The packed tech conferences, hackathons, and events taking place in the Startup Nation during this challenging time serve as positive indicators of the vitality of the local ecosystem.
Despite the ongoing war, and the uncertainty prevalent in the country, large tech conferences took place in the Tel Aviv area at the end of June focused on AI and cybersecurity. Many side events offered professionals opportunities to learn and network.
Over nine months into the war, professionals (and a few international visitors) are still connecting, building and working to make things happen. The current situation has given people here a sense of even more urgency, and galvanized them to take further action.
The real heroes are the Israeli citizens who are continuing to build their companies, work at their jobs, and still sacrificing by serving in the army reserves and volunteering.
There are many challenges these entrepreneurs face such as the war’s impact on their work, the tough fundraising environment, and the general uncertainty. There are even professionals who have been on reserve duty for almost 200 days.
With that amount of time away from home and work, how can someone fulfill their professional responsibilities?
Or build a startup?
Or even get a job?
Speaking with entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem partners at recent tech conferences offered a glimpse of an ecosystem still pushing forward post-October 7.
In the short term, people understandably have a negative outlook. But in the medium to long term, the groundwork is being laid for the next generation of unicorns and economic success.
Often, it’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the jar.
As the country experiences these collective challenges, conferences and events serve as a way to bring together and connect members of the business community.
Business as usual?
My first takeaway was that on the surface, everything seemed like business as usual.
It is not that the tech community has been insulated; it hasn’t. A disproportionate number of tech workers continue to serve in the reserves, and uncertainty continues to impact the willingness of foreign investors to commit.
The business-as-usual front can be deceiving, as Israelis can only grit their teeth so much, and something is going to have to give.
The second takeaway is that we are still in the midst of the war, and going through the messy process of innovating, but following this period there is the potential for what will be a golden age of growth and innovation.
History shows this to be the case, but even more so as a result of new technologies such as AI and robotics, which are being deployed during the war and have dual-use applications.
Cyber Week was a good example of what an effective ecosystem can create. In attendance were investors and representatives of startups, growth-stage companies, academia, the defense industry and government. Professionals from these diverse areas networked and learned from each other, oftentimes connecting the dots in unexpected ways.
Moshe Bellows, managing member of Maccabee Ventures, a New York based, early-stage VC dedicated to investing in entrepreneurs in North America and Israel, reflected on this experience:
“The Israeli ecosystem is as vibrant as ever. I was honored to be one of a handful of American VCs who attended, but all who did were impressed and walked away inspired as to the vitality of the founders, technologists and other players in the space.”
Builders and doers
My third takeaway is that the country is filled with talented entrepreneurs, builders and doers who have risen to meet the country’s current challenges.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, dressed in the founder uniform of t-shirt and jeans, gave an inspiring talk at Cyber Week about how so many civilians on October 7 got in their cars (sometimes even without weapons), and went down south to rescue people or fight. They didn’t run away; they ran toward the danger, against human instinct, to help people they didn’t know.
Bennett predicted that the country will regain its confidence, and that the agentic people here will help the country reach new economic heights.
At the cyber and AI conferences, it was clear that the gap between Israel and the rest of the world will continue to widen. Israelis will become super powered in applying AI solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
Amazon hosted a mega event, the AWS Summit, at Expo Tel Aviv. It was even bigger and more overwhelming than AWS events in New York and Las Vegas — a testament to the strength of the tech ecosystem and the confidence Amazon has in investing in Israeli talent.
The organizers’ vision
“I’m very optimistic about what we’re going to see in the future, let’s say a year from now in terms of innovation, AI, and cyber,” said Cyber Week and AI Week organizer Gili Drob-Heistein, executive director of the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University.
“Planning the conference this year was much harder than ever. As an example, our last Cyber Week was a huge success where we had more than 10,000 attendees. More than 2,000 of them were from abroad and that included international guests from 99 countries. This year, it was very difficult to organize the conference because of the uncertainty.”
She continued, however, that “it was very important for all of us to keep going in spite of the situation, and against all odds because we know that the conference helps the ecosystem. If we won’t hold the conference, that will hurt the industry. The event ended up being a huge success, and it was because of the team, which was small but very devoted. Their dedication was enormous and I’m very proud of what we achieved.”
Alongside the Cyber Week and AI Week happening together at Tel Aviv University, the HackAI TLV hackathon was hosted by Adam Klein, cofounder and CTO of Covver, with big-data engineer Chen Zvi of AppsFlyer, in collaboration with alumni, researchers and developers.
The event, held at the Microsoft Reactor, was sponsored by Grove Ventures, TLV Partners and WSC Sports, with nearly 30 industry experts serving as judges and mentors.
“As a developer myself with a passion for AI, I felt like I really wanted this event to happen — so I decided to organize it,” Klein said.
“I feel that GenAI technology is a breakthrough in software and product development — the options to create new products that couldn’t exist before are endless. I wanted to see what happens when you take great minds and give them the time and incentive to zone into their most creative side, and use their skills to develop innovative ideas.”
Klein said the hackathon inspired ideas that are “not only commercial but also impactful. The team that won second place developed an app for parents of children with special needs, and are going to use the money and recognition to continue this project forward. The team that won first place is a nonprofit organization that helps marginalized people learn coding and are also going to leverage this start to a full-blown project.”
Tech vs. hate
Shiran Mlamdovsky Somech, founder of CEO of Generative AI for Good, participated in the “Tech Vs. Hate” seminar at Cyber and AI Week.
She advocated for the use of generative AI to combat antisemitism and promote social impact, especially to fight the current surge of antisemitism.
This technology has been effective in creating and promoting content that counters antisemitic narratives. For example, pro-Israel activists have used AI-generated images to change the narrative and highlight the attacks on Israel.
Somech led the “Be Their Voice” campaign, which animated the faces of abducted children to appeal for their return. This campaign, created in collaboration with the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and entrepreneur Danielle Ofek, captured global attention.
As Somech stated: “Today, more than ever, industry leaders, tech experts, social organizations and governments from Israel and abroad must unite to combat online hate speech. Jewish communities are the first target of fundamentalists, with the West next in line. Israeli tech, like David’s Sling, harnesses innovation to combat online antisemitism, connecting Israeli technological prowess with global efforts against modern hatred by bridging gaps and fostering cross-sector collaboration.”
Israeli Fraud Fighters
FraudCon, a side event during the conference week at Tel Aviv University, was led by Gilit Saporta, senior director of fraud analytics at DoubleVerify and the co-author of Practical Fraud Prevention. For the past eight years, she has co-chaired the financial fraud track at Cyber Week.
She and Oren Karmi of Intuit cohost Israeli Fraud Fighters, a vibrant community of more than 1,300 active members including data scientists, researchers, developers and analysts.
This was among several organizations that helped lead initiatives at the beginning of the war, using data to assist in tracking those kidnapped and in identifying crypto accounts that were being used to funnel resources to terrorist groups.
Saporta and FraudCon cochair Uri Rivner of Refine Intelligence chose to hold smaller working groups this year in order to maximize collaboration among attendees.
She is optimistic regarding the ability of the startup nation to rebound strongly after the war.
“Professionally, we’re actually going to be stronger as a result of this experience,” Saporta said.
“New minds have come into this ecosystem. Amazing people who used to be focused on biotech and environmental challenges are now switching over to fraud prevention, which is good news for the space.”
A time to lean in
While the current situation is not easy, investors like Bellows made the journey from New York, and took a leadership role to help drive the success of the events.
“I was deeply involved in creating programming that embraced US VCs and C-suite participants in the conference, when many thought they would not come,” he said.
“This was a time to lean in rather than write us off! This is the time to forge deeper relationships with those we know, and cultivate new relationships with those we don’t yet know.”
Bellows brought several CEOs and senior staff from large well-known US companies, including non-Jews and first-time visitors to Israel.
“It was wonderful to watch them interface and experience the Israeli warmth and sense of community,” he said. “I felt so blessed to be welcomed and embraced by the Israeli VC and founder community.”
Jonathan “Yoni” Frenkel is a LinkedIn ghostwriter, content marketing strategist, creator and founder of YKC Media.
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