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Startup from page 48

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Participants ranged from Jacob Cohen,
partner at Detroit Venture Partners, and
Treger Strasberg, founder and CEO of
Humble Design, to Larry Freed, former
president/CEO of ForeSee, and David
Broner, chairman emeritus of Broner Inc.
and SCORE Mentor of the Year.
Bellinson is confident the people in
this group have such an entrepreneurial
mindset that they not only are going to
do many dynamic things together, but
also find new, creative ways to give back
and contribute to Jewish Detroit in very
meaningful ways.
"I feel like I've made 20 new, really
close friends that can do a lot of great
things together, and many of the
participants will do amazing things
during their careers while also finding
ways to strengthen our local community."
An investment vehicle totaling
$500,000 already has been established
by trip participants as a way to provide
financial support that advances the
entrepreneurial ecosystem in Detroit and
Israel. The hope is that these funds can
help a promising startup get to the next
stage of its success and possibly even
advance breakthrough solutions in the
market. A percentage of the profits will be
donated back to the Jewish Federation.
"I have had the good fortune of visiting
Israel on multiple occasions," said Danny
Samson, president of Digerati, "and every
trip has been meaningful. This trip was
unique because it afforded access into
the remarkable Israeli entrepreneurial
ecosystem and a greater understanding
of the business climate in Israel today. To
share this experience with professional
peers from Detroit and work together
on ways to partner for the future was
remarkable."
The trip gave Great Lakes Recycling CEO
Sandy Rosen an overwhelming sense of
pride to see that, amidst the destructive
hostilities surrounding the tiny state, the
people are not only surviving but also
thriving.
"The Israeli people seem almost
oblivious to the hate that encircles them,"
Rosen said. "They remain focused not
on reciprocating the anger and hatred
but, in stark contrast, on productivity and
innovation. At nearly every visit, we saw
Jews working with Arabs, Israelis with
Palestinians, Muslims with Christians.
People taking down barriers and working
together to find common ground.
"I don't believe another place exists
with miracles of this proportion every day.
It clearly illustrates what 'a light unto the
nations' truly means."
Renee Erlich, an executive and
leadership coach, agrees about the impact
of the trip.

50

April 16 • 2015

Detroit entrepreneurs Larry

Freed and Jake Cohen, left,

advise an entrepreneurial

graduate of the elite Talpiot

unit of the IDF.

Centers as

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Mission leaders Jim Bellinson and

Lisa Stern offer strategic counsel
to an entrepreneur, center, from a
startup accelerator in Nazareth.

Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Ofer

Berkovich, left, with Jason Teshuba,
founder of Mango Languages

"This mission drove deep, strategic
conversation for five days straight with
fellow entrepreneurs," she said. "It
was a wonderful platform to create
excitement and energy around the
possibilities of growth and opportunity
in Detroit and Israel."
The trip also showed the global
nature of our world. During a visit with
an educational entrepreneur who built
a new international boarding school, a
student who recently downloaded the
Mango Languages app to learn a new
language met Jason Teshuba, Mango CEO
and co-founder. Teshuba stated how it was
particularly "inspiring to get an inside look
at the Israeli culture of innovation and
entrepreneurship on this trip."
At a visit to an incubator that seeks
to help Arab entrepreneurs within Israel,
one of the entrepreneurs familiar with
the rapidly growing financial news site
Benzinga met the CEO and founder of the
company, Jason Raznick, who was on his
first trip to Israel.
David Leider, CEO of Gas Station TV,
said that "meeting entrepreneurs starting
their businesses is always fascinating.
Experiencing it in Israel was frankly
unbelievable. Their deep passion, skill
and no-failure attitude were not only
infectious, but also far outshine anything

you see anywhere else in the world."
Ryan Dembs, president of Dembs
Development, said that this mission was
"one of the most positive, worthwhile
things" he has ever done.

Connected Communities

Few locations outside of Detroit and Israel
have a greater disconnect between the
negative media headlines and the real
opportunities that exist for growth and
investment on-the-ground.
Thus, the inaugural Entrepreneur
Mission to Israel makes sense for reasons
beyond the mutual connections between
Israel and Jewish Detroit. It also turned out
to be valuable to learn the best practices
that have allowed Israel to thrive — and
to spread our message of the opportunities
in Detroit with Israelis who can grow their
businesses in our community.
There's a cost to fly to Israel and be
in Israel, of course, but the experiences

are often priceless. A 20-something
from France living the Israeli dream in a
discussion about Israeli innovation with a
young Detroiters embodies the dialogues
we need more of to advance Jewish
peoplehood.
We're living in interesting times —
times that force the Jewish community
to innovate its model to engage new
groups and stay relevant. Yet often
one experience is all that's needed to
spark someone's greater interest in our
community.
We're also living in times that
showcase not just technology's benefits
but also its constraints. This is one of the
key lessons and take-aways from the trip.
Even though technology has transformed
Israel and its economy, community-
building back at home is still one-to-one.
As easy as it would be to scale Jewish
ideas via YouTube or Twitter or Facebook,
you can't inspire a child over YouTube like
you can at a summer at Tamarack. During
the flight home, I reflected on some of our
city's core competencies. Coming together
to solve communal needs is one thing
Jewish Detroit understands better than few
other communities.
Whatever issues global Jewish
communities need to solve, it always
comes down to being entrepreneurial.
It reminds me of a song called "Lose
Yourself." It started with a question: "If
you had one shot, or one opportunity, to
seize everything you ever wanted, one
moment, would you capture it or just let
it slip?"
A Detroiter, Eninem, wrote that song.
Millions listened. Awards were won.
Seeing how Israel has thrived, the song's