I was fortunate enough to visit Israel this spring and be immersed in the start-up scene there for a brief time. I was blown away by the energy and excitement.

I was fortunate enough to visit Israel this spring and be immersed in the start-up scene there for a brief time. I was blown away by the energy and excitement. The book "Startup Nation" by Saul Singer was given to me while there, but I haven't read it yet. What I understand from talking to a bunch of entrepreneurs while there was: - Israeli's serve in the military between HS and college. Thus when they get to college they are more mature and ready to learn. - Many Israeli's in their military service are exposed to "interesting" tech research due to Israel's geopolitical situation and resulting posture. - Israel really has no export other than intellectual property/ideas. So they have invest in education, particularly in the sciences. I visited both the University of Jerusalem and Technion University in Haifa and was very impressed with the directed research I saw. - There is a deep undercurrent of entrepreneurship due to what my friends there call "the Jewish mother syndrome": It used to be Jewish mothers would harp on their kids "You will be a doctor/lawyer". Now it's "You will be Bill Gates/Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg".