Tips from Israel: How mums built top start-ups while on maternity leave

From leading agricultural technologies to more traditional innovation, a journey through Israel’s diversified tech industry will convince you that no two Israeli entrepreneurs are alike.

Many of the anti-virus and firewall protection services that are used today were improved upon with Israeli technologies. The dual processors that we use in our portable laptop computers, tablets and smart phones are based on the Israeli invention of the first microprocessor for Intel.

The start-up nation with a focal point in Tel Aviv has succeeded in becoming a world-class technology development centre and a leading exporter of innovation.

During a recent Digital-Life Design (DLD) Tel Aviv Innovation Festival, which was held in September, leading startup founders from 31 different countries including Kenya met with Israeli companies, startups, scientists, investors and designers.

Ms Alice Mueni, head of product at totohealth, a social enterprise which aims at improving maternal health and reducing child mortality via mobile phones attended the innovation festival.

The annual festival, a global gathering of innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world celebrated women entrepreneurs in the innovation festival.

According to Tel Aviv-Yafo mayor, Mr Ron Huldai, the city’s ecosystem is a leader in gender equality and has been ranked the top hub for women entrepreneurs outside the United States.

shaping the future

He says increasing number of foreign immigrants make their way to Israel to establish their own start-ups. “Due to Israel’s small and manageable ecosystem, with tax benefits for foreigners that set up shop in the country, the number of foreign-founded start-ups in Israel is on the rise,” he says.

The Compass report indicates that Tel Aviv has 20 per cent women founders in startups, while the European average is 17 per cent.

The city has a growing number of programs and accelerators such as Campus for mums, a baby-friendly start-up school for new moms, run by Google in partnership with Yazamiyot, a networking group for Israeli women entrepreneurs.

In the campus, women on maternity leave are given the opportunity to engage in their own entrepreneurial endeavors while taking care of their little ones in the program.

Prof Yossi Matias, Google Vice President, engineering and executive lead founder of Google campus in Tel Aviv, a novel technology hub for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, says the campus is a global network of spaces where big ideas are shaping the future.

“The first course ended in June 2013. We arranged mattresses, bean bags and diaper-changing facilities so that the moms could take care of their young ones during the sessions. Four babies were born during the course and one new mum returned to the program less than a week after giving birth,” says Matias.

In the campus, new mothers go through nine sessions led by successful entrepreneurs, investors, technology experts among others. The sessions cover personal success stories, finance, legal and presentation skills, and tech knowledge such as cloud computing.

Anna Lifshits-Agmon, a mother of three says with her 20-years in the technological world, she wanted to become a founder of a start-up in Tel Aviv. “I have worked in the technological world for two decades. When I gave birth to my first born, balancing between motherhood and work was challenging. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, hence I quit my job while I was six months pregnant and joined campus for mums where I founded my start up while on maternity leave,” she explains.

Ms Lifshit is the co-founder of Trailvest, a messaging application that connects people and can be downloaded in Google play store. She says: “Facing the uncertainty and making good decisions when you do not know if they will work was a challenge. I presented my idea to investors who liked it and invested to develop the project.”

Ruth Polacheck, 29, the chief executive officer and founder of FinCheck, a new venture with a focus on artificial intelligence in Israel is also the founder of she codes, a community of Israel female software developers, with hundreds of monthly activities across Israel in tech companies and universities.

Ms Polachek says she set the goal for she codes to have 50 per cent female software developers in the tech industry within a decade. “With over 10,000 participants within three years, ‘she codes’ is on its way to achieve this goal. Entrepreneurial culture in Israel encourages ideas to emerge hence increasing multinational presence seeking technology, innovation and development,” she explains.

Supportive government

Ms Polachek who was named as one of Israel’s 100 most influential persons in Israeli tech industry notes that the women meet every week for free training on entrepreneurship.

The co-chair of DLD Innovation Festival Dr Yossi Vardi, one of the Israel’s first entrepreneurs notes that the ecosystem in the country inspire start-ups. He explains: “In Israel, people are eager to take a chance and everyone is ready to support another. We have a supportive government and people know one another in the country and what they are doing. This makes it easy to find an incubator and to approach the government and the chief scientist.”

He adds, “Political beliefs are not a topic in this country. We support each other in spite of our political differences. The country’s innovation authority is centralised and there are different funding skills. When a project fails to generate revenue, the funds become grants but when it succeeds, revenues will be paid to the innovation authority in return without any interest.”

However, he says before they are funded, companies and researchers apply to the authority where they are evaluated after which the money is transferred to the projects.

Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy and Industry and the chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority Mr Avi Hasson notes that the authority assists in the development of technology in Israel as a means of fostering economic growth and encouraging technological innovation.

“The authority also encourages entrepreneurship, leveraging Israel’s scientific potential, enhancing the knowledge base of industry in Israel and stimulating collaboration both nationally and internationally. A variety of ongoing support programs developed and offered by Israel Innovation Authority play a major role in enabling Israel to be a notable hub of innovation and tech entrepreneurship,” he explains.