Global Entrepreneurship Week is underway in Israel following a button-pressing ceremony to start a day of trade at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on November 16. Attendees included kids from across the region. The event included 15 "entrepreneurship tables", and speakers including Tal Kollender, a cybersecurity expert who started as a teenage hacker, was recruited into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Cyber Security-Systems Division, and went on to become the CEO and co-founder of the cybersecurity company GYTPOL (now Remedio).
Kollender's first experience as an "ethical hacker" motivated her to start a company focused on addressing the consistent vulnerabilities that attackers exploit, particularly in misconfigurations and outdated software.
In her remarks, Ayla Matalon, chair of GEN Israel, discussed recent Nobel prize winners, and the impact of entrepreneurship and innovation on economic growth:
"The importance of entrepreneurship for economic growth and stability cannot be overstated. This year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to researchers Mokyr, Aghion, and Howitt for the models they developed, which describe how innovation drives long-term economic growth. Joel Mokyr showed how an open political and intellectual environment that encourages curiosity and scientific discourse is essential for the growth of innovation. The work of Aghion and Howitt demonstrates that free competition is a necessary component in driving innovation, which generates monopolistic profit, at least for a short period.
Entrepreneurship replaces the notion of a "zero-sum game" with the expansion of the pie, generating abundance in wide circles of influence.
"The high-tech sector is a key component in the growth of the Israeli economy. Over the past three decades, the "Start-Up Nation" has created hundreds of thousands of high-quality jobs and contributed hundreds of billions of dollars to the state treasury. This is due to the Israeli culture that encourages excellence, directness, and the willingness to challenge authority, a solid technological infrastructure, strong research institutions, a strong legal system, and a stable financial system.
In the past two years, Israeli society has demonstrated remarkable resilience during a difficult and challenging period. Alongside the rebuilding of global confidence in the Israeli economy, we are witnessing signs of recovery in the technological entrepreneurship sector, and we believe we will see more and more international investment bodies investing in what Israel has to offer."