Developers of wearable technology have been gaining inroads into consumer end-markets, with the likes of virtual reality glasses, smart watches, fitness bands and other such devices becoming increasingly available and affordable. While the likes of the upcoming Microsoft HoloLens and AppleWatch bode well for consumer-facing products, the bigger potential is for platform and hardware makers that stand to gain from the boom in this space, just like how Qualcomm experienced a renaissance with the rise of ARM-based computing in mobile devices. One such startup that will stand to gain with the rise of wearable computing is Tel Aviv-based LifeBEAM, which designs and builds wearable instruments for measuring human performance.

Aerospace tech made accessible

LifeBEAM’s main products are hats and helmets with built-in heart rate and performance trackers. The novelty is with the fact that the technology behind these devices originated from the aerospace industry, in particular fighter pilot helmets. The startup is actually founded by former Israeli air force pilots who aimed to incorporate military technology into consumer products. Trackers embedded on these headgear help reduce the discomfort and weight associated with cyclists’ and runners’ having to wear chest straps for electro-cardiogram needs.

The startup launched its first product through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in 2013, and marginally exceeded its goal by 29%. The company also provides its bio-sensing technologies to other brands and partners. In November, it was announced that Samsung has picked LifeBEAM’s technology as one of the sensors that will power its Simband, which is the Korean company’s reference design for upcoming health-tracking wearables.

Finding the right form factors

For LifeBEAM, it’s a big deal to find the right form factors to build its technology into. “Our challenge is to keep finding ways to integrate our bio sensing technology into real products that users want,” says Omri Yoffe, LifeBEAM founder, in an interview with VR World. “This keeps us at the front line as a company who understands both the barriers and opportunities in these different wearable form factors and possible products and content to be created out of them.”

According to Yoffe, there are certain industries that more easily warm to wearable technologies, although it may not be fair to identify any single industry that is dominant. For the  company, leading consumer brands are a good place to start when looking for trends in this industry. “The emerging wave of wearable technologies popular in the last year or so apply to consumer lifestyle, safety and security, enterprises, health and such industries,” he says. “There are different barriers to entry and key factors, such as policy, privacy and pricing, at play.”

Finding the right applications

Yoffe says there will always be early adopters and that “the most natural place to start with should be the leading consumer brands that will look for feasible ways of implementing wearable technology into their current and future products and services.” He adds that “the goal is to provide more value to the users and consumers.”

According to Yoffe, health and fitness remain to be at the forefront of wearables, because of the relevance of bio- and motion-sensing technologies to this industry. “Looking at 2014 and seeing the main trends for 2015, there is no doubt that the well-being and fitness markets are currently pioneering vehicles for wearable technology adoption, because these provide the target users a real and valuable way to track their personal wellness and well-being.” he says. “This is done in a relatively seamless and convenient, but still fashionable way,” he adds.

A focus on user experience

There are still challenges, however. For LifeBEAM, these include optimizing devices for the component sizes, connectivity, convenience and wearability. “Smart textile production also involves questions about washability and pricing,” Yoffe says, adding that even power consumption and the “lack of new disruptive and mature charging technologies” can also be an issue that builders of wearable tech need to address.

But going beyond devices and sensors, the wearable technology needs to take into account user experience. “We need ways to provide users a simplified, unified and insightful feedback mechanism, without the need for extra effort in terms of both wearing a designated wearable form factor (such as wrist bands) and the need to drill down into lots of saturated data and statistics.”

Beyond glasses and watches

The future is not necessarily about watches and glasses. Yoffe says that segmentation borders between two major groups. First is wearable and sensing tech embedded into clothing and apparel. “Wearable sensing solutions are invisibly implemented into all sorts of wearable gear apparel, with focus on low power consumption and wireless connectivity to a display-enabled device and/or the cloud.”

The second group involves purpose-built devices. “These are consumer electronics — watches, earbuds, phones and maybe a bit of smart glasses — participating as the user’s data aggregation, display and communication ‘hub’ to be able to simplify data collection and pitch the data to the user in real time.”

At this point, the job of companies that produce wearable tech is to make this technology more accessible to the end user — in essence making it invisible so it becomes more easily integrated into our lives, Yoffe says. “We need more focus on the UX and the ability to provide the end user an insightful, meaningful, simplified and unified feedback about his daily activity and personal well-being, and less focus on the raw bio-sensing parameters the and other more techy parts.”

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A Chinese tech investment group has invited Israeli startups to pitch their companies at Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Tel Aviv Campus on January 15 to a panel of investors and professionals from both countries.

The committee will select 10 startups to present their pitch live online to Zhongguancun Private Equity & Venture Capital Association’s (ZVCA) annual conference. ZVCA has over 1,000 members and $15 billion in assets under its management.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media is reporting the government intends to start negotiations for a free trade deal with Israel this year. China – the world’s second largest economy – has been aggressively pursuing closer diplomatic and economic ties with Israel in recent years. China’s attention has been particularly focused on the vibrant technology industry that has won Israel the nicknames of Startup Nation and Silicon Wadi.

The Israeli government has welcomed China’s interest with open arms. Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett described the two countries “natural partners for technological and business cooperation” during a visit to China in late November.

In addition, bilateral trade surpassed $8 billion last year. Israel’s blossoming trade with China contrasts with the threat of boycotts from Europe and the United States over the lack of progress in talks with the Palestinians.

However, Israeli companies remain concerned by Chinese threats to intellectual property. Last year, Maryland-based security firm Cyber Engineering Services, Inc. (CES) accused the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 – state-sponsored hackers going by the alias of Comment Crew – of stealing sensitive information from 2011 to 2012 from three Israeli defense companies responsible for the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

The U.S. Justice Department indicted five prominent military members of the group last May on charges of economic espionage for hacking several American companies. As the United States has the power to veto defense deals involving American technology, Israeli companies are likely to proceed cautiously in seeking Chinese funding.

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The mobile industry has made leaps and bounds in growth and development in the recent years, with devices becoming more and more powerful, even as they are becoming increasingly smaller in size. Wearable technology, connected homes and vehicles, and the Internet-of-Things, are all the rage amongst technology companies that seek to have a more pervasive online presence in the lives of humans.

But there may be a downside to this. “I have seen some products that look useless in the long run,” says Oren Dror, co-founder and CEO at visual semantics startup imonomy. In an interview with Bright Side of News*, Dror shares that mobile users may not be too crazy with apps as per his company’s own research. “The majority sticks to a set of 8-15 they use weekly, and that’s it,” he adds. However, given that mobile has fast overtaken desktop as a means of getting online, imonomy is ready to connect publishers, advertisers and users through its visual platform, no matter which device or platform they are using.

Having received seed funding of $400,000 in mid-2013, the startup has since focused on developing its platform, expanding its team and signed major partners as part of its portfolio. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Dror says that the “fast-paced changes that happen in [the] country” requires startups to “step up our game and grow fast in order to build sustainable businesses in a short period of time.”

Read the full interview at VR World‘s sister site, Bright Side of News*.

Feature image credit: Responsive design / Shutterstock

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Social media has transcended social networking, and is now an important part of business. Going beyond reaching out to consumers in a B2B communications model, however, companies are finding the need to reach out to other enterprises as well, especially those whose business models involve dealing with vendors, suppliers and fellow businesses or entrepreneurs.

B2B social media has also gone beyond the purview of the traditional PR company. Cloud- and desktop-based tools are already available, and any CMO or marketing manager would have such tools at their disposal, or perhaps even access to boutique PR firms that focus on running effective social media campaigns meant for the enterprise. Still, it’s not that easy to find the optimal means of reaching out to fellow businesses and entrepreneurs. In some cases, “likes” or connections don’t necessarily convert to actual business.

According to a study by Business2Community, this particular genre is dominated by LinkedIn, given the professional focus of the social network. About 91% of marketing professionals dealing in B2B are active on LinkedIn, compared with about 85% on Twitter and 81% on Facebook. However, the same study says only 36% of the same professionals consider themselves well-versed in doing B2B social media. Here is where enterprises will need help, says Daniel Kushner, co-founder and CEO at Oktopost, a startup that provides B2B social media consulting and services. An alumnus of companies like Zend Technologies, application service automation startup Nolio, and medical technology firm Syneron Medical (NASDAQ:ELOS), Kushner now focuses on enabling effective B2B social media management for enterprises through his Tel Aviv-based startup.

In an interview with Bright Side of News*, Kushner says his motto is “Screw likes, get leads,” which means generating business is inevitably more important than simple connections. While a basic “like”, retweet, +1 or share might be a plus in terms of relevance and authority in social media, what really matters is the bottomline, and how to properly attribute or account for such success.

Here is an excerpt of our Q&A:

Bright Side of News*: Can you shed some light on your decision to focus on B2B social media management?

Daniel Kushner: Social media has evolved from a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to a place where businesses both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) users can reach their customers, prospects, and fans. There has been a huge rise in social media management tools that all revolve around the B2C way of marketing. B2B is different, however, and we learnt this from first-hand experience when running global marketing teams for hi-tech companies. Being frustrated that there’s no social media management platform that is in line with the objectives of B2B marketers, we decided to create one.

There are a few big differences between marketing with consumers and businesses in mind. B2B marketers need to manage huge social editorial calendars due to the amount of content they are producing. They also need to measure and understand their RoI on social media. These two factors are the core of Oktopost, making it the only platform that is truly B2B focused.

BSN*: Is there any particular advantage with targeting social media campaigns this way? If I’m running a business, can’t I just hire someone to manage my Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages?

DK: Social media, like most marketing activities, can be managed either in house or with external vendors. In fact, I strongly believe that if you don’t know “how” to do social media marketing then it is in fact better to hire an external agency. Social media management platforms help you manage the social media marketing — they don’t do it for you. So if you don’t know what you’re doing, a platform won’t really help. Just like using a CRM won’t make you into a better sales person, but will help you manage your sales, taking into consideration that you have your sales methodologies, and the like. Even when using an agency, they will most probably be using a platform like Oktopost to manage their clients’ social media.

BSN*: Can you share some trends with regard to business’ uptake of social media? What do businesses want to accomplish with their social media campaigns?

DK: Social media is a new bi-directional channel for businesses that is at most controlled by the customer (consumer in B2C case), so there are a few angles that social media play within the business. There’s a “marketing maturity level” that business go through not only in regards to social media, but also in overall marketing management as a whole. There are those at the very beginning of the scale and are more activity-driven that business-driven. This is old-school marketing where a marketer will be measure by how many trade shows they did and press releases that were put on the wire. Then there is a trend to measure how marketing is helping the business and becoming a profit center instead of a cost center. This is normally done by measure how many leads are generated by the marketing team, quality of leads, sale ready leads, etc.

On the higher end of the maturity level, I see marketing scientifically measuring and A/B testing everything from lead source to touch points to opportunity contributions. Measuring becomes a centric part of the marketing DNA, and social should also be measured. Not only how many likes, followers, retweets, but how many leads, and what social content is driving those leads.

BSN*: What are the common misconceptions do businesses have with working with social media? Any common gaps that businesses need to address?

DK: Social media for marketing is multifaceted — there’s no one method, tactic, or way of doing things. There’s also not a single objective, KPI or outcome. Social media can be used for content distribution, brand awareness, content curation, customer support, and much more. Each discipline needs to be understood and management separately. You can’t just simply send 10 tweets a day and call that social media marketing. What are those tweets for? Promoting a webinar, a whitepaper, or talking about an event? Driving traffic to you blog? The major gap is having the business understand what is important for them and what they want to measure. From there a social media plan can be created.

