was redesigned with an apple on
the package so customers would
recognize it as Macintosh com-
patible.
Mr. Belzberg's other product,
the software protection program,
was marketed under the name
MicroGuard. The product proved
to be the only protection program
that could not be broken and
within a year MicroGuard cap-
tured 65 percent of the market.
Mr. Belzberg says the com-
bined value of WorldWrite and
MicroGuard, in his view, stands
at $25 million, far more than the
$1 million he paid for it 30
months ago.
He is hesitant to take credit for
success, fearing it will spawn jeal-
ousy among competitors.
"We are Mac people," he says.
"We know how to speak to them.
There's a Mac culture."
His other companies include
Emultek, which produces a soft-
ware simulation program that al-
lows designers to compose on the
screen, a virtual reality product.
Instead of building a prototype of
a telephone, the device can be put
together on screen and prospec-
tive customers can contribute to
its development or order the prod-
uct before it reaches the assem-
bly line.
Another product is a comput-
er-based training program. The
company has sold a training pro-
gram to El Al that allows pilots
to take a diskette home and prac-
tice flying the new Boeing 757 jet.
Mr. Belzberg has few com-
plaints about Israeli bureaucra-
cy. The government's incentives
to hi-tech have enabled a private
company to invest $1 and obtain
another $5 from the authorities.
It reminds him of the leveraged
buyouts that kept him busy in
the 1980s, where several dollars
of bank finance leveraged up
every dollar of an entrepreneur's
equity.
But he is irritated by govern-
ment guidelines on which busi-
nesses should receive aid.
"They should be funding high-
er-risk projects," he says. "In-
stead, the bureaucrats say, 'Prove
you're successful and you'll get a
guarantee.' But then, who needs
the government?"
Regardless, Mr. Belzberg
would like to move out of the pits
and direct his projects from on
high. Finding good managers,
however, remains a problem.
If he could find a manager, he
says he would return to his orig-
inal motive for moving to Israel:
to learn Torah.
In the meantime, he's absorbed
other lessons.
"I've learned a bunch of
things," Mr. Belzberg says. "One,
don't put your eggs in one basket.
Every investment I make is in a
separate company.
"Two, use caution. Don't get
carried away with yourself. Not
everything you touch turns to
gold." ❑

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