About the course:
HEBR249E has been one of my favorite courses to take at UMD thus far. In this class, you learn about the cultural climate in Israel and reasons why such a small country produces so many start-ups. Throughout the semester, the class examines different startups, technology and ideas that started in Israel and were exported internationally, bought and sold by major companies and Fortune 500 organizations. We will also follow other startups in the world that are modeled after the Israeli start-up.
After exposure to media clips and articles, primary source interviews, business ideas, podcasts and advertising, students then create their own start-up “elevator pitch” and business idea. The entirety of the course is in Hebrew, including assignment instructions, assignment materials (videos, articles), quizzes, and oral reflections. I really enjoyed this aspect of the course because it allowed me to further develop myself as a Hebrew speaker and as a business student at the same time.
My favorite things about this course are the interesting and unique contents of the curriculum. Each week, the class learns about various Israeli startups by watching clips of news segments or reading articles and writings. Despite this course being designed to be fully asynchronous (even before the pandemic), it has been one of my most engaging and interactive courses. I enjoyed having oral presentations and reflections where students recorded themselves responding to questions, uploaded them for the class to see, and commented on each others videos. I really enjoyed seeing the various technological startups and interesting ideas, some of which I had never heard of. Additionally, I really enjoyed the process of creating a startup, presenting an oral elevator pitch, and submitting a business plan that included a market analysis and a sales and advertising strategy. Below are various samples of written assignments, oral assignments, and my startup idea!
HEBR249E has been one of my favorite courses to take at UMD thus far. In this class, you learn about the cultural climate in Israel and reasons why such a small country produces so many start-ups. Throughout the semester, the class examines different startups, technology and ideas that started in Israel and were exported internationally, bought and sold by major companies and Fortune 500 organizations. We will also follow other startups in the world that are modeled after the Israeli start-up.
After exposure to media clips and articles, primary source interviews, business ideas, podcasts and advertising, students then create their own start-up “elevator pitch” and business idea. The entirety of the course is in Hebrew, including assignment instructions, assignment materials (videos, articles), quizzes, and oral reflections. I really enjoyed this aspect of the course because it allowed me to further develop myself as a Hebrew speaker and as a business student at the same time.
My favorite things about this course are the interesting and unique contents of the curriculum. Each week, the class learns about various Israeli startups by watching clips of news segments or reading articles and writings. Despite this course being designed to be fully asynchronous (even before the pandemic), it has been one of my most engaging and interactive courses. I enjoyed having oral presentations and reflections where students recorded themselves responding to questions, uploaded them for the class to see, and commented on each others videos. I really enjoyed seeing the various technological startups and interesting ideas, some of which I had never heard of. Additionally, I really enjoyed the process of creating a startup, presenting an oral elevator pitch, and submitting a business plan that included a market analysis and a sales and advertising strategy. Below are various samples of written assignments, oral assignments, and my startup idea!
Israel, a "Startup Nation"
Israel has earned the nickname “Startup Nation” for a very good reason: With a population of over 9 million, it has the largest number of startups per capita in the world, around one startup per 1,400 people. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has been innovating since the start. Two notable components contributing to Israel's success with startups are mandatory military service and immigration. There is a notable culture in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) where soldiers are expected to improvise and not rely on orders from the top. Furthermore, if a soldier sees someone doing something wrong, even if they are outranked, you are supposed to call them out for the overall betterment of the force. Because their role requires such a high need to be quick-thinking, innovative, brave and daring, these skill sets help influence and inspire post-service Israelis to create startups. Authors of "Start-up Nation", a book about Israel's economy and success as a startup nation, Dan Senor and Saul singer perfectly describe the way immigration has influenced Israel's startup success. Senor and Saul write "Immigrants are not averse to start from scratch. They are by definition risk-takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs. From survivors of the Holocaust to Soviet refuseniks through the Ethiopian Jews, the State of Israel never ceased to be a land of immigration: 9 out of 10 Jewish Israelis today are immigrants or descendants of immigrants the first or second generation. This specific demographic, causing fragmentation of community that still continues in the country, is nevertheless a great incentive to try their luck, to take risks because immigrants have nothing to lose." These two factors, as well as others, have helped shape Israel into a leading technology-based startup hotspot. Tel Aviv, Israel consistently ranks high every year behind cities like Silicon Valley for some of the best startup hotspot cities. Other notable Israeli inventions and startups include Waze, Wix, Viber, SodaStream, Check Point, USB flash drives, drip irrigation, Iron Dome defense system, PillCam (capsule endoscopy), Tomaccