As if from the best seller Startup Nation, I arrived in Israel. It was a short trip organized by Innpulsa that sought to bring the Colombian entrepreneurial ecosystem closer to that of this nation, where the abundance of entrepreneurships, and it is worth saying, successful, leaves the most incredulous absorbed, attracting the eyes of the entire world, in this economic race.
“Representing the country is too much pressure”, I thought at the time of being chosen with ITA by Innpulsa, there are too many challenges and expectations that go deep, a difficult weight to carry. But this was not the time to say no or cower, life as it comes, I remembered. It was not the first time that I faced the expectant gaze of people, so I had more “callo”, more resilience. I think the selection process was simple, at least in the formal requirements, I started with an application that didn’t take me more than 5 minutes and ended with an interview of 3, and yes, I’m not exaggerating, it didn’t last longer. I would not want to confuse what I say with the fact that the process was easy, because the complexity is hidden in ourselves. It took me 5 minutes, because I always have the ITA information at hand, clear and complete, for those who are not so organized in these matters, it could take days or weeks, just think of the typical item where you describe the financial situation and provide data precise of this: the possible chaos. The interview was in English, so you still had to be ready, with a deck built for the allotted time and a practiced pitch.
My first impressions
I was in Israel. The long trip had been accompanied by a huge nap and several movies, he arrived motivated. The Ben Gurion International Airport was the first hello I received, its architecture breathed Israel, inspired by the architecture so typical of Jerusalem, it felt magical. There I met those who would later become good friends, a group of entrepreneurs from various sectors who, like me, had a great story behind them on the road to building a company. On the way to the hotel I found the view very entertaining, I think it’s something we all do: see the country for the first time. I looked at the obvious, discovering its streets, buildings, the weather, of course, I was anxious to start at once.
Here we go!
We start high. With a dinner organized with the Colombian ambassador Margarita Manjarréz we received our first night, to the rhythm of an informal chat, of laughter, of course, of presentations, I would say that of many pitches of the other entrepreneurs and of course, on my part, who out of habit or as a simple way to explain what we do, we automatically end up activating it.
The food, wow. I have my own ranking of favorite foods, a habit acquired as a child, which did not go away with the turbulence of how boring growing up can be; and as you can imagine by the emotion and now the hunger that has awakened me while I write, I found a new number one in my life -sorry Mexican food, you were making me very fat-.
The first day after our arrival it started at 8 AM, very early if you add a time change of 8 hours, we were destroyed, and the worst, rather, the best, we did not start smoothly, a routine that would be maintained throughout the time of our stay. The purpose was not to come for sightseeing, despite the excessive kindness of our tour guide who, in a huge effort, organized herself to teach us as much as she could, on those short trips that appeared only from meeting to meeting. And boy, did we have meetings, we had breakfast in one meeting, while we had lunch we had another meeting, and we had dinner in the middle of another. Santiago Acosta (Innpulsa office representative in Israel), if you read this, I must confess that you almost killed me. Days that went even until 11 pm, without any respite, there was no room for distractions. Personally, I loved that, I wish we all had that energy to take advantage of each place, without losing vision and focus.
Don’t stop
I think we reached about 50 meetings in 7 days (I told you the pace was crazy), and I rate all of them with 5 stars, however, there are some that simply moved me everything, except my heart that stopped several times because of the level that they had.
The Simón Peres Center for Peace and Innovation welcomed us with a huge sign that read: Dream Big, as a clear allusion to the entrepreneurial spirit of the people of Israel, that Chutzpah, or in our words: that perrenque, that cane, that “berraquera ”, (the latter in quotation marks due to the various connotations it has) that characterizes those who truly want to change the world. This innovation center exposes the country’s ecosystem in the midst of technology, art and science, in a fortunate approach that more than informing, is projected to inspire. USBs, autonomous people detection systems (Mobileye), movement recognition systems (Xbox kinect), Waze, the drip irrigation system, and even the Cherry tomato. It seems that everything is invented here. How is it that a town of just over 9 million inhabitants in an area of about 20,000 km2, desert, arid, with no fresh water other than a small Sea of Galilee that is only sea in name, with short rains only once once a year, and also founded 74 years ago (since 1948), was it able to achieve all this? Again, the answer they have boils down to the Chutzpah.
The curse of abundance and the blessing of scarcity. The people of Israel came to this conclusion long after they had reached the promised land. Remember that we are in holy land, that here Moses guided the people of God on a long walk that lasted 40 years in the promise of finding green valleys where everything germinated, cows loaded with milk, honey in abundance…, arriving at a place full of challenges, and yes, the key word is that, of challenges. They understood that the promised land had to be tilled, that it had to be built hand in hand with everyone, that its scarcity would be its greatest blessing. Today, in the absence of fresh water, they transform salt water, that of the Mediterranean Sea, into drinking water, reaching the point of going from being a nation condemned to extinction due to lack of resources, to which today, they have the luxury of exporting water, and yes, I’m not mistaken, they distribute water in large quantities to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. I think about how our countries, kissed by the abundance of natural resources, seem to live a sentence that has not allowed us to advance in the way we should, to be less awake to that something (Chutzpah), which forces us to be more creative, brave and in the case of this town, open to giving more.
The food, wow. I have my own ranking of favorite foods, a habit acquired as a child, which did not go away with the turbulence of how boring growing up can be; and as you can imagine by the emotion and now the hunger that has awakened me while I write, I found a new number one in my life -sorry Mexican food, you were making me very fat-.
The first day after our arrival it started at 8 AM, very early if you add a time change of 8 hours, we were destroyed, and the worst, rather, the best, we did not start smoothly, a routine that would be maintained throughout the time of our stay. The purpose was not to come for sightseeing, despite the excessive kindness of our tour guide who, in a huge effort, organized herself to teach us as much as she could, on those short trips that appeared only from meeting to meeting. And boy, did we have meetings, we had breakfast in one meeting, while we had lunch we had another meeting, and we had dinner in the middle of another. Santiago Acosta (Innpulsa office representative in Israel), if you read this, I must confess that you almost killed me. Days that went even until 11 pm, without any respite, there was no room for distractions. Personally, I loved that, I wish we all had that energy to take advantage of each place, without losing vision and focus.
Mobileye
15.3 billion dollars was the success of this Israeli startup: nothing more to say. We were fortunate to have dinner with Mois Navon, Mobileye’s chief founder engieneer. Having dinner with him, discovering his simplicity, even seeing his PowerPoint presentation, made me think about what really matters when we work in a startup, I think that many of us focus so much on appearing that we forget to be, to be authentic, to have a good idea, to really work on it, and it is no secret that in this industry, the vanity in calling oneself CEO, in raising capital, in having the best design team, takes us away from what is important: having a good product and a better relationship with our user-clients.
Mobileye started from a simple idea, a camera that could detect objects in 3 dimensions, a concept that would lead them to create a chip capable of recognizing objects in order to be incorporated into vehicles. Today this system allows that, if a pedestrian appears suddenly, the vehicle can stop autonomously, a system that we all know and that, today, almost all vehicles integrate. How many lives will they have saved? I think that must have been his north start metric.
UBQ
Honestly, this startup does magic, and believe me I still don’t understand it. Imagine that a company invents a technology capable of solving almost all the problems we have in the world caused by waste: plastics, organic waste, the almost zero capacity to separate and recycle in the world (including developed countries), everything, that solves everything. Well, they made it. With a unique material created from a patented industrial process and certified by all the certifiers in the world (that’s how powerful it is), Ubq appears to solve everything, creating hope and great faith in humanity.
Without carbon dioxide emission (this already had me almost crying in the presentation), it manages to recycle everything, except minerals and metals, without the need to separate (a great world problem), passing everything through its machines, and when I say everything is everything, from the plastic bottle with its lids (today it seems ridiculous that even the lids must be removed for proper recycling), to the paper, and… ready? Down to the chicken bone, all together. They recycle everything without generating a carbon footprint, creating a new material that is as flexible as it is miraculous, which can be used in any industry, from food (McDonald’s Brazil already does it) to construction. Imagine saying goodbye to the big garbage burns, to the same landfills, and goodbye to that idea of launching a big ball of garbage into space that Futurama warned would destroy us a thousand years in the future.
Albert Douer is the Co-Ceo of Ubq, he is Colombian, and keep this name in mind, because in a few years, he would say that he could become one of the most extraordinary people in the world. Without a doubt, he already is.
Tytocare
I think that almost all of us hate going to the doctor, in general, traveling and waiting bore us, in addition, that environment is very depressing and even hostile, there are many bacteria and viruses in the air, and we do know now that they are very real and that we they can kill. However, today we are still forced to go or self-medicate, even trusting the wisdom of our grandparents and even the pharmacy that advises us with the calm of the most experienced doctor. However, THEY ARE NOT DOCTORS, indeed, if we think about it, we will find how irresponsible we are. Personally, I am the expert in combining things when I get sick, from antibiotics, and all kinds of pills, creams, infusions, and even brandy for the flu. Nothing else explains my point better.
Well, Tytocare starts from a simple idea, and that is to have a doctor within a click, and a real doctor, one who really knows what he is doing, and no, it is not a system of video calls with doctors, because the magic includes a kit to have at home, which allows a real consultation, with auscultation, ear examination, temperature measurement, oral cavity, (and I apologize for my lack of medical precision). This kit allows the doctor to resolve the matter effectively without the need to attend a medical unit, at home. Yes or yes, I want this kit in my home, I hope it arrives in my country soon, because it would solve a lot in my life, starting with those annual general medical check-ups that I have been skipping all my life without exception, and that each time the new discomforts They remember them more and more.
United Hatzalah
I finish off with the one that made me tear up, and I’m not exaggerating. United Hatzalah could describe it as the Rappi of ambulances. The concept is simple, an ambulance takes between 40 minutes to an hour and a half +++ to reach the emergency site, a time that often results in tragedy. 40 minutes at best is horror itself. Imagine or remember one of those situations where you needed an ambulance, every minute seemed like years, the desperation, the panic, the pain, the hopelessness, oh my God, it’s ridiculous that United Hatzalah didn’t exist before. With their promise of 3 minutes or less, which recently changed to 90 seconds, they ensure that they reach the emergency site through trained personnel to perform first aid and stabilize while the ambulance can arrive and transport the patient to a medical center. For this, they rely on vehicles strategically distributed throughout the city (I told you it was like Rappi).
In addition, they are a non-profit organization that survives on donations. In truth this is so simple that it bothers that it does not exist in the whole world. They save hundreds of lives a day.
Entrepreneurs, governments, replicate this initiative, it is simply wonderful.
Acknowledgments
As I said at the beginning, there were something like 50 meetings, so many of them were left out of this count, however, their work is incredible: Sheba, Biofeed, AztraZeneca, Orcam… Also thanks to my colleagues at trip, I learned a lot from you. And of course to Helena Castro, from Innpulsa, for so much patience, and for fighting so that all this happens in the country. Of course, thanks again to Santiago, with his leadership, things really happen.