Transcript: Shir Elkayam Luzzatto | Impact360 | How Do You Build a High-Tech Vision in Israel's Periphery?

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [00:02] October 7th hit Israeli high-tech, our locomotive, at a time when we need taxes, probably more than we've ever needed them. This isn't just a nice-to-have, or about correcting a moral injustice that high-tech exists only in Azrieli and Sarona. Tekuma.

Eyal David: [00:16] Tkuma, revival? That's exactly what we need. There's more to it than that, of course; like you say, there's damage and there's also a very big debt that's been created, right?

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [00:23] Both in terms of people and in terms of money. Exactly. It's a win-win. That's how I like to work, by the way. That's my method in life. I say, if it's not a win-win for all sides, it just doesn't work. And this time, that's exactly what's happening. We also make them less of hewers of wood and drawers of water. We also grow the pie, okay? We grow our economy's locomotive. Just to give you a sense of the numbers: Israeli high-tech is basically a fifth of our GDP, it's more than 58% of exports, okay? And listen to this amazing figure, and even before that, it's 33% of taxes. That's not a locomotive anymore, that's dependence, okay? And the drop that happened now, the crazy deficit we've gone into, someone has to make up for it. And that's exactly where the win-win comes in, for the government, for the periphery, and for what we can do. Hi, this time our guest is Shir Elkayam Luzzatto.

Eyal David: [01:18] An entrepreneur, researcher and polymath who shares how October 7th literally knocked on her door and sparked an amazing vision that became a reality called Tekuma, or Tkuma. And the focus is building high-tech in the periphery. A special, inspiring episode with a lot to learn about building a vision, shaping a strategy and getting down to brass tacks. And of course, if you're founders, you really want to stay. Enjoy listening. Hi, Shir, how's it going? Hi, Eyal, great, how are you? Wonderful. Thursday, sun outside. I'll put it this way: we actually know each other from exactly the place we're recording in. Right. We met as guests at some startup that maybe you'll tell us about later, but I heard you speak, you made me very curious, a bit of chit-chat, and basically here we are. A few months later. How fun, Tel Aviv, the art of networking happens right here. Right, and yes, it got delayed on our side by a few months, unfortunately, but come on, a few words, can you tell us who we're talking to? So, nice to meet you, Shir Elkayam Luzzatto,

Who is Shir Elkayam Luzzatto

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [02:24] CEO of Impact 360, which builds accelerators and advises tech startups. And I wear other hats that all basically speak the same language: I'm also a PhD candidate and a research lead at the Ministry of Economy, researching the whole topic of technology accelerators in Israel, teaching it, living it, and loving it. A real polymath. Or someone who can't sleep, take your pick.

Eyal David: [02:47] I know that one from home. Now, the basis for our conversation, I assume, is that we'll dive into October 7th, right?

October 7th and the birth of the Tekuma vision

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [02:55] Because there's the Shir from before and the Shir from after, really, like all of us I assume, but... October 7th caught me really close to home, literally close to home. After 15 years in Tel Aviv I'd moved back home to Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev. I grew up in the periphery, I grew up in Ofakim, in the western Negev, and I went to the kibbutzim high school, where most of those murdered and kidnapped were from. And on October 7th the terrorists were literally at our yellow gate on the kibbutz. And it caught me exactly at a time when I had hit pause in life: I'd decided to leave my successful business and the PhD I was doing at the time, and basically decided to do something for my soul and for my country. That was in September. I went to the Mandel Leadership Program, a two-year program that selects people from all kinds of fields in Israeli society and simply gets them to dream of doing better things for the country, and I decided to go for it. And then October 2023 came, and I understood why I'd gone for it. You know how there are moments when you don't understand exactly why you're doing something, especially when it looks crazy to everyone around you. So in October 2023 I understood. And then, in the first months, it was the madness of setting up a situation room, literally a situation room at home, for military equipment and donations from the United States. For years before that I'd worked at El Al; I started as a flight attendant and went up to very senior roles in El Al's commercial division. So I activated all the connections I had then, all the good Jews of America, and everyone donated, from vests for soldiers to food. And once the pressure and urgency eased a bit, I basically dreamed up what I do today, which is called Tekuma, a bit of a play on the word tkuma, revival: both correcting the historic injustice that there's basically no high-tech in Israel's periphery, and creating a new Zionism, re-creating an expansion of our GDP, of the locomotive of the Israeli economy, which is high-tech, and also growing the pie. I'm not even saying divide it differently; I truly believe it's possible to grow the pie. So this vision really splits in two, right? And what started moving from there? So, at first I said, okay, where do you start, it's a really big dream, right? Even a bit pretentious, some would say. But because I grew up in the periphery myself, I know what it's like to grow up when you don't see people like you around you. In the end there's a really, really low glass ceiling. I say, okay, I broke through it, I did what I did, I held senior roles at the biggest companies in the Israeli economy, then I founded a company of my own, a PhD, right? It's not exactly the usual path. But I also chose to come back home. And I also chose to offer a different perspective, from someone who understands what's happening from the inside. And it's also very much rooted in the fact that two years ago I set up an accelerator program in the periphery. It's the government program I did together with the amazing people at BDO, who I'm also going back to working with now; I'll expand on that in a moment. And we launched a program to set up accelerators and tech startups in the periphery for people who don't speak the language. For those who didn't grow up in the Azrieli towers and Sarona, and are learning how to create a startup from scratch: how you build a product, how you build a dream, how you ask the right questions, how you meet investors, what networking is. Like you and I met, sort of in Google's languages. Okay, in the periphery that doesn't happen. You don't hang around those places at all. So it's a bit about creating something that's somewhat artificial, but very tailored. And that's basically Tekuma. We're not talking about imitating the Tel Aviv ecosystem; Sderot and Netivot and Be'er Sheva and Dimona aren't Tel Aviv, and they never will be. In my view, that's also the root of everything that has failed so far. You have to think about how the periphery works. There's simply a different language there, and not a worse one. And there are successes too. These government programs alone created, again, I'm talking about people with no technological background, around 40 years old, who did completely different things. Some of them were army commanders, some were even composers, okay? And they brought in 250 million dollars in investments. Those are phenomenal numbers. One moment before we continue,

