Author Archive
Summer Break? Not for Entrepreneurs!
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Yes, the summer is in full swing. Kids are off to camp and it is really, really hot outside. Globaly the summer months are always a slow down for businesses. People take vacations, it’s a great time for the beach, BBQ’s, and even weddings! (My younger brother is even getting married this summer!)
In Israel it is also a time when friends and family come to visit since Israel seems to be a popular vacation spot for Jews.
But is it true for entrepreneurs? For StartUp companies?
The honest truth is that if you are an entrepreneur and involved in a startup you don’t get to take vacations like everyone else. Sure there may be some distractions and that’s ok, you need to have some down time or you will burn yourself out, it is also a good time to spend more times with your kids then you get to during the year, but if you have a startup then you are on call 24/6. You owe it to your investors, partners and customers to continue to give your very best.
Now is the time to plan your fall season marketing campaigns and fundraising initiatives. Time to set-up meetings with potential clients. Want to relax a bit? That’s great, but take a good business book with you that can help reinvigorate you with good ideas. I know its hot outside and I know all your friends are taking off and having a good time, but you are not like them. You are not about the monthly paycheck. You are an entrepreneur! You are changing the world and making it a better place! Success is not easy, but it feels a lot better than a vacation.
Work now, rest with success.
Enjoy your summer.
Passover for the Entrepreneur – Freedom!
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First off I want to apologies to all my readers as I know I have not been posting very often during the last few months. I hope all that will change in the coming months. The thing is I want to post quality articles and that sometimes takes time I don’t have, but I do love sharing my thoughts on building a business with entrepreneurs here in Israel so hopefully I will pick it up.
Freedom means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The first grade answer to what freedom has to do with Passover is that we were slaves in Egypt and then G-D took us out and we became free. But what does “free” really mean? We were free for a little bit and then G-D gave us a huge amount of laws that we would now have to follow.
Freedom does not mean being free to do whatever you want, freedom means that you are not a slave to your desires or to our ingrown animal instincts. We can raise ourselves above our desires and only then we will be free.
But what does freedom mean to an entrepreneur? Again the first grade answer is that we become so successful that we can do whatever we want. But is that what freedom is all about? As stated above it’s not.
Being a Free entrepreneur means you running your business and not your business running you. Sometimes we get so caught up with our business that everything in our lives are dictated by the next meeting or by the next email or the next project.
But Passover comes to remind us that we should be in control of our business and not our business in control of us. Passover is the perfect time to take a week off, not check your email (so much) and to postpone any meetings until after the Chag. Let us remember what it really means to be free.
Wishing everyone a Chag Samayach!
Nachum Kligman
Israpreneur
Breaking News: Jerusalem Post Purchases Israpreneur
Posted by: | CommentsI am very excited to announce that The Jerusalem Post has purchased our blog, Israpreneur. According to our agreement I will not be able to disclose the purchase amount, but it is in the seven figure mark. I will continue to write for the blog and posts will be integrated into the Jerusalem Post website.
It makes perfect sense for Jpost as they will get high quality writing from the view of an entrepreneur on the ground in Israel and it makes sense for me as it gives me wider circulation. It’s also great for the readers as we will be producing more quality content including a weekly video show. There are a lof exciting things coming down the pipe.
Happy Purim Everyone! 
I am very excited to announce that my company, Qoof, is a Red Herring Global 100 winner. When starting a company you often dream about being recognized amongst the other big companies if the world. This award is the most prestigious one we have won to date since we were up against thousands of other private Hi-Tech companies around the world who have won awards in their location over the past three years. The Red Herring Global 100 is a huge achievement for our company and I again want to commend the awesome job our team has been and continues to do. We won’t stop till the top 
Mazel Tov to the other three Israeli companies that also won!
Below if the official Press Release:
Qoof, The Video Commerce Company, Wins Prestigious Red Herring Global 100 Award
January 19, 2010, Laguna Niguel, California – Red Herring on Friday announced its Global 100 award in recognition of the leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia, celebrating these startups’ innovations and technologies across their respective industries.
Red Herring’s Global 100 list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Google, Yahoo, Skype, Netscape, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work.
“Choosing the best out of the previous three years was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed down our list from 1,200 potential companies to 200 finalists. Trying to get it down to 100 companies was a task upon itself. The top 100 companies who were chosen should be extremely proud, the competition was difficult.”
Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of startups relative to their sector peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the greatest business opportunities from around the world.
“This is a huge honor for us and shows off the hard work and quality of the entire Qoof team”, says Richard Kligman, Qoof’s Founder. “While this reward recognizes the team and the powerful technology behind our platform, the real reward for us is the ROI we are bringing our clients.” 
“Video Commerce is an arrow that has just been shot in the air”, states Jonathan Stefansky, Qoof’s CEO. “2010 will be a break out year for Video Commerce and Qoof has been the leading video commerce platform since we coined the term back in 2006. We look forward to releasing new technologies in the coming months which will continue our fast paced growth.
About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high-technology innovators, venture investors, and business decision-makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s view of the global innovation ecosystem, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy.
For more information contact Anam Alpenia at: aalpenia@redherring.com
About Qoof Ltd.
Qoof is revolutionizing the way companies use video, transforming a branding tool into a fully interactive commerce experience. They are taking the world of rich media advertising, to the next level. Qoof’s unique platform and technology merges video and commerce with analytical reporting and multivariate testing to optimize performance driving higher click throughs and conversions. Given the dominant role that video will play in the future of web advertising, Qoof is well positioned to head that transformation with its industry leading solution.
For more information visit us at http://qoof.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/qoof
Thinking outside of the Box
Posted by: | CommentsIt drives me crazy when I see businesses in Israel conduct business like everyone else. Meaning just doing what everyone else is doing. There is a severe lack of creativity and of “metooisms”. What’s meetooisms? Metooisms is creating a business like someone else because they are already doing it. I was thinking about this rescently when I heard that yet another candy store is opening up in Bet Shemesh.
Now I wish the owners success, but do we really need a new candy store? There is already two of them in Ramat Bet Shemesh and a big one in the industrial area. So does that mean they can’t succeed? Of course not, they can succeed if they decide to think out of the box! Make themselves stand out. Be different!
One idea I had is to be in touch with all the schools in the neighborhood and offer big lollipops with a ribbon around it for teachers to give out to kids who learn the best each week or for when finishing a book of the Torah or many other reasons. Or even smaller treats to hand out. Just make sure that each ribbon has the name of your store and these 2 words “10% Off”.
Now you will stick out! Now you are creating incentives for kids to do well and the schools/teachers are happy with the free gift to give out and you get parents that now have two good reasons to come into your store. The first is because they feel appreciation for the free gift and second because they now have a 10% off coupon to use.
So will the new store do this? Unfortunately I doubt it. It’s hard to break out of the box of Metooisims.
First I need to say thanks to Avi Fine for sending this my way. Have you ever watched a video that just made you throw your hands up and say “I Give Up” or “You Win”. I am an entrepreneur and I love coming up with great ideas and seeing them come to fruition and I have lots of great ideas, but then I watched this video and said to myself why am I even bothering. This guy is the future. I told Avi that Micosoft or the like should buy him for $25 million a year and that would probably be a bargain. Watch this video, but don’t give up, get inspired!
Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Israpreneur
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Today marks the one year anniversary to the very first post on this blog! When I first launched this blog the goal was to become a sort of forum where english speaking entrepreneurs can come together and give advice and help each other out because of the current economic situation. If you read the very first post you will see that I was hoping to have a lot of participation and to have many people writing articles and to share their wealth of knowledge. What actually ended up happenning is that 99% of the posts are written by me and just a tiny fraction by Dov Gordon and others.
The Good news is is that in just a year we have seen some nice growth in terms of subscribers to the blog as well as monthly readers and this continues to grow.
The fact that we don’t have more people writing articles for this blog is mainly my fault since I haven’t been actively going after other writers, but in the next 12 months I would love to see this blog grow from just me abnd Dov to 6-8 writers. So if you have something you feel would add to our readers then please send me an email at editor@israpreneur.com and I would love to post it! And who knows, maybe you will become a weekly writer for us.
Happy Chanukah and Happy Anniversary!
Nachum Kligman
Not enough sufganiot (donut) bakers in Israel is reading Israpreneur
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Last year I wrote a chanukah complaint about the lack of donuts that had some serious cream inside and although there are more and new flavors coming out every year, there is still a lack of what I call the 80/20 donut rule and that is that 80% of the donut should be filling and 20% should be dough.