The post Q&A with Oktopost on the Value of B2B Social Media: 'Screw Likes, Get Leads' appeared first on VR World.

Startup companies are known for popping up like mushrooms, thriving, evolving, sometimes pivoting, and sometimes just fading away from the limelight. That’s the nature of entrepreneurship. Some make it big, while some don’t. Most successful entrepreneurs know when to find the next big thing, however, and play the ever-changing game accordingly. Our interview subject for today has been into various online enterprises for seven years now, and I have known him for half of that period, since I started consulting with offline small businesses around the region on their social media needs.

Based in Israel, Nadav Dakner believes that startups are in a perpetual state of living on “borrowed time,” especially those in conflict-stricken areas like his own country. In these cases, he says, one should always be alert for any escalation, any eventuality. But of course, it’s not only the political climate and potential conflict that startups should be watching out for. There’s also the change in business environment. Before venturing into doing content marketing (PR, Content Strategy and link acquisition) for reputable brands, for example, Dakner had focused on SEO and link building, knowing “every trick in the book” just to rank for certain keywords. With the various adjustments that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) made in combating link spam, however, the more discerning online entrepreneurs were able to branch out into more quality-oriented services.

Dakner has since founded InboundJunction, a content marketing company that focuses on enhancing brand awareness and online visibility through crafting brand-, image- and messaging- related campaigns for well-known brands worldwide. As co-founder, he also serves as CEO of the lean team. In his dealings with team members and clients, Dakner has also discovered how religious fundamentalism can contribute to the detriment of team dynamics. Here are some excerpts from our interview.

VR World: You’ve been in the business of web publishing, content distribution and SEO for some time now. Can you tell us how the business has evolved over time?

Nadav Dakner, Co-founder & CEO at InboundJunction

Nadav Dakner: Online marketing has evolved a ton over the years. Back in the early days of SEO, you could rank for almost any keyword you desired by applying various linking strategies that would actually harm your website today. We actually started out as affiliates and used to own hundreds of niche websites that we ranked on for many keywords so we know every trick in the book and all the various aspects of content distribution and SEO. In 2013, we decided to change shift and completely shy away from the affiliate side of things and changed business model to provide a more premium content marketing service for well-known businesses.

VRW: Yes, I do recall those days (I also dabbled in some SEO consultancy in the early days). Am I correct in saying that social now plays a bigger part in how businesses can promote their brands rather than these raw linkages?

ND: SEO and getting a business to rank online is an equation comprised of more than 100 elements. There is a big debate as to whether social impacts SEO directly (e.g., whether getting mass social shares to your homepage will increase your SERP) or indirectly (getting your brand name mentioned often will increase the likelihood of people typing it in Google, and as a result making Google think it’s a bigger brand with stronger authority). And it doesn’t stop there. Social media will get you more traffic and referrals and even inbound links and so it doesn’t really matter if the effect is direct or indirect — social media is vital.

VRW: Now that you mention it, does PageRank still have a high relevance in today’s environment? Or do other metrics (like Facebook’s social graph, number of social connections, app popularity etc.) have more impact in the authority of a publication?

ND: PageRank is just one aspect in the process of website assessment that should be used in conjunction with others and never as a standalone. Many people speculate as whether PageRank will be updated again (Google claims it won’t). But here’s an approach for you on how to use this “outdated” metric: consider PageRank as a polarized metric in which high PR websites can be really good (an authority website that got thousands of organic links) or extremely bad (many websites “faked” their PR through aggressive and rapid link building to make them sell for a higher price or offer lucrative sponsored posts).

A quick way to check if the website is good is to use OpenSiteExplorer and scan for its link profile, usually hundreds of quality links go hand-in-hand with a quality website but if the PR is 6 and the site has 10-20 links, that does raise an alarm. Social sharing should be a byproduct that comes naturally if a website has great content or lots of traffic. When viewing the number of shares a homepage has, I immediately look for the amount of engagement in individual posts, and so if a homepage has thousands of shares and little to no engagement in the post, that website bought likes/shares for money.

