Getting started in the automotive industry is a bitch. Any time I come across yet another automotive startup looking for a toehold in the automotive market I have to subject the entrepreneur to my sanity check: “You do realize that you have selected possibly the slowest path to a profitable eventual exit, don’t you?”
I might then tease the person that they are either a glutton for punishment or better make plans to become one. Then we have a good laugh. Well, lately, Israel has been getting the last laugh as automotive startups have multiplied and billion dollar exits are not unheardof (Waze, Mobileye) if not yet commonplace.
Strategy Analytics is putting on an event May 16th in Tel Aviv – Innovation Ignition – a lunchtime presentation and fireside chat to review emerging automotive opportunities and share advice and insights in an intimate setting. Roger C. Lanctot, Director, Automotive Connected Mobility, will present “Ten Tips for Automotive Startups” based on a decade’s-worth of insight derived from assisting startups with market entry – followed by a global market overview of emerging automotive opportunities.
Roger’s presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion with five local automotive market leaders who will share their insights regarding specific industry application segments. Those local experts, with their own start-up stories to tell, will address safety, security, connectivity, navigation, autonomy, over-the-air software updates, driver distraction and more and include:
- David Wiernik, President, NNG
- Oren Betzaleli, Executive Vice President Products and Marketing, Harman International
- Onn Haran, CTO, Auto-Talks
- Sean Ir, co-founder and Vice President of Marketing, Cellepathy
- Yoni Heilbronn, Vice President Marketing, Argus Cyber Security
The motivation for creating this one-of-a-kind opportunity in Tel Aviv is to recognize the unique role played by Israeli innovators in the global automotive industry. It is also inspired by the book “Startup Nation” which first chronicled Israel’s growing dominance in technology innovation.
It’s worth noting that eight years after its original publication, “Startup Nation” still captures the imagination and conveys, explores and exposes the pulsing core of entrepreneurial fire that has forged global technology leadership in the crucible of an arid postage stamp on the Mediterranean. The book is both sobering and hilarious as it conveys the overwhelming seriousness of Israel’s government-managed approach to innovation and the unique nature of the natives who often violently and vocally disagree….about everything.
It is somehow fitting that the book begins with the tale of the then-promising prospect of Shai Agassi leading the international march toward vehicle electrification from a meeting at Davos with Simon Peres. The story sadly dates the book given the eventual bankruptcy filing of Agassi’s Better Place after burning through $850M of investor capital and putting less than 1,400 cars on the road.
But the point is made that from the beginning, automotive technology has been a focal point of Israeli-based innovation second only, perhaps, to agriculture, which the young country had to master first for its own survival. In tribute to this fount of innovation and disruption Strategy Analytics is holding Innovation Ignition.
For registration details: http://tinyurl.com/TA-ROGER
We look forward to seeing you in Tel Aviv on May 16th.