Eyal David: [07:13] click the link to the Product Builder WhatsApp group in the episode description and join the community. There you can continue the discussion, ask questions and be the first to get updates on new Tachles episodes. We're waiting for you there. And now back to the episode. There was this vision, which probably came to you on the balcony with a coffee, and then you built an action plan, you started bringing it down to earth, and that's where Tekuma was born. You brought in more organizations and people, the government too,

A compass across three sectors, and knocking on the Ministry of Economy's door

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [07:42] I don't know what that looked like. So I'll explain. The plan, again, in my view, let's call it a compass, because it's not a plan the way we call something an action plan. Okay, think of this move as, in the end, a kind of compass for action, and the projects I choose, both through my company and through what I do, speak Tekuma, and speak what I believe Israeli society needs. So it operates in three sectors. The concept. First of all, there's the industry sector. Like I said, it started from and grew out of the knowledge that it can work. It worked in the periphery, and I understand how it can work in the rest of the country, and how to teach people to speak a new language. And there's the national sector. Look, it's really easy for us, and we all do it, to sit and tut about how bad this government is, and how I'd do things differently, and how nothing can really be changed. And I said, here's my opportunity. I want to get inside. I want to go and see for myself whether change is possible. And I went and knocked on the door of Dr. Nir Ben Aharon, a lovely man, the chief economist of the Ministry of Economy at the Small and Medium Business Agency, and I told him, listen, you funded a huge accelerator program in the periphery. I ran part of it. I know it succeeded. Why does nobody know about it? Let me research it.

Eyal David: [08:58] So tell us for a second, yes, about those findings. So he, you went to him, you asked for this? I asked, again, I think this is also a lesson for our listeners,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [09:05] ours: it's really easy to say why would he talk to me, why would he listen, but you can try, and sometimes wonderful things come out of it; in my view these are even life-changing moments. So I really did approach him and told him, let's research this, and I got an open door. And we researched it, we started researching in a completely academic way, an academic study, but one whose recommendations are ultimately meant to be policy recommendations, really for the Budget Division at the Ministry of Finance, to learn how to do things better. How the government can invest in the country, in the periphery, and maybe really create technology accelerators. Now, let me take us back to the framing for a moment. October 7th hit Israeli high-tech, our locomotive, at a time when we need taxes, probably more than we've ever needed them. This isn't just a nice-to-have, or about correcting a moral injustice that high-tech exists only in Azrieli and Sarona. Tekuma. Tkuma, revival, that's exactly what we need. There's more to it than that, in what you're saying,

Eyal David: [10:00] there's damage and there's also a very big debt that's been created, right? Both in terms of people and in terms of money. Exactly.

