HOWARD SACKSTEIN
This was the 10th incantation of the Jewish Entrepreneurs Insight, and it hosted two of the most remarkable international entrepreneurs, Shai Agassi and Adam Valkin, brother of the editor of this publication.
Shai Agassi, the international entrepreneurial superstar, spellbound his audience with the narration of his life. The descendant of refugees from Morocco and Iraq, Agassi graduated through the ranks of the Israel Defence Forces. He describes Israel as a process, not a country, which led him to Silicon Valley, rising to the position of CIO of German software behemoth SAP.
At age 40, Hasso Plattner, owner of SAP with strong links to South Africa, offered Shai, the position of CEO of the software giant. At that point, Agassi realised that he had to try and make the world a better place and rather than accepting the offer, he resigned from SAP and returned to Israel to pursue his newest venture, Better Place.
“You can either stop a missile with technology or you can stop the funding that pays for the missile in the first instance.” To do that, you need the oil price to drop to $10 per barrel so, asks Agassi: “What happens if you could run a country without oil?”
When (then) President Shimon Peres heard of the idea, he adopted Agassi and decided to assist him to fundraise $200m for the development of a company that would create electric cars running on interchangeable batteries. Instead of filling up the car, you could merely swap out a new battery at a service station.
The venture was doomed, but Agassi rolled out the project in Israel, Denmark and Tokyo together with Renault Nissan. Infighting among the shareholders ultimately destroyed the $2,5 billion technology unicorn.
Says Agassi: “If you are going to fail, fail big, don’t be mediocre; you have to be bold enough to try.” And therein lies the secret of Israel, no-one is afraid to fail, so no-one is afraid to try. “Success and failure are attached to each other – you cannot be timid.”
Internationally acclaimed venture capitalist, Adam Valkin, has gone from the tennis courts of King David Victory Park to being one of the great mavens of selecting tech companies destined for success. The venture firms he has worked for have invested in companies with household names such as Spotify, Snapchat, Fiverr and Class Pass.
Based in Boston, Valkin describes the three principles driving investment in Silicon Valley:
- Swing for the fences, go for the big win;
- Find entrepreneurs who have a vision of the future with the brilliance, perseverance and determination to drag the rest of us to see that future; and
- Jump on the back of the major trends that are changing the world, such as the rise of mobile, the creation of new distribution platforms and the millenialisation of the workforce.
One of his secrets to success has been to invest in consumer applications that are riding the incredible growth of smartphone proliferation such as games and music. Examples include Spotify (the online music streaming platform) and Vainglory (the popular online game).
Says Valkin: “The new centres of tech are the US, London, Israel, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm and Moscow.” Over recent years, he has made more than 200 visits to these locations looking for the next technology unicorn.
The world has changed and Valkin takes advantage of these new models of software distribution and platforms that sell spare capacity with subscription models. His investment in Class Pass has created a subscription model for spare capacity for yoga and pilates classes. More than 13 million bookings have been made on the platform in the past two years alone.
Agassi enthralled the audience with a challenge to change the world. “If the business cannot change the world,” says Agassi, “it’s not for me.” He is currently looking at a business that uses 3D printers to build body organs.
He gives three tips to his audience, areas where the earthquake has already happened and we are merely waiting for the waves of the tsunami, three areas where major upheavals will disrupt entire industries:
- Cars will drive themselves, which will change many industries;
- The current energy blueprint is disrupted, solar is now cheaper than coal;
- The revolution in healthcare where we will go to a doctor to be fixed long before anything goes wrong.
As the 600 guests spilled out of the auditorium, no-one could forget the remarkable work done by The Chev and how it has managed to tap into a completely untapped demographic within the Jewish community.
Today 40 per cent of the Chev’s R250 million annual budget to support the needy in the community is obtained from people below the age of 40. Agassi spoke about the work of the Chev and how his parents had arrived in Israel as refugees and if it was not for organisations in Israel doing similar work to the Chev, he would never have become the international icon he is today.
