger, USVP)
• Eyeblaster (BRM)
  
• Fixya (Mayfield, Pitango)
• Gigya (Benchmark, Mayfield)
• JaJah (Sequoia)
• Kontera (Sequoia, Carmel)
• Metacafe (Benchmark, Accel, DAG, Highland)
  
• Oberon (Goldman Sachs)
• Seeking Alpha (Benchmark)

It is harder to make this exercise when you are trying to spot winners that are still pre-revenue or when you try to spot startups that have a potential exit and that did not get VC money (whatever the reason).

I am not going to try to make predictions but i would add a few of them in a separate list of VC and non VC backed companies, "early" or "not" (i tried to pick companies with at least 1 year or operations), pre or post revenues, web/mobile web (they are not ranked in a specific order):

• OutBrain (LightSpeed/Gemini) because i love the focus and the model
• Boxee (Union Square /Spark) because i love the product and its capacity to disrupt the prehistorical TV
• SweetIM because it is just a cash machine
• Payoneer (Greylock) because it is refreshing traditional payment methods
• Wix (Bessemer) because of the stunning product execution and the traction the experience both in US and Europe
• TuneWiki (Benchmark) because we all need something better than iTunes special when you don t have an iPhone
• Odysii/Tveez (Benchmark/Giza)because it is using the internet to bring information in Offline spots where you need it
  
• AdsMarket because they are making serious money

There are other great internet companies out there (the Gemini / LgiLab portfolio of course..) but will stop the exercize here because i realize it is really hard.

What i also want to point is that i believe in Israel there are many great internet startups that will end up in a "small" exit (sub 50 millions USD) and i believe it will be the majority (what i call micro acquisitions)

However i do have a surprising Bonus: ICQ. This is only a personal theory based on observation, public information and not information (disclosure i worked there a few years ago). I believe AOL will be spun off from Time Warner soon and that many media property that are non US centric will be sold out. ICQ has a strong presence in Europe with some revenues. I believe it will be acquired a second time.

Please complete this list (which i will try to update over time) in the comments below


Technorati Tags: israel startups internet vc seed

Google serving propaganda ads for the "Palestinian Holocaust"

Let me be clear: this war against hamas ended up in way too many civilians paying the price for their leaders' crazyness and stuborness.

Over time the world is realizing that Hamas is at least as responsible if not more for the civilian deaths in Gaza (read for example the testimony of the official EU high representative) because they used them as human shield and placed on purpose their infrastructure among civilian areas.

Whatever the reason: the number of dead people among civilian is a tragedy. And i believe that most Israeli have been empathic to that.

But regardless of the context and the reasons i have stumbled upon an ad on my blog this morning "We are wading in Death" quoting a Norwegian Doctor in Gaza. Dragged by curiosity i clicked on it and stumbled upong a site dedicated to the "Palestinian Holocaust" (IslamOnline to which i am not linking but here is a screenshot). This ad is being served by Google in adsense, at least targeted on Israel and i am pretty sure they are not aware of it (this already happened in the past).

I have no problem with advertising that would support humanitarian needs for the citizens of Gaza (red cross or whatever official organization). But claiming there is or was an Holocaust is just as stupid as claiming that all the palestinians were fighters in this war. This is a very well known communication technic used for years by some pro palestinians supporters and palestinians themselves to show that Israel is doing to others what they have suffered from. But this is just plain wrong and shocking.

Anyone with common sense would understand that. There is no systematic killing of civilians and definitely not in the scale of an Holocaust: go to Rwanda, Darfur or Techtchenia maybe to have a better idea although i hate to make those tragic and meaningless comparisons

Of course the site is full of pictures of dead kids (again i repeat and insist this is really a tragedy), but the authors of this site are masters in the pornogrpahic use of shocking material to drag emotions and attention (how can you resist to such pictures indeed). But do not fall in the trap of easy propaganda: Gaza deserves humanatarian support (to which by the way Israel is participating), help, a real country lead by people who want to build a country and not destroy another.

Claiming there is an Holocaust is wrong and not serving any constructive purpose: it is adding to hate only.

Like i said in the part the war is also being lead on the web. This is a part that has to be fought. This is the hardest: because it is tempting to believe it and because it is shocking and has an appearance of truth. I am sure that many would see this ad witout even questioning it. Pictures will always be against Israel: but common sense can help balance that specially if many block or complain against those sites and help the real supporters of Palestinian people make noise.

I personnally blocked this ad (it takes 24h to be taken down, so you might still see it), via Google Adsense (go to settings, competitive filter and add the URL of the site IslamOnline.net). I even wonder if this ad complies by Google's Terms and Services. Someone reading at Google?

update: as a reader suggested i just took off the Google ad zone until the ad is actually taken down. I have also notified some friends at Google


Technorati Tags: israel war gaza

MindMeister acquires an iPhone app

A few days ago i had a conversation with my pianist friend Yaron Herman who asked me a recommandation for a mind mapping tool, those services that enable you to visually map your ideas. I never got hooked to those but i remember i tried several for understanding the principle.

I quickly came to the conclusion that MindMeister was the best one. I came back to it this week, as i am working on a new top secret idea (will talk about it progressively on this blog) which is rather complex. Mindmeister is just a masterpiece of execution at any single level. One of which is their connection to different form of publication channels. They have email update, plugins, widgets, offline version, even an iPhone tool. But the latest is rather simple and not good enough

Today Mindmeister announces the acquisition of MindMaker (sold 3.48 euros) an app decidated to MindMapping. You can easily imagine what this means in the future: you ll be able to get your maps on the iPhone and work on them from there, ideal when ideas come on the go. The size of the acquisition is not disclosed, probably not a big one (what i like to call a micro acquisition). But a case: more and more apps are going to be acquired soon as an extension of existing online activities.

As a side note: i started twitting about MindMeister which got me spotted by their team (@thobu) which contacted me to get my Twit quoted in their PR. Thanks Guys!

Technorati Tags: mindmeister mind mapping iphone app acquistion

Mozart Piano Sonata No12: Adagio

I recently saw a great movie on the recommandation of my friend Frederic: Vier Minuten (four minutes) which is about the musical education of this talented woman prisonner by this old single woman whose life has been dedicated to music.

The movie starts with this stunning piece of music by Mozart. I don't like Mozart. I am not connecting to his music because i have not found yet the right "keys" to appreciate it. I find it either too easy or too predictable. Some will say this is the genius of Mozart.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Anyway for the first time i have head this piece of music: Piano Sonata No.12 in F Major KV 332 : II.Adagio which i am embedding below. It could have nearly been written by Beethoven (the young Beethoven). The simplicity and elegance of major/minor modulation is just amazing.

hope you'll like it too