Execs from Facebook, Google, and Microsoft explain why they use Israel for their R&D
Google developer partner advocate Don Dodge said:
Google now employs more than 600 engineers in the country, and they work on several of Google's core products, including Search, Maps, and Live Results. About half of Google's engineers in Israel are graduates of Tel Aviv University, Dodge said. "There's an amazing source of talent here," he said.
Adi Soffer Teeni, the CEO of Facebook Israel said:
When the moderator asked what made Israel such a unique place to do R&D, Teeni responded: "There's amazing talent here. Multinationals come here with great R&D centres and recruit people with a very innovative way of thinking."
Roy Ramon, the managing director of the Intel Ingenuity Partner Program said:
"The reason I started the startup programme is because when you [a corporate] meet with a company in Israel, they come in and tell engineers that they're doing it all wrong," he said. "They push everything off the table. These engineers have been doing this for years. They're world experts. And yet that startup is bold enough to come to a mammoth like Intel and say you're doing it all wrong. This is one culture that you can't get anywhere in the world."
Zack Weisfeld, the general manager of Microsoft Global Accelerators said:
"Most of the founders we see [in Israel] come deeply from the tech world and don’t come from the business world trying to solve a problem and then finding a technical cofounder," he said. "They really have a lot of IP (intellectual property) in the space and now they're putting it to play in all categories: agriculture, robots, health."
Weisfeld added: "There is something about the culture, and something about the market understanding and business understanding that might be a little more rough [among Israeli startups] at the beginning, but at the end of the day, and if you get them to the right place, they're unstoppable."
Google developer partner advocate Don Dodge said:
Google now employs more than 600 engineers in the country, and they work on several of Google's core products, including Search, Maps, and Live Results. About half of Google's engineers in Israel are graduates of Tel Aviv University, Dodge said. "There's an amazing source of talent here," he said.
Adi Soffer Teeni, the CEO of Facebook Israel said:
When the moderator asked what made Israel such a unique place to do R&D, Teeni responded: "There's amazing talent here. Multinationals come here with great R&D centres and recruit people with a very innovative way of thinking."
Roy Ramon, the managing director of the Intel Ingenuity Partner Program said:
"The reason I started the startup programme is because when you [a corporate] meet with a company in Israel, they come in and tell engineers that they're doing it all wrong," he said. "They push everything off the table. These engineers have been doing this for years. They're world experts. And yet that startup is bold enough to come to a mammoth like Intel and say you're doing it all wrong. This is one culture that you can't get anywhere in the world."
Zack Weisfeld, the general manager of Microsoft Global Accelerators said:
"Most of the founders we see [in Israel] come deeply from the tech world and don’t come from the business world trying to solve a problem and then finding a technical cofounder," he said. "They really have a lot of IP (intellectual property) in the space and now they're putting it to play in all categories: agriculture, robots, health."
Weisfeld added: "There is something about the culture, and something about the market understanding and business understanding that might be a little more rough [among Israeli startups] at the beginning, but at the end of the day, and if you get them to the right place, they're unstoppable."