Research findings: diverse teams in the periphery survive longer

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [10:06] It's a win-win. That's how I like to work, by the way. That's my method in life. I say, if it's not a win-win for all sides, it just doesn't work. And this time, that's exactly what's happening. We also make them less of hewers of wood and drawers of water. We also grow the pie, okay? We grow our economy's locomotive. Just to give you a sense of the numbers: Israeli high-tech is basically a fifth of our GDP, it's more than 58% of exports, okay? And listen to this amazing figure, and even before that, it's 33% of taxes. That's not a locomotive anymore, that's dependence, okay? And the drop that happened now, the crazy deficit we've gone into, someone has to make up for it. And that's exactly where the win-win comes in, for the government, for the periphery, and for what we can do. So a word about the research, because I think, I think it's interesting, and I hope you do too. It basically sat down and studied how it works, how accelerators in the periphery become effective, if at all. I'll keep it short: a very long process, it's economic research full of boring data, but let's hear the bottom line for a moment. In the end, what we found, which in my view is pretty amazing and not trivial, even for someone who comes from the field, is that startups from the most remote periphery, I'm talking about Yeruham, Dimona, Arad, places that are really cut off, without even some backing like Be'er Sheva has, that had a heterogeneous group, meaning both men and women on the team. Just for context: globally, seven percent of founders are women; in Israel we're at something like 21 percent. That's still a bit better than the world, but it's still low. But those diverse teams succeeded significantly, which in simple words means the data is proven, okay? They survived two years later at a higher rate than homogeneous or heterogeneous teams from Tel Aviv. Now that's crazy. What does it actually mean? That if the state creates equality artificially, but real equality, meaning not handing out more fancy innovation centers that they break champagne bottles over but nobody actually walks through their gates, but truly creating a way to learn for those who don't speak the language, it works, and it works great.

Eyal David: [12:19] What do you think, but okay, so amazing, really. What was the process when you proposed it, or what came out of it when you proposed it, what did it look like? When I proposed to Nir to research the accelerators? Yes, I'm really curious to know what it looked like from the other side, how committed they were,

Getting government on board: understand what's on their desk

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [12:35] like, it sounds amazing, sounds very interesting. Right. Look, I believe that when you approach someone, you also need to understand what's sitting on their desk. Otherwise it won't work. And I thought, okay, in the end this is a government program, which is our kind of thing, Startup Nation, right? That's what we're called, and we earned it fairly too. Just so you understand, in 2022 we were first in the world in startups per capita, first in the world in venture capital funds per capita. And I said, let's create something here that can really have an impact. And first of all, come see how much you succeeded, you basically conceived this program, let's show it succeeded. We said, win-win. And also let's create real policy recommendations, first, that this program should continue, because it stopped. On October 7th, absurdly, the government stopped funding the program, because they said, well, who needs high-tech, we're dealing with survival. But that's exactly where I came in wearing a different hat and said, no, we don't need to be victims, we don't need to come and say, in that mindset, no, we're not dealing with this now, we're dealing with survival. We will build, okay?

Eyal David: [13:41] Sounds a bit pompous, a bit Ben-Gurion-like, but I really believe that... Any business owner, though, can understand that, right? You have to leave a certain percentage for growth, so okay. Exactly. So take me back there. You presented it, and you also managed to really rally them around their own goal, probably. Yes. But how did it... they said yes, how fast does it get into practice, what does that look like?

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [14:02] So it was amazing, because I came and said, listen, I only want access to the data. Just give me access to the data; I'm also partly in a leadership program, you don't need to pay me anything, just open the door for me and let me touch the numbers. I'm a woman of numbers, but also a woman of words, no less, but I said, let me play with the statistics a bit; I want to know that what I want to measure is really right, and not just a gut feeling. What did you actually measure, besides how long...

Eyal David: [14:25] First of all, businesses in general, right, the mortality rates are really high? Exactly, certainly for startups. So you're saying, I look at two years, I look at, probably also, I don't know which industries they worked in, all the startups; actually that's interesting, whether there's some correlation to the specific industry, but maybe they were all in one, and that's why they survived two years, I don't know. But in any case, you looked at them after two years, which means they held on, they didn't die,

What's measured: two-year survival and a five-year follow-up study

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [14:48] and is there a longer horizon you're looking at them over, what does that look like? Exactly, that's a super interesting point. So what I did: I measured them after two years. I didn't carry out the measurement; another company carried it out a year earlier, and I just worked with that data. And they measured whether they survived after two years, and also how much they raised and the number of employees. But we're now launching study number two, which will examine them five years later, which is really interesting, because five years is no longer luck. A working business, number of employees, degree of impact, and by the way, whether they stayed in the periphery or moved to Tel Aviv. In my view that's super interesting, because as far as I'm concerned we may already be talking about a regulatory change; maybe more incentives are needed to stay in the periphery. Again, in the end it will also serve Tel Aviv better, so that's what I'm saying, it won't hurt; there's more than enough room for everyone. Yes, that's for sure, I really like that approach,

Eyal David: [15:41] but they did start, that's why I'm asking, because a lot of incentives did start around the south, or around the periphery, let's call it. So that I know. So is that something that happened as a result of your research, from the line of thinking that, again, yes, I'm trying to see...

The OECD, flipping to US companies, and who comes back into the game

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [15:55] I wish, I wish I could take that credit; not at all, not yet. I want to understand, how fast and easy is it to actually get things through a government organization? So look, it's not easy-peasy, because we're already, I'm already a year into this research, study number one, but because the data has, as they say, an academic stamp of approval, and it's not just a gut feeling, it's data based on facts, on data that was collected, on conversations taking place, and by the way, that's hard to argue with. When I also presented it abroad, I presented it at the OECD, it turned out we were also pushing on an open door, because the issue of periphery and center-periphery isn't only Israel's problem. All over the world it's concentrated in Manhattan, it's concentrated in Paris, in central Paris, and governments around the world also want to expand this world, because in the end that's where young people flock. That's really true, yes? All the young people always move away from there, a bit like here, and there it's even more painful, because there they also stay in traditional industry, if at all, and then... And how they look at us at all, by the way, which is really nice, because, you know, I was in Paris in April 2025, not exactly a flattering time to be Israeli, certainly not with an Israeli flag on my blazer, but when it comes to Startup Nation, they look up to us, and it really is a source of pride. As far as they're concerned we're the oracle, people to consult and learn from and understand, and we earned it fairly. And I really hope that after this war too we'll know how to recover, because right now, I don't need to tell you, you live the market no less than I do. Both at the investor level and at the level of the startups being built right now, there's a kind of halt, and there's also a lot of "flipping," which means startups deciding to change their company from Israeli to American in order to attract American investors. So first of all, as a proud Zionist, I really hope this changes, and I also push the startups I accompany to really stay in Israel. But if we look at what happened before, and we said we're optimistic in this conversation, so we'll stay optimistic, you can see that throughout every security crisis we experienced a huge drop in our high-tech, but right after there was also a huge boom. You can see it most, I think, in recent history too, in what happened after COVID. 2020, total freeze; 2021, the best numbers Israel ever had, and the world too of course, it was a boom, but we knew how to leverage it well. And I'm also optimistic it will happen now. But the question I'd like to leave our listeners with is: who will come back into the game this time? Will we once again keep it in a small, easy bubble? Or will we also know how to grow the pie and bring in new players who can make it bigger? I think we have no choice, and that's also what you're presenting here.

Eyal David: [18:45] I also think, again, I'm speaking as a Jew, I think it's also something very characteristic of our people, what you said about tkuma, revival. It caught us after the Holocaust too, the founding of the state, previous wars too; there was always growth in the end, and we're the kind of people where private pain ends up carrying this whole country forward, and I really believe in that. What are the significant challenges you identify in this approach? In the approach of connecting the periphery. Also "periphery" is a big word we use, a big word, right. I was just looking at your graphic, and actually, the south is 3%, for example, right? And that's before October 7th.

The numbers: high-tech concentrated in Tel Aviv

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [19:21] The graphic I showed basically shows the breakdown of what Israeli high-tech looks like. In the south, in 2018 alone, less than three percent were in high-tech, less than six percent in the north, and the vast majority was concentrated in Tel Aviv and its surroundings. Even if we go down further to the micro level, just so you understand: how many residents do you think there are in the city of Tel Aviv? I'm looking at the graph, so that's easy. So it's easy, I get you. But let's say, around several hundred thousand, toward five hundred, yes? Half a million residents in Tel Aviv, okay? 11% of the entire population are employed in the high-tech industry, and 64% of them are in Tel Aviv. Which means the remaining 36% are spread across 9 million, more or less. The potential is clear. And it's worthwhile and right. But remind me of the question that got us to the numbers. We got here because you were talking about the periphery,

Eyal David: [20:21] that we broadly expand the discussion about the periphery, when actually every place is autonomous in itself, and how do you connect them; we were talking about challenges. That seems to me like a significant challenge. There's also a challenge here: we're talking about the south, say, there are all kinds of populations, and it's true that they also need to be brought into the game. Tell us, what does that look like? So let's focus for a second, laser focus on the south. A hundred percent. What does it look like there? Who's the audience that comes?

Who the audience is in the south, and a regional entrepreneurship center from elementary school

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [20:41] So that's a question that's also my personal soft spot. I'll say why: because I won't come and say that we can now take anyone and turn them into a successful startup founder who makes an exit. That would be a lie, it's not true. But because in the end I think that... as Shalom Hanoch says, a person lives inside himself, I also tell my personal story as a girl who grew up in the periphery. And I say, the top layer, the excellent ones or those who really want it, many times they don't succeed because they don't have the right opportunity. So I think that's the audience I'm addressing right now, even though in my deeper vision, it's about entrepreneurship education starting from elementary school age. Which may happen: I'm now in talks with a very big college in the south, I won't say its name because it's not closed yet, about setting up a regional entrepreneurship center that would speak entrepreneurship from elementary school all the way to academia, including courses. Because in the end, and who understands this better than you, as someone who works with product managers, at all the big high-tech companies, we need to teach an entrepreneurial mindset: understanding how to think product, how to ask the right questions, how to say more is possible, how to build KPIs, what investors are, how to build this thing from scratch at all, and whether it's even needed. There are models for this in the world, I'm sure, other places that do it; what does it look like, and who leads it? So look, I don't know many places, and I've researched this over the last two years, that run an entrepreneurship center for an entrepreneurial mindset from age 0. There are the market leaders, like Y Combinator, which is one of the leading technology accelerators, and they really do great work and have also grown most of them,

Eyal David: [22:16] but I think who if not the Startup Nation should invent this. No, unequivocally it's us, no doubt, but at the level of, I don't know, I think, Scandinavians, Japanese, Koreans, Americans,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [22:26] nobody goes to kindergarten age and up and does... nothing institutionalized, and that's something I checked really in depth, because at Mandel they also give us the option to fly and examine places we want to learn from. A very pampering place, as you can imagine. I truly got a crazy gift over the last two years; I don't know how many people get to go deep into what they love and really think about how they can do it better for the whole country. But I didn't find any place that brings something like this together, and I think that precisely we in Israel, because we're also leaders in the field, this could be very, very pioneering. But I'm not even looking at the global level right now. I'm really looking first of all at my home, and at how we bring in those people from Be'eri, and Nir Oz, and Magen, and Netiv HaAsara, and Sderot, and Netivot, and Ofakim, and give them a place where they can dream resilience. But not resilience in the clichéd sense of the word, okay, I'm very, very careful about that. But I believe that if you take the power and control to dream something new and build it, that already makes you a much more resilient person. And to say: we're here to stay; they came to destroy, we will build and build better.

Eyal David: [23:37] And for me that's the concept I dream of. Amazing, I love the approach and the vision, and we're actually talking about challenges, so really, it's a pleasure to talk about it. Let's go back to challenges for a minute. You already want to bring this down to earth now. You've started it, right? Yes. This, what's it, Tkuma? Right, so I started, like I said,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [23:59] we have the research, which for me is the vision, the hat I wear at the public-sector level. How we actually turn the ship. And I have to say that as someone who was really, really, really cynical, truly cynical to an incredible degree. You said, you lived in Tel Aviv, let's continue. Yes, yes, I lived in Tel Aviv, drinking espresso, wearing a Rolex, everything they like to say, not really, yes, in the metaphorical sense of the word. I discovered that it's possible. And first of all, there really are excellent people there, in the professional ranks, there are excellent people who want to hear what's happening on the ground. So it's possible, and it really happens at the public-sector level, at least, again, when you bring facts and data. I'll ask you even more specifically,

Eyal David: [24:39] say, what do you need today? You have an action plan, you want to bring it down to earth, what are you looking for right now? First of all, good partners.

The reservist program with MAMRAM alumni and BDO

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [24:45] So I already have, at the level of, we talked beyond the geographic periphery, also changing the social periphery, okay? And that's what I'm going to do now with the MAMRAM Alumni Association, who are the best in their field, and BDO, with whom I basically also built that model. Tell us about BDO, for those who don't know it? BDO is one of the largest strategic consulting firms in the world, top 5, and they also wear the hat of business, legal and technology consulting, the best in their field, for all the big companies. And together with the Innovation Authority and the Discharged Soldiers Department, we're basically setting up a program for reservists, the people who gave their souls for us over the last two years. We want to give back. So we said: there, in the periphery, we taught people who don't speak the language. In the periphery? Here we'll teach people who don't speak the language, probably, everything they can, including the price their families paid, and we're giving them an opportunity here to enter a knowledge-intensive industry. Now, it's not going to be, and here I'd also be really happy if people look for it on LinkedIn too, I hope it will be published in the coming weeks, it is going to be, again, I'll repeat, still for the top layer. We're looking for those who already have something in hand, whom the reserve duty stopped. And we're here; think of it like a dense forest, and we'll hold the machete and clear the path for them. With all the power of the MAMRAM Alumni Association, the technological knowledge, and the incredible mentors, I'm talking about people from Google, from NVIDIA, from Next October, all at our disposal, and the knowledge BDO brings, and the model I developed, and all of us are dedicated to simply taking this wonderful group for four or five months and running them through entrepreneurship ninja training, no less, all the way to a product. All the way to a product and investors, and hopefully we'll see KPIs of investments in the millions during the program itself. So you're looking for brilliant people with all the credentials, let's say,

Eyal David: [26:37] but who are also willing now to give X time from their lives, four or five months, for the opportunity, the potential to build something meaningful. Definitely. And tell me, let's say we roll over to those people who... in your eyes aren't the spearhead you mentioned, or this elite unit; what can they do? Where can they fit in?

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [27:00] So for me that's exactly what I intend to build in the regional entrepreneurship center. There we'll have programs for every layer of the population. I said, from elementary school age to students who are interested in it, to people who simply want to learn to enrich their world by getting tools from the worlds of tech entrepreneurship into their own worlds, which, by the way, in the end are very, very similar. You know, I've seen lots of social ventures around me. I was the resident capitalist who came and talked about high-tech, but in the end it's the same principle. Whether you want to set up a social venture or a tech venture, you first need to validate a need. Whether a need really exists, or it only seems so to me; you need to bring in the right partners, you need to raise the money to get the thing off the ground, you need to understand who your audience is and whom you're serving. In the end it's the same principles. So I hope this center will also be able to serve everyone else.

Eyal David: [27:52] I'm with you, no, I also share the vision, so it sounds amazing. I'll just take it back a step, because maybe people are hearing us, and, like, even an elite unit has combat support. I know you're very focused right now and you're in tremendous focus on getting this first thing off the ground that you're pushing forward, but it's interesting if guys like that reach out to you,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [28:08] interesting what can be done? So first of all, I invite anyone listening who wants to contribute to be a mentor from their experience, if they're more senior, also to help those reservists, basically push the business forward, so I invite you to reach out. Anyone who already has something close to an MVP and really needs this boost, please get in touch, this is the time and the place. And in general, any organization, any place, anyone who believes in the idea and has a way to contribute or promote or connect, every approach is welcome and will always be answered with a smile and maybe even a coffee on me. Come on, be my guest. And tell me, how prepared do those founders need to come? So they need to come prepared. In the end we're aiming at people who need the push to move forward, and that will also be the level. The support will run on two axes, a group axis and a personal axis, with personal mentors and everyone, in the end I believe, and that's also what I learned when I managed in the traditional business world: if a suit isn't tailored, it doesn't really work. So there's the group content everyone needs to learn, and it will be from the top of the field, and there will be the personal support where each one gets exactly the content they need, where they're stuck, and the connections they need. And this is going to be for people who are already close to an MVP, or who already have an MVP and have raised up to one and a half million dollars, meaning pre-seed in our world. And we're going to pick the best team and run with it. There will be two cohorts, so anyone who can't start this coming October and needs a bit more time to mature, we'll also have one in April 2026. It's funny that you chose October. Yes, I think it's because of the academic year, I don't know, but interesting.

Eyal David: [29:51] After the Tishrei holidays, but you're right, it's really... yes, I always tremble the last few years after the Tishrei holidays, so it stuck with me. Tell me, and specific industries, what does that look like?

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [30:01] So no, this time we actually decided not to go, it's called generalist; we're open to any excellent idea, from biotech, to agritech, to AI, to defense. Anyone who has a great idea and already has something in hand. You don't have to have investors, but if you do have investors, that will probably give you an advantage over everyone. It also probably proves your idea one way or another.

Eyal David: [30:21] I'll ask another question. And these industries, so they're very, we said generalist, but does there also need to be some impact here, for example? Social impact, I mean, because you come from that place, right. So I'm trying to understand whether it's also impact. No, it's not going to be only for social impact,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [30:39] look, in the end I believe that growing our high-tech also has a social impact, and giving this opportunity to people who couldn't enter the industry is also social impact. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, even if they're just coming to make good money and succeed on their terms. They pay taxes in Israel, great. They pay taxes in Israel; as far as I'm concerned they've contributed to the country, that's enough, and it's also my privilege to give back to them with the knowledge and expertise I have.

Eyal David: [31:01] Of course, I salute the uniforms we have. So really, take us through it a bit, what do you get in this program? So first of all you get the program itself, like, you're part of the thing, right, and you have some guaranteed milestones you'll go through no matter what. Right. There's the support you offer to really sharpen the idea from a business perspective, from a product perspective, to bring it down to earth. What else does this framework give you?

What participants get: mentors, benefits and peer learning

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [31:24] So first of all, regardless of that, it also doesn't end when those four intensive months end. We're going to be a community, there are events, like, Amazon too, NVIDIA too, all the connections, all the doors open, data you can train on, which is something very, very, very critical for startups at the beginning of the road, to basically grow their traffic. They're going to get... the traffic and the understanding, right? And the understanding and the sharpening of the product, and, like, to understand for a moment whether what we're doing works at all. Of course, it's clean data, it's not something that can be tracked; I don't want the GDPR people to hear me here. They're going to get the best mentors. When I talk about the best mentors, it includes tools: for some of them, whoever really needs it, also a WeWork membership, a place to work, and opening up Google's tools, and getting cloud from NVIDIA, and lots and lots more benefits, and connection to investors, deep networking, a demo day, also an opportunity to present it, basically the product, in front of everyone. But also, all of it, I have to say, and this is really important, is very practical. In the end I'm a bottom-line person. It's not that they're going to come to a lecture and now get four frontal hours and say, we're wasting our time; startup founders, men and women, don't have time. By the way, women, if you're hearing me, come, in droves, I want to see you with me; there's nothing like women's power, and I've also proven to you in the research now that it works. But in the end I want to put them through entrepreneurship ninja training. They're going to come, get a tool, and practice it, each team on its own venture. I mean, at the end of the four hours of the weekly meeting, they already walk out with something in hand. Whether it's the start of a deck, sharpening the deck, how I build the most suitable KPIs, how I build my strategic plan, how I run market research, after I've already started practicing it. And what I also really love about a group, certainly a group as high-quality as ours is going to be, is peer learning. I mean, in the end there's accumulated knowledge in the room, and, who knows better than you how much you fail when you do a startup. You fail all the time, by the way; you really need to leave your ego aside and come and share where I failed and why I failed, and how I can do it better, and what I did in my business plan that made the difference with investors. That's worth gold, and it's also a safety net, because in the end people bond, and from my experience, I've already run dozens of accelerators like this, it's really a group that continued afterwards too, someone you have to consult with. And it's a very lonely world, certainly if you're a solo CEO of a startup. Yes, totally, totally. Sounds really great to me,

Eyal David: [34:01] maybe they'll also connect with each other and do things together. Tell me for a moment, what does the social fabric of something like this look like, what kind of people come? Wow, it can come from here and from there.

Who joins: from reserve commanders to social entrepreneurs

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [34:18] In the end, I'll take as an example the startup program in the periphery that I ran, so it's really interesting: I had reserve commanders, literally a lieutenant colonel and a colonel. Again, with no technological knowledge at all, they simply had a great idea about preventing tunnels from collapsing on soldiers, and we said, how can we turn this into the business market? By the way, they sold it to Turkey. If you remember, if you remember, in Turkey there were lots and lots of earthquakes and lots of building collapses, and it wasn't some crazy technology, but it was an innovative idea, they patented it and it simply succeeded. And on the other hand, I had someone who is the CEO of the Sovev nonprofit, which basically feeds people in need, and he was thinking about a completely different topic related to Alzheimer's, from his personal experience with his parents, and how Alzheimer's can be prevented. It can really come from every direction. And if the idea is good enough and has a well-enough proven need, of course, you have to go through, it's not that romantic, you go through a tough process, and there's a very, very, very fine filter to choose those who can really make the journey. Which is beyond the idea being good, because your good idea will still change dozens of times along the way. Very few don't change their idea and don't sharpen it, which is very strange to me too; whoever manages to do it without changing. You also need to be a person who's open to change, open to criticism, open to learning. And many times these are people who already come with a lot behind them, but this is still the place where they really, as I said, put their ego aside and are going to get a lot of "no," and a lot of criticism, and a lot of hits. And whoever knows how to take that as part of the process, in my view, increases their chances of success many times over.

Eyal David: [36:08] Amazing. Now let's turn practical for a minute. I have two questions. Go ahead. Yes. One, how much time did you give this whole thing? This whole vision? That's the first question. And the second question: as you walk this path, you started from something very... very visionary, right? Very top-down, and gradually you're zooming in. So one, really, how much time did you give it? Or is this your life's goal from now on, and no matter what, this is what's happening? Two, what are the lessons you're already learning on this path?

A compass, not a venture: how long to give a vision

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [36:40] So, good questions. Okay, I'll start with the first question. So I said, it started, the dream started two years ago, and since then, because I was at Mandel, that's all I did: I refined and built and tested and researched it academically, and I said, it's part of my PhD, so, as they say, it's probably also the direction of my expertise and that's where it's going. But it's not that I gave it a defined time, and I'm also careful about saying it's my life's mission, because those are really big words, and I don't like really big words. Practically speaking, because... yes, practically. And in the end I look at it as a compass. I think, will you allow me to drift into philosophy a bit? Go ahead. Alasdair MacIntyre passed away recently, a huge, huge, huge philosopher, who talks about how a meaningful life is a life in which you feel a kind of mission and purpose. And that's very, very true. So I say, okay, it's not like a venture where I say, well, I've given it four months of my life now; if it succeeds, it succeeds, if not, not. I built a compass. For me, my personal story, my expertise, the experience I've accumulated, those are the things where I can also add value. In the end, remember we talked about win-win at the start of the conversation? So it's not that suddenly I have some crazy dream unrelated to everything I've done. It simply connects all the dots. Whether it's my previous experience in the business world, or my personal life story, or how I like to work with people, and I'm crazy about founders and the fire in their eyes,

Eyal David: [38:02] it's all together. That's amazing, but still, I'll push on this, because it's practically interesting. Look, working with the government isn't simple. Working on building businesses that may or may not succeed isn't simple. Did you give it two years, or do you prefer not to give it a limit at all, because governments here change, budgets get diverted, we've seen it. Right, I'll be careful not to talk politics.

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [38:25] No, no, this isn't the place. Exactly. But I'll put it this way. Look, the first study is already done, so that's very interesting, very interesting. If there are concrete conclusions, what will happen with them next? I can't say. I think that's also part of it; I'm probably pivoting all the time, and... I don't intend to kill myself over it, banging my head against the wall; I hope it does make the change. I can tell you I've dedicated another year to the second study; again, it's part of this PhD, it's all together, for me it speaks the same language, and if it also has practical conclusions for the country, all the better. So for me I can say that... I didn't set a time limit, because I'm also, as you can see, already hands-on and boots on the ground. I mean, I already have two accelerators, I also teach this at the university. I mean, I'm there; it's not that I have a defined time, financially, at which I can stop. You understand what I'm checking here, but okay, yes. Yes, yes. I can tell you that it's very interesting: governments around the world have already approached me about the research results and said, okay, how do we build programs like this here? But first of all, I'll be "the poor of your own city come first." As far as I'm concerned, I also grew up in a super-Zionist home; my father, a career officer, used to wake us up with a morning roll call. It's probably ingrained deep, deep inside. First of all, our home, and first of all, first of all, rebuild what was broken and build something new, and then we'll also continue to the world, maybe, Startup Nation, no?

Eyal David: [39:47] Great, so yes, yes, I like the answer I heard, because, first, at the beginning I wanted to hear whether you have a plan B or not. In case it doesn't succeed. But it sounds like you do. Yes. But you're very, very dedicated and focused on the goal; I really love hearing that and I really wish you success. Thanks, come on, it's fun. Because it sounds to me, sounds to me like quite a journey. Maybe together too. Totally, totally. Totally a goal that I also really connect with,

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [40:15] even though I'm from Tel Aviv. Never mind, I married a Tel Avivian, but I moved him to the Negev too. So yes, let's see where this thing goes.

Eyal David: [40:23] So great that you came, it was really interesting. It's an unusual conversation for me to have on the podcast, so it was important to me to get all of this heard. And I wish you lots of success. And we'll also put a link for anyone who wants to get in touch with you; we'll put a link to your LinkedIn in the show notes, and if you'd like, also to the program, wherever you want, we'll put it. Beyond that, leave us with one more optimistic word before we wrap up.

Two notes in your pockets: a closing word of optimism

Shir Elkayam Luzzatto: [40:46] Wow, so allow me to quote a saying from people greater than me. Rabbi Simcha Bunim, one of the founders of the Hasidic movement, said that a person should walk with two notes in their pockets. In the first, "I am but dust and ashes," and we learned that well on October 7th. How much everything, we have no control over it, we have no real control over our lives, even if it seems we do. But sometimes you also need to remember to put your hand in the other pocket and take out "For my sake the world was created." And we can change things. And it turns out it's possible, if you want it enough and are committed enough. So come on, join us. And many thanks for your time, I had a really great time. And I'm sure we'll stay in touch. Amazing, I'm sure, that's also the most Israeli thing to say.

Eyal David: [41:27] Listen, this is also the episode where I laughed the most, I have to say that's also great. No, maybe everyone prefers that, we'll check it in the analytics. So thank you very much, and come back to us in a year, we'd really love to hear how it progressed. Go, it's a date. Done. Come on, bye bye. Bye. Hi friends, thanks for listening. If you found this podcast valuable, you can subscribe and follow us, of course, for more episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other app, and of course, if you didn't find us on some app, I'd be happy if you wrote to us. We'd really appreciate five stars on every platform and for you to follow us so more listeners can discover us and find the podcast. You can also find previous episodes on every app or on the YouTube channel; we have links in the description. Until next time, come on, be effective, and bye bye.