IN QUEST FOR COOL, TEL AVIV TURNS TO TECH

By Media Line on Friday, November 04, 2011

When Tel Aviv residents call their hometown ‘the city that never sleeps,’ they mean drinking and dancing. But a new unit of the Mayor Ron Huldai’s office, Tel Aviv Global City, wants to add another element to the city’s nightlife — start-up entrepreneurs burning the midnight oil writing business plans and computer code. The goal is to turn itself into the high tech center not just of Israel but all of Europe in 10 years’ time. 

Israel established itself as a high technology center, popularly known as the ”Start-up Nation,” over the last two decades. As the country’s business center and biggest metropolitan area, Tel Aviv is already home to most of the nation’s start-ups. Its Rothschild Boulevard was home to LabPixies, the first Israel start-up to be acquired by Google. Last month, another Rothschild start-up, The Gift Project, was snapped up by E-Bay.

But the city has bigger plans — to combine cool technology with coolness all around — to attract hip, young entrepreneurs who live, work and party in Tel Aviv and make it a world-class city in the leagues of New York, London and Shanghai.

"What we realized was that Tel Aviv’s relative advantage is in the fusion of technology and innovation,” says Eitan Schwartz, describing the city’s strategy. He has the tech-sounding title of director of international content for the Tel Aviv Global City initiative. ”If we want to be a global leader in one sector, it’s probably going to be that.”

If the city’s restaurants and clubs aren’t enough to lure them, the municipality is embarking on plans to offer tax breaks for start-ups, free Wi-Fi in designated areas, hand-holding for new businesses and hosting conferences that bring the global industry’s leaders to the city. It has created a dedicated space at a branch of the public library for budding entrepreneurs to work on their business plans and innovations.

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