For me, the most important metric would be traffic, and right now the folks from SimilarWeb are pioneers in that field and are the new-age Alexa for me. Think about it, if a website has organic traffic (as opposed to direct or referral), that means Google likes it and so a backlink or a story from that site will be valuable.

VRW: How about social conversations? Does it matter how prominent a person, author or writer is, or how active a user is on social networks?

ND: Quite simply, the more Twitter followers/LinkedIn/Google+ connections a person has, the more traction he gets for his stories. More traction equals higher quality, more social proof (having an opinion leader endorsing your product), sign-ups/leads, traffic (shareability), and even SEO improvements (better chance of syndication and citations). Work on making your name a brand and you’ll get more work and also the legitimacy of pricing your service higher.

VRW: Is InboundJunction funded by institutional investors? If so — or if not — what is the impact of your business/funding model in the business that you are running?

ND: We are self-funded.The type of business we do doesn’t need a large capital to start running, which is a strong starting point. We are innovative in the way we work but we didn’t develop innovative technology and so we didn’t require funding, although we’re considering developing a software which I can’t discuss right now.

VRW: Let’s get more in-depth with your startup roots. Your company is based in Israel. What is the dynamic of being a startup in Israel (or Asia in general) and working with global companies?

ND: Everything is very fast-paced here. In Israel, we tend to feel that the whole country is always on borrowed time so we try to be very productive and really “get out there.”  This situation results in businesses innovating ourselves every day all over again. We have to be very creative and professional to survive as a successful business (not just in Israel, but perhaps also applicable in other regions, as well).

VRW: Do you think Israel has any advantage over other startup communities/hubs in Asia, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, India and South Korea, for instance? Are there any challenges or disadvantages? I recall some of the more prominent startups had roots there, such as Waze (a billion-dollar Google acquisition) and Viber.

ND: People respect Startups from Israel. Israel is also a very small country so everyone knows everyone (even personally) especially if they are a major player. With us, for example, we know almost all of our clients personally, as we’re literally an hour away (at worst) from their offices, so that would be a solid advantage. One disadvantage would be the fact that at certain times a year, you might be forced to drop everything you do and run to a shelter or get drafted to defend your country. It’s not like in the movies though. It doesn’t happen often, but there are really annoying periods from time to time.

VRW: Now that you mentioned it, what was the impact of the weeks-long conflict between Israel and Palestine in the recent months? Did this adversely affect your business?

ND: The everlasting conflict is something I’m totally used to by now. In this specific case, I was on call and on the verge on being drafted as a solider but luckily my unit wasn’t enlisted because its forefront is in the north. Surprisingly, some people whom I worked with for years (freelance programmer, several webmasters) stopped answering me and even try to harm my business. Then later I found out that their religious views clashed with my nationality, and they decided they hated my guts. It was a wake-up call for me, and today I only work with people I trust.

VRW: So does this mean, in general, that the security situation affect businesses and startups in Israel, especially given potential emergencies and incidents?

ND: By now, we’re so accustomed to the reality of the situation in Israel that it really doesn’t. If there is an immediate danger or a big incident, we can get distracted. The worse part of it all is that you can get drafted for two weeks all of a sudden, leave everything and everyone is your life and go to serve your country which is quite crazy. Imagine leaving your business or newborn baby for 2-3 weeks — that’s scary, and it happens from time to time.

The post Nadav Dakner on Content Marketing, ‘Death of PageRank’ and Startups Living on Borrowed Time appeared first on VR World.

Startup companies often live on “borrowed time,” says Israeli entrepreneur Nadav Dakner. As founder and CEO at InboundJunction, a team that consults on PR and content strategy for reputable brands, Dakner has experienced having to deal with major externalities that have affected his business, including the on-and-off Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as the ever-changing policies and algorithms of search companies. He recalls almost being drafted for two- to three-week military service right in the middle of doing important work.