You can read my thoughts on this from last year here: http://israpreneur.com/i-want-my-custard-doughnut-filled-with-cream/
Now it could be that I didn’t get a chance to check out all the bakeries this year and my dream donut may still be available. If it is, can you please let me know in the comments? Also let me know if you have found the “perfect donut” and where you can get it and why.
To all my readers I want to wish you a Happy Chanukah!
Why I won’t be running tomorrow to buy an iPhone when it finally hits Israel
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Those that know me (ahem… My Wife) knows that I love gadgets. It’s true and it is not so painful to admit it. And for the last 3 years every technology blog and magazine has been talking about the iPhone and how great it is and how it’s a game changer (which it is) etc.. I never got one as I don’t believe in jail breaking it since I always feel you will lose out on some aspects and you can never get proper support. So I was very excited a few months ago when it was first reported that the iPhone will finally be coming to Israel.
And now, that day has finally arrived. Tonight at 12:01am or tomorrow morning if you are with Orange you will be able to buy the iPhone in all its glory here in Israel.
But I won’t be running out to get one and I am still unsure if I will get one at all as I have my eye on another phone which I will mention below.
Here are a few of the reasons why:
- Using an Apple product on an Orange network does not sit well with me (ok, that was a very bad joke)
- The Hype: The hype around the product I have no problem with as it is being done around the world and everyone knows that the iPhone is one of the best smartphones, if not the best smartphone on the market today. My problem is also not with the hype and marketing in Israel. My problem is with all the hype without knowing exactly how much it is going to cost, how long you need to be locked into a contract for, what your monthly data plans are going to cost etc. The big companies are all holding back pricing hoping to get the first 240,000 suckers to purchase the phone w/o caring what the costs will be. The fear of missing out on getting one and being one of the first to get one will be too strong for many people and many will be over paying for something they can not afford.
- The pricing: As above we don’t know what the pricing will be, but from what the rumor mill is saying it will cost 800NIS upfront and then 150nis/month for x amount of months plus the need to pay for data depending on how much you will use it. So even though they are selling you a product that seems to be discounted 2000nis, in the end if it is a three year plan you will have ended up paying 6200 NIS plus your data plan. That’s a lot of money to be stuck with one phone for.
- Being Stuck: As above you will be stuck with this iPhone for probably three years yet there will be a new iPhone coming out with even better and more amazing features way before that. As well as other great phones and operating systems that finally are catching up to Apple in terms of look and feel. Are you going to be able to last 3 years with the same phone? I start to get jittery after about 6 months.
- Will it Blend: Ok, I don’t really care if it will blend in a blender, but I do care about how well will it work here in Israel and if all the features work well. Does the GPS work properly? Is the keyboard both in English and Hebrew? Does the Visual Voice mail work well or at all? How is the phone call quality? What bugs will there be that will need ironing out?
- According to this article we won’t have access to iTunes http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1110801.html
- I have found a better phone that comes unlocked that is giving iPhone a run for it’s money. That phone is the HTC HD2. You can watch a video review of the phone here: http://smartphones.tv/category/htc/htchd2/ You can do your research, but this phone which runs on Windows Mobile 6.5 and has a larger screen then the iPhone is for me the phone to get. It will cost you a one time fee of about $800 and is really a great phone. The one thing that is holding me back is that I don’t want to get stuck with Windows Mobile 6.5 when Windows Mobile 7.0 should be coming out in 2010 and is suppose to be much better. I am just waiting for confirmation that the phone will be upgradeable.
But before I make a final decision I want to wait for feedback for the iPhone here in Israel and see if there are apps available or apps being developed that makes it a better phone to have here. If people are really raving over it and I can wait till the prices drop a bit or find out that they are not as expensive as I think they will be and there are no other hidden costs, then I may still get one. Time will tell.
So what are you going to do? Please comment and let me know if you will be standing online tomorrow and if you do get one let me know as I would love to share your thoughts with our readers.
Need 4 seconds of your time please
Posted by: | CommentsHey everyone,
I need just 4 seconds of your time please.
Qoof, my company, is in a contest and we need as many votes as we can get.
Please click on this link and then push the arrow next to our name to vote for us. That’s it!
http://awards.techaviv.com/items/qoof
(you can only vote once per ip address)
I would greatly appreciate it if you can pass this on to anyone else you know that would not mind helping us out. Thanks!!
This is an image of where we need you to click from the link
