Israel, a country of only 8 million people, only 70 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a permanent state of war since its founding, without any natural resources, creates more startup companies than larger, stable countries not at war, such as Japan, China , South Korea, Canada and Great Britain.

Israel has been known as a startup nation since the days when “startup” in our region was an exotic term used only by a few enthusiasts. Israeli entrepreneurship arose from the struggle for survival, and it continued by developing high technology, establishing universities and research centers, which contributed to the fact that today Israel is the leading country in the world in the number of engineers and scientists per population!

The numbers are impressive. About 5,000 startups operate in Israel, and more than half of them are in the greater Tel Aviv area (2,800). If we keep our focus on Tel Aviv, we will see that it does not in the least give the impression of being in the Middle East. Aside from a lifestyle that jumps out of the typical Middle Eastern city, Tel Aviv excels in technology and entrepreneurship. Namely, Tel Aviv, which is more than 12 times smaller than Zagreb, has as many as 84 startup accelerators, making it the most successful city outside the USA. Furthermore, there are 28 startups on every square kilometer or one startup for every 290 inhabitants! That’s the most startups per capita in the world. Experience has shown that it is almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t already have his own startup, and both young and old talk passionately about starting a business.

What makes Israel so innovative and enterprising, productive and successful? Israel has significant allocations for innovation and development (as much as 4.3% of GDP), but first and foremost are the strong connections of large universities, companies, startup companies, farmers, suppliers and capital investors. Diversity within the country makes the greatest contribution to development. Israel is a mix of people from all over the world with different cultures and knowledge, and everyone has their own story. During the 1990s, there was a lot of immigration from the former Soviet Union, and many engineers came to Israel then. With the influx of engineers came some new technological knowledge that merged with the Israeli culture of entrepreneurship, which resulted in raising the entire ecosystem to a higher level. As for starting a business in Israel, the situation is completely opposite compared to Croatia. Namely, the level of administration required to start a business is reduced to a minimum, the state invests and encourages a lot, and there are as many as 40 different financing methods. They give favorable loans and finance startups with as much as 85% of the investment. And what is most important, according to the testimonies of entrepreneurs, there is no problem if your startup fails, no one will foreclose on you because it is not important for the state to recover the investment because it believes that it has invested in people and in the ecosystem. If the startup succeeds, it returns the invested money, but gradually and without interest. In Israel, for every failed startup, four new ones are created. Managers sometimes prefer to invest in people who started a startup that failed, because that’s how people learn how to endure defeat – startup people from Tel Aviv testify. Young people present their ideas everywhere in the hope of bumping into a local investor. The “elevator pitch”, i.e. a one-minute speech about your idea, was perfected by the Israelis. After the US and Canada, most Israeli companies are listed on NASDAQ, the American electronic stock exchange based in New York. Among the more famous Israeli innovations are the USB memory stick, one of the first ICQ chat systems, the ‘camera-in-a pill’ in medical diagnostics and many others. Among the better-known new innovative companies are WAZE, which develops technology similar to the GPS system, and Better Place, known for electric cars and battery charging stations.

As an example of how dominant and efficient Israel is as an entrepreneurial ecosystem, I would cite one piece of information related to Israeli agriculture. Israel, the Middle East, the desert, droughts, extremely high temperatures, salty soil and – agriculture! How was all of that integrated into a whole, and an extremely productive whole? Namely, regardless of the aforementioned natural disasters, which should have a major impact on agricultural productivity, Israel achieves 80% self-sufficiency in agricultural production! Israel has developed a sustainable agricultural system in which all activities are interconnected and interdependent. Waste generated in one activity is used as raw material in another activity. So, for example, In the desert, he raises fish for commercial production in saltwater pools. After the water is used for fish farming, it is used to irrigate date and olive trees. You can read more about Israeli agriculture at the link .

Indicators of efficiency of agricultural production

The Israeli “miracle”, the embodiment of innovation and entrepreneurship, is analyzed by Israeli authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer in the book “Start-up Nation: The Secret of Israel’s Economic Miracle”.