One takeaway from our interview is that entrepreneurs and startup founders will need to adjust to any eventuality, so that one can act accordingly and make informed decisions. “In Israel, we tend to feel that the whole country is always on borrowed time so we try to be very productive and really ‘get out there,'” he tells VR World.  “This situation results in businesses innovating ourselves every day all over again. We have to be very creative and professional to survive as a successful business.” As a result, Dakner says his business has evolved, with focus on quality.

Among his more interesting revelations is how he has experienced religious extremism firsthand, and how this could adversely affect any business. That had been a “wake up call” and Dakner says he has learned to strike a balance between being selective with trust and freely delegating tasks to focus on the bigger strategy at hand.

In the end he says competition is actually good, because it means your product or service is relevant. And the best way to scale? Find good talent and know whom to trust.

Read the complete interview on Bright Side of News*’ sister site, VR World.

Featured image credit: Social connections / Shutterstock

The post Nadav Dakner on Content Marketing, 'Death of PageRank' and Startups Living on Borrowed Time appeared first on VR World.

Business thrives in stable environments with steady flows of capital and availability of talent. But with conflict being the backdrop in several regions around the world today, one might wonder how enterprises can still survive. We constantly hear about political tensions leading to armed conflict and wonder how these countries’ economies can soldier on.

For someone who is used to such tensions, however, life does go on, as Jonathan Saragossi tells us in an interview. Saragossi — formerly of Any.do, PlayScape and WIX — is CEO at IM Creator, a WYSIWYG web-building platform. In an earlier interview this year with Saragossi on e27, this writer focused on the entrepreneur’s insights on the mobile apps vs. mobile web debate.

In this interview with Bright Side of News*, however, we focus on starting up and doing business amid potentially unstable political situations, especially given that IM Creator is based in Israel. Even as the Israel-Gaza conflict is officially under truce, in practice the armistice is fragile, and armed combatants are still exchanging fire in what seems to be a thousands year-old conflict that might see no end anytime soon.

Apart from investment amid political tensions, we also touch on the Internet of Things, wearable devices, and screen sizes that are either becoming bigger or smaller, depending on your reference point. Here are a few excerpts from our interview.

Bright Side of News*: With Apple launching a plus-sized iPhone, do you think that flagship Android device makers were right all along in creating phones with bigger screens? What does this mean for content developers, app makers and designers?

Jonathan Saragossi: I personally think there’s the need and the audience for mobile devices in a wide range of size and price. I think this is relevant to web designers much more than it is for app makers and content developers since we are approaching a time period in which the responsiveness of a design is so crucial that it’s an absolute must. Soon all websites/apps would have to be able to adjust to a range of screens, from the tiny smart-watch to a 70 inch TV.

BSN*: Consider wearable devices, like the Samsung Gear, Apple iWatch, Moto 360 and the like? How do such devices appeal to you, as a developer and designer? How can content developers take advantage of a platform that is as small as a wristwatch? By extension, do you plan on launching site-builders that specifically design content for smartwatches?

JS: Wearable devices open the door to countless new opportunities, with a new and exciting context that is close and immediate, but limited with the amount of information and navigation options. Apps and information would have to be displayed in the most concentrated way, but still deliver the essence of the app. Here at IM Creator we have been working for a while on a website builder that will also answer wearable devices. It’s not enough to decrease the size of the content we delver, we also have to understand how to summarize the information and let go of the redundancies.

It’s a matter of a couple of years until the compatibility for wearable devices is a standard in every website builder. The challenge is not to create a new website for smaller screens, but to understand how to allow the users to build one website that adjust itself to a wide range of devices and will know to display the right information, in the right way, based on the screen, location and time it is showing on.

Android: Coming soon to a car near you

BSN*: What are your thoughts on the rising trend concerning the Internet of Things and other connected devices like cars and car interfaces? While the interface of Android Auto is decidedly basic and simple, do you think content developers, marketers and businesses can also take advantage of Android running on cars soon?

JS: Similar to wearable devices, this is not just another device to support. It’s a new context. A user who is now driving the car has different needs from users on foot, or in front of a laptop. Obviously this is very interesting for designers, developers and marketers – there’s a huge, “captive” audience inside millions of cars around the world. If I go into a business’ website using Android Auto, I probably want one of two things: calling the business, or get navigation instructions to it. The sites will have to auto-adjust, and display the relevant information in real time.

BSN*: How is the state of the startup community in Israel in view of the recent political and military conflicts, as well as the ongoing tension with the IS in the region?

JS: It might seem horrible from the outside, like the war is running in our streets. However, except sadness and disappointment from the lack of peaceful solutions, there is not really an effect on our work. My concern is for the next generation, of both Israelis and Palestinians: from both sides education budgets are diverted to weapons and war. Technological, cultural, creative education for our children and theirs is the best solution I can think of. People don’t go to blow themselves us when they have the opportunity to make their creative dreams come true.

BSN*: You mentioned that “there is no effect” in your work. How about in terms of the investments, capital inflow and availability of talent? Given that there is still some conflict (or tension?), do you think venture capitalists shy away from investing money in enterprises and startups in the country?

JS: There’s a general problem with seed-money. Established companies, showing growth and revenues, are hardly affected by the conflict. Overall, Israel is perceived as an investment that comes along with a security risk, but it’s the industry’s strength and resilience during these violent events that best demonstrates how thick the bubble we live in here in Tel Aviv.

BSN*: How about talent? Is mandatory military service an advantage or disadvantage in finding good talent? How does this impact the startup and entrepreneurship scene? Can it be an advantage, in terms of experience, contacts and building creativity?

JS: Mandatory military service in Israel usually comes when you are 18, before you find a profession. There’s also on-going “reserves” program, but most of the man power in the high tech industry didn’t serve in combat units, so the reserves training periods are shorter are rarer. People who served in combat units may disappear for a month, and it is a problem, but you deal with it. I think that a company should anyway be built in a way that employees can take a few weeks off in case of an emergency, whether it’s reserves training or birth of a child. I would rather hire employees who contributed something to society in their youth, wether it’s military service or any voluntary work.

BSN*: How do you address the need for agility? We have read about big companies losing their market share because of the fast-changing trends (say, Nokia, BlackBerry, etc.). As an entrepreneur, do you find the need to be many steps ahead of the current trends, in order to thrive? How do you make a difference, in the face of other competitors doing similar things?

JS: Agility and flexibility are a must in a startup. Everything changes all the time, and the swimming is always against the stream. A startup usually has two opportunities: Initial launch, and a pivot in case the launch is not successful. In both situations you have to show something new and totally unique. The method we run with and works for us is trying to come up with the most extreme thing (product/feature) we can think of, and just go for it. The reality is that developing a product takes around a year, and if you choose to develop something that is not extreme enough, the competition would keep up the pace and close the gap before you can launch. Going for extreme, for us, is somewhat of an insurance. At IM Creator we are working on two new and unique products that we hope will redefine the way websites are built, and furthermore, redefine the essence of websites.

BSN*: Can you share some trends with IM Creator?

JS: Of course we see an increased usage of tablets. Netbooks also still get a substantial portion among devices and we need to deal with their tiny resolutions. Our clients usually prefer simple, minimalistic designs (similar to the trend around the web) that they can customize and make their own with almost no efforts. And I get it – for an unexperienced person, building a website could be quite an adventure.

BSN*: If I were a talented team or entrepreneur keen on launching a new startup company or product, in what particular area (tech or non-tech) should I focus on? Why?

JS: Education. I’d recommend building a social network for kids that is based on creativity and learning. I think it’s a great way to get rich while doing something good for this world.

Featured image credit: ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com

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