You’re Either on the Bus…

As Tom Wolfe put it (in his chronicle of the ’60’s, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Tests) way back when, “You’re either on the bus, or off the bus.” I’m on the bus – to Baltimore, that is traveling with The Roadshow, as it has come to be known. The Roadshow, sponsored by The Trendlines Group, is an unprecedented (as in first-time-ever) gathering of over a dozen Israeli early stage hi-tech companies (many in the biotech area, but with others as well) who are in the U.S. for a week to meet with investors across the country.

Monday we were in Manhattan, so if this is Tuesday, it must be Baltimore (which the aforementioned bus is now on the way to). Then it’s on to Chicago on Wednesday, and L.A. on Thursday, before breaking up and returning home.

I was invited by Trendlines to check out the process, and see what really goes on in these investor meetings. Everyone in Israel (and the U.S., for that matter) knows that Israeli companies seeking startup money are frequent visitors to the U.S., trying to raise funds in their “first round” or “second round,” etc. For most of us, the process by which this money is raised – what goes into the selling of Israeli hi-tech ideas to American investors – is a deep mystery. What’s the motivation for the investors? Why does one company make it big, while another languishes (assuming it has a valid technology and would pass due diligence)? How do Israelis overcome the language barrier? How do they find investors, what do they promise them, and why do the investors believe them? There’s a whole subculture here of Israeli tech folk who go on the road seeking funding – a story that will unfold here and elsewhere (including in the Jpost) in the coming weeks.

Related articles

• The Roadshow (israeltech.net)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 6:46 pm and is filed under development, hi-tech, israel, other stuff, start-up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.