Launch Night 2014
A celebration of the Nazareth hi-tech ecosystem
Greetings from PresenTense Israel is known as the Start-up Nation, and it has earned this recognition based on the incredible success of our technology sector. Yet this success has not been spread evenly amongst the different population groups across the country, nor has the entrepreneurial spirit been applied in a way that results in local economic development or innovative solutions to society’s core problems. We are very proud of all the entrepreneurs in the nazTech Accelerator who are creating a future for a “Groundup Nation” – where entrepreneurship is promoted in the service of society. The entrepreneurs have worked hard, day and night, to bring creative solutions to real problems, and we wish them well in their journey. We at PresenTense Israel welcome you to our global alumni community and invite you to stay in touch with our team and volunteer network (and even join it!) – we are here to help you succeed. Thank you to all our hardworking professionals and volunteer mentors, coaches and steering committee members – and to our partners Cisco and the Nazareth Business Incubator Center. Looking forward to hearing great things from all of you in the future, Guy Spigelman CEO PresenTense Israel
Partners’ Welcome Dear Entrepreneurs,
Dear Friends,
Congratulations on your successful completion of
Over the past few months, we have watched the amazing transformation you have all made during your participation in the nazTech Accelerator. On behalf of the steering committee as well as Cisco, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you for all that you have achieved. As graduates of the program, your journey has only begun, and I know the road ahead will not be easy. The key is to believe in what you do and to always remember that failures will prepare you for success. Be proud of yourselves as pioneers and role models for your communities and for generations to come.
the nazTech Accelerator. As graduates of the inaugural cohort, you have the responsibility to serve as an example for others from minority sectors, to show them the possibilities and opportunities that await them as future entrepreneurs. You have the power to become leaders in your field of technology solutions and to bring that success into your communities. You are designed for greatness and I wish you luck on your journey. Sami Lahyani Head of the Economic Development Department at the Authority for Economic Development of Minorities, Prime Minister’s Office
Gai Hetzroni Ma’antech Director; Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, Cisco
NBIC Welcome Dear Entrepreneurs, Our main goal at MATI Nazareth and the NBIC is to establish a sustainable ecosystem that offers you all the elements for success you need throughout your journey. We believe that the nazTech Accelerator has added real value to the efforts invested to achieve this goal. You entrepreneurs are our “pioneers,� and we are confident that you will help lift up our community to new levels of success and prosperity. I would like to thank you all for a unique, enjoyable and fruitful experience and wish you all the best on your individual journey to success. And, thank you to all our partners, steering committee members, mentors, coaches, consultants, and others for volunteering their time, sharing fascinating insights and inspirational stories, and helping to frame the NBIC and nazTech as a true center of the Arab innovation sector.
Fadi Swidan Director, Nazareth Business Incubator Center
Launch Book Key VENTURE STAGES
Part of the nazTech experience is having a diverse cohort of entrepreneurs who are at varying stages of their venture development. We believe having this type of diversity leads to greater creativity and enriched learning. Idea Stage
Using PresenTense tools and methodologies, fellows identify communal and social problems, refine their visions and explore potential solutions by creating business models and prototypes.
Early Stage
Fellows secure initial stakeholders, revise draft budgets and operations plans and work to secure funding with a goal of launching within one year.
Growth Stage
Fellows secure enhanced funding, evaluate earlier prototypes and business models, and look to replicate their ventures in untapped markets.
Advanced Stage
With fully operational ventures, fellows focus on developing new partnerships and market opportunities that expand and strengthen their core mission. 2014 PresenTenseLA Fellows
Meet the Fellows
2014 nazTech staff and fellows.
Advanced
Yafita
Yafita is a content-based social network for aggregating and broadcasting Arabic content. Its most popular section is trending videos and stories from around the Arab world. Through its website and mobile application, content can be browsed by interest and/or based on location. Content is generated from social media, user generated content, and content providers. It is categorized based on interest and location, and rated based on popularity. Yafita is responsive and is SEO and SCO optimized.
yafita.com | facebook.com/yafitacom Bader Mansour has worked as an IT Analyst and Consultant for different companies in Israel, Silicon Valley and Boston. In 1999 he founded NAZDAQ, a software company that provides Output Management and Document Management solutions for ERP customers around the world. In 2012, he founded Yafita, a content-based social network for the Arab world. Bader holds a B.Sc in computer science and an MBA from the Technion. Q: Where do you hope your venture will be in a year? A: Yafita hopes to reach 20 million + unique users in 2014 and to release a mobile application.
Optima Design Automation Ltd. Optima Design Automation is a new electronic design automation startup working on fully resolving the soft-errors reliability problem in modern electronic chips by automating all the needed solutions. Our first product, CosmicASICs™, is an EDA software that helps chip designers resolve soft-errors and allow them to increase chip reliability to required levels while keeping silicon and power budgets under control.
optima-da.com
Jamil R. Mazzawi has over 20 years of experience in the semiconductors and EDA industries. He worked both at start-ups and big corporations, in Israel and in the US. His experience is diverse, including ASIC design, ASIC dynamic verification, ASIC formal verification, application engineering, and business positions in sales, business development and product definitions. Q: What part of the nazTech Accelerator has had the biggest impact on you or your venture? A: Connections, personal mentorship, coaching, and exposure to the steering committee members.
Early
Early
MobilityInsight MobilityInsight’s vision is to support government authorities’ realtime and long term decision making by supplying detailed full scale mobility data information about all transportation modes of a city, at a fraction of the cost of other competitive technology in the market. MobilityInsight is developing a server-side analytics engine and a low cost network of sensors that learns mobility phenomena based on RF signals using the Internet of Things, video analytics and other sensing technologies.
mobilityInsight.net Saleem Nimre has 20 years of experience in software development of geo-related algorithms of all types of traffic data, including crowdsourced, cellular and sensor-based. He is currently leading the MobilityInsight team, company and product development. He participated as leading software developer in European projects and research projects under the Office of the Israeli Chief Scientist. Saleem holds a B.Sc and M.Sc in geo-information engineering from the Technion. Q: What inspired you to launch the venture? A: The annoying traffic situation in cities, including small cities like Nazareth and larger cities with tens of millions of people.
Nutrinfomics Nutrinfomics: Epigenetic research suggests that the majority of illnesses are preventable. In particular, food interacts with and affects the expression of genes that could expose us to diseases. But, if we align our food and lifestyle choices to our genes, we can avoid this. Through analysis of a person’s lifestyle and health questionnaire, daily work schedule, and epigenetic blood test results, the Nutrinfomics system will output an individualized plan for lifestyle changes, empowering people to take simple steps to improve their quality of life.
facebook.com/Nutrinfomics.DrFirasSwidan Dr. Firas Swidan is an innovator and entrepreneur. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Mathematics from the Technion’s Excellence Program, has a PhD in Computer Science and Computational Biology from the Technion, and completed a post-doc at the Janelia Farm Research Campus of HHMI. His professional experience includes working in corporations, including Intel, and in start-ups such as Biomatters. Q: Where do you hope your venture will be in a year? A: Currently, we have over 100 clients. Our goal is to reach 500 clients and to launch the first version of an app.
Early
Early
Beam Riders Beam Riders is an innovative media and technology venture dedicated to helping children learn, lead and have fun, using creative and beautiful storytelling on smartphones and tablets. Each game or app has a detailed curriculum inspired by Middle East culture, and tools developed by world leading experts, while engaging parents in the educational process.
beam-riders.com | facebook.com/BeamRiders Jafar Sabbah is a passionate technology and social entrepreneur with over 20 years of entrepreneurial, managerial and legal experience. He has an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management - UK and received a Chevening Scholarship from the British Council, and also has a law degree. In addition, he was a Fellow at the Aspen Institute Middle East Leadership Initiative. Jafar has already launched a few successful apps in Apple’s App Store with themes on leadership. Q: Where do you hope your venture will be in a year? A: We hope to secure the first round of funding and expand the team to 10 members, launching a series of apps, on average two per month. Q: What change do you hope to make? A: To raise awareness to kids, parents and educators that soft skills can be acquired and learned, and that apps and games are the perfect medium to achieve that.
MEC Mobile Emergency Communication (MEC) is a generic, customizable communications platform for implantable and wearable medical devices. MEC enables smartphones to act as middleware that can monitor a medical device, share that device’s information with a patient via apps or electronic devices and store important medical device data in the cloud. This medical data can easily be automatically transmitted to or shared with a person’s doctor or insurance company, and supports on-demand aid or alerts.
mec-systems.net Faris Jahshan has an M.Sc. in Mapping and Geo-information from the Technion, a dual B.A. in Computer Science, and Mapping and Geoinformation. He has more than 9 years of professional experience in R&D, information technology, geomatics, and project management. Q: What change do you hope to make? A: We hope to change how healthcare services and data are provided to users, and also establish channels for vendors of medical devices to stream patients’ data, giving healthcare providers a data center to connect with their customers and assure interoperability.
Idea
Early
Fostuq Fostuq is an Arab social network, that enables its members to search and connect with their friends in the Arab nation. Fostuq connects people based on cultural and common interests, and also matches users with potential friends who are outside their social circle.
Zuhear Butto is a software developer. He is a co-founder of Ahlannet Ltd, an internet advertising, interactive services, and solutions company. He has over 10 years of professional experience in software development and system administration. Zuhear also was Assistant Systems Administrator at Informatika LTD, and has MCSE certification from Microsoft.
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Nizar Butto is a graphic designer and has a degree from WIZO College in Haifa. Nizar began his career as a graphic designer for newspapers and magazines and later worked at McCann Erickson in Tel Aviv. He specializes in marketing, advertising, business management, selfdevelopment. Nizar is a co-founder of Ahlannet Ltd.
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Q: What inspired you to launch this venture? A: Two years ago, the Arab Spring gave half the Arab world the opportunity to connect with one another and with the internet, in one language. However, there is a significant lack of online content which can connect the Arab world based on cultural needs. Q: What is the biggest challenge your venture faces? A: Ensuring that the content we create and share will actually help connect the 22 countries of the Arab world, which share a common language but have very diverse social and cultural needs. Q: What part of the nazTech Accelerator had the greatest impact on you or your venture? A: The professional staff and quality content in the curriculum made us really focus on developing the venture so that we could pitch it in an effective way.
Steering Committee nazTech actively involves volunteers who contribute their talents, experience and passion for entrepreneurship to the program’s success. Steering Committee members are the “leaders” of the program. They are instrumental in selecting participants, and support them during the program through mentorship, advice and connections. Steering Committee members also help run program events.
2014 Steering Committee: Waleed Afifi, CEO of Nateev Express - Afifi Group Hanan Brand, Associate at JVP Rajaa Bsharat-Nassrallah, Founder of Beffect Oded Caspi, Managing Partner at Cyrus Angel Fund Shmuel Chafets, Venture Partner at Giza Venture Capital Itzik Frid, CEO and Managing Partner of Takwin Labs Gai Hetzroni, Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility at Cisco Irit Israeli-Kahana, Managing partner at AfterDox
Muhamad Kasum, CEO of MATI Nazareth Sami Lahyani, Head of the Economic Development department at Prime Minister’s Office Gadi Mazor, General Partner and CTO at OurCrowd Lior Yekoutieli, Developer Experience at Nokia Israel Reem Younis, Co-founder at Alpha Omega Ltd. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director at BIRD Foundation
Mentors Each entrepreneur is matched with one or more mentors: experienced professionals who have expertise in an area specifically related to the entrepreneursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ventures. Mentors support the entrepreneurs through strategic consulting, creating networking opportunities and serving as role models. Mentors meet with mentees once a month, for an average of one and a half hours.
2014 Mentors: Uri Adoni, Partner at JVP Chaim Bendelac, Founder and the Israeli CEO of Infogear Itzik Frid, CEO and Managing Partner of Takwin Labs Eytan Galai, Managing Director, APAC & EEMEA at Outbrain Sefi Gal Ezer, CEO of Malam
Tareq Maayah, CEO of EXALT Technologies Ltd. Eran Rom, GM and Director of Engineering at Cisco Jonathan Sive, CEO of Ya Digital Business Consulting Reuven Sherwin, VP Product at Wix.com Rani Wellingstein, VP, Engineering at Cisco
Coaches Coaches are young professionals with industry-specific experience, an exemplary skill set, or general knowledge with an inquisitive and creative approach to problem solving. They work with the entrepreneurs on deliverables and serve as a sounding board throughout the program. Coaches commit to one weekly meeting with their entrepreneurs over the five months to work on Venture Milestones and other general strategy and work-planning questions. 2014 Coaches: Yoah Bar-David, Co-founder of Scoompa Hanan Brand, Associate at JVP Eran Dukas, Technology Manager of LGâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Israel research lab Oded Caspi, Managing Partner at Cyrus Angel Fund Avi Gordon, VR Regulatory Affairs at TheraCoat Ltd. Kobi Mor, COO at Spiral Solutions Gal Salamon, Venture Partner with Pitango and the Founder and Chairman of Discretix Avihay Weiss, Managing Director Private Equity at Lighthouse Financial Solutions LTD Benny Yehezel, Executive Vice President of Risco Group
Consultants The nazTech Accelerator recruits a team of volunteer consultants to provide specific, targeted advice to the entrepreneurs, assisting them in the areas of business development, law, graphic design, programming, user interface, marketing, and accounting. Consultants volunteer their time over the course of the program, especially in the lead up to launch night.
2014 Consultants: Hasan Abu Shally, UI\UX expert Adib Awaad, marketing consultant Laura Herschlag, marketing and advertising, Znook Strategic Consulting Maissa Shamshoum, CFO, CPA, accounting and financial advisor Etai Shay, attorney at law, partner at GKH Mahmoud Simri, Android expert Abed Tamesh, graphic designer, ug-studio Michel Toama, accountant and financial consultant Rani Wellingstein, founder and former CEO of Intucell; VP of engineering at Cisco
Partners
Nazareth Business Incubator Center (NBIC) offers a soft entrance to the world of entrepreneurship; assists entrepreneurs in starting their businesses by offering a unique benefits package: office space, telecommunications needs, business consulting, links to financing channels, networking, courses, training and forums related to entrepreneurship. NBICâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision is to lead social-economic development in the Arab sector, seeking diversity of business segments and aiming to influence the Arab sectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of entrepreneurship and risk taking.
Cisco has shaped the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners and has become the worldwide leader in networking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Partners
Israel has become known as the “Start-up Nation;” however, only 15% of the population actually benefits from Israel’s hi-tech revolution. PresenTense Israel believes that the power of innovation should be ignited across Israel so that 100% of the population can enjoy its rewards. We call it building the “Ground-up Nation.” PresenTense Israel catalyzes community-based entrepreneurship through its Venture Accelerators, PTSchool Seminars, and Jerusalem Hub, to grow local economies, enrich community life, and solve critical issues facing Israeli society.
MATI Nazareth offers consulting, financing channels, business plan development, courses and training, conferences and more to small/medium businesses. MATI Nazareth has implemented a wide range of services for business development and economic projects, by a professional team of consultants and experts familiar with the development of small and medium businesses.
nazTech entrepreneurs work on their program milestones.
nazTech is currently one of 17 PresenTense Accelerators in 14 cities around the world in 2014.
This network spans across three continents. 5 COUNTRIES
UNITED STATES
ISRAEL
RUSSIA
CANADA
LATVIA
17 Communities
Boston Chicago Los angeles NYC (x2) Philadelphia Washington DC
Jerusalem (x3) Raanana Nazareth Haifa
Moscow St. Petersburg
TORONTO
RIGA
nazTech participants are part of an international network of 176 entrepreneurs working on 155 ventures in the following areas this year:
Environment 6%
The first PresenTense Accelerator was launched in 2007. Since then:
Women 2%
Tech 9%
Community Building 24%
579 ventures 630 Fellows
Arts 11%
Venture Topic Areas
3,000+ volunteers 500,000+ people impacted globally
Other 12% Social Action 13%
Education 17%
Rana Shoufany, Program Coordinator Bar Pereg, Lead Trainer Guy Spigelman, Program Director Fadi Swidan, Program Organizer Ahmad Sheikh Muhammad, Program Support For more info contact Rana Shoufany ranas@matinazareth.org | O: 04.6106600 | F: 04.6106601 Nazareth Business Incubator Center Al-bishara 3, P.O.B 50667 Nazareth 16164 facebook.com/NBICNazTech | naztech.co.il