As America struggles to get its mojo back as a preeminent center of innovation and thereby prosperity, metropolitan and national economic leaders would do well to study the case of Israel. Israel? Yes, Israel. As Dan Senor and Saul Singer make clear in their bracing new book Start-Up Nation, Israel is a country of just 7.1 million people that may well be the world’s top techno-nation, yet in a way that has huge relevance for those thinking about America’s renewal.
In the face of war, internal strife, and rising animosity from other nations, this embattled sliver of sun-baked desert has flourished as a technology hub. The country boasts the highest density of start-up companies in the world, with a total of 3,850 now operating at a rate of one for every 1,844 Israelis. In 2008, the nation attracted more than $2 billion in venture capital in 2008, as much as flowed to the U.K.’s 61 million citizens or the 145 million people living in Germany and France combined. And for that matter, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the Nasdaq in 2009, more than from any other foreign country, including Canada, Ireland, the U.K., Singapore, China, or India. Nor have the wars Israel has repeatedly fought slowed the country down. Since 1995, Israel’s broader economy has grown faster than the average for the world’s developed economies. During this decade, the Israel’s share of the global venture capital market did not decline--it doubled, from 15 to 30 percent.
Innovation Nation: Israel | The New Republic
