TECH
"I invest in change agents": the entrepreneur who put Jerusalem on the world high-tech map
Eli Wortman immigrated to Jerusalem at the age of 8, and has since fallen in love with the city, and was the first to establish a Jerusalem unicorn, as early as 1999, when he placed the city at the forefront of global high-tech.
Since then, Wortman has been active in the city with a unique venture capital fund and an initiative to educate children in entrepreneurship, from a young age to high school
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Jerusalem Day
Mikey Levy
Monday, 10 May 2021, 06:23
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This time at Tech Talk, a special special for Jerusalem Day with the Jerusalemite Eli Wortman, director of an Israeli venture capital fund, businessman and social high-tech entrepreneur.
But apart from all the honorary degrees, he is also a real "change agent" who works in the capital and puts it on the world high-tech map when the company he founded in 1999 became the first unicorn in Israel.
Today, he works in the city with a venture capital fund, and the Pico Kids program, in the program, educates thousands of Jerusalem youth from first grade to high school, to be agents of change, who will change Israel and the world for the better, through technological tools and entrepreneurial education.
In the podcast, Wortman talks about Jerusalem entrepreneurs, their uniqueness, and the Pico Kids program.
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"The best investment": the "Pico Kids" project that prepares young people for the world of entrepreneurship
"The program started with 12 children, and I said we would continue. This year before the Corona we reached 4,000 children, and we have already had over 7,000 children," Wortman said of the Pico Kids program.
"Recently a boy from the first or second class came, and he went into the new compound, went to the electronics room. And said to me: 'The first time I met this set, it was with you at Pico Kids. Today in the army where I serve (in a secret unit, Wartman added), I 'S running this section. 'It's amazing, so you asked what it does to me, it makes me feel good. I'm smiling. There's no better feedback than a child's smile. "Producer Kids. Because I came all happy and thrilled by the meetings."
"Best Investment" by Wartman, Pico Kids Project (Photo: Maiden Alkobi)
"Once upon a time it was simple. I would tell you: we are middle school, this is the time when the child is most ready for it and open to it. But with success came appetite and today in first grade you can get to Pico Kids, and the program continues until high school, where you can be a Pico ambassador who travels the world and does We work in 60 schools in Jerusalem, all sectors: the most secular in Jerusalem, the most religious, high socio-economic, low. I believe they are all part of this burden. We have 1,000 ultra-Orthodox in the program. "But it's making a real difference. There are 300 companies from the east of the city, they all come with one goal: a better future. We really enable a better future."
How did you get through the corona?
"During the corona we built 400 kits with things that can be done at home, the instructors videotaped dozens of lessons and went through 400 houses, put a kit in each house and said: 'We did not forget you. We will be with Rona Corona every day, every evening we will be with Pico in pajamas or the guide "We or someone from the community talked about passion programs. And we accompanied the children in Corona as well."
The children were not forgotten, even during Corona (Photo: Barak Alkobi)
"I have not met an Israeli who does not know how to solve a feature problem. I am looking for change agents"
"I do not want to get down on other entrepreneurs, but there is depth in Jerusalem entrepreneurs. Emotional, intellectual. I think what happens when you grow up there, is that in the end you are affected by all sorts of factors like the Old City, you see history of the whole world. It gives you perspective. "Maybe an app is not the biggest thing done in life?" "It's something big. I think it's just the environment," Wortman said of the Jerusalem developers. "It's something you feel. There's a lot of complexity in Jerusalem, but it requires excessive creativity, just to live and be sane you have to be creative. You can really go crazy from Jerusalem, from all the pressure there. When I get into a conversation with a Jerusalem entrepreneur, I can feel it. I do not. I say it is not in other places, but it is very noticeable there, "said Wartman about the entrepreneurial character - Jerusalemite.
"So there is no beach, so we probably have to deal with other things during the day. But definitely in my observation, I see and feel over the years that there are many prominent Jerusalemites, in all kinds of creative fields. It is most noticeable and measured in high-tech, but when I take a step back and look, And it turns out that the CEO and founder of Check Point Yerushalmi, the CEO of Waze Yerushalmi, the founder of Cyber-Ark, of Mellanox, is at the end of a lot of prominent people that we do not think Jerusalem is on the high-tech map at all. "
"I am looking for agents of change" (Photo: Omar HaCohen)
How do you explain the success of the Jerusalem entrepreneurs?
"We don't really talk about Jerusalem in terms of the high-tech scene, but suddenly I notice that maybe in half of the prominent, big start-ups, you see Jerusalemites leading them. I met with 100 Jerusalem entrepreneurs, and I asked, 'What's going on? What happened as a child?' "We all want to invest in change agents who want to change reality, and there is a kind of abundance of entrepreneurs in Jerusalem. I spend a lot of time there and I see that it continues to prove itself again and again."
Can you say that you invest more in entrepreneurs and less in technologies?
"I invest in high-tech and the last thing that interests me is technology itself. Well, it's not fair to say the latter, but I'm looking for people who are agents of change. Who have the ability to see reality the way they want to see it. It's a change agent. Someone who sees This is a tool, and I have never met an Israeli who does not know how to solve a technological problem. But instead of focusing on a technological problem, I focus on a change agent, an opportunity, the size of the opportunity, and also how he does it. It's important, but it's not the first component. ", Concluded.
To listen to Spotify click here, to listen to Apple Podcast click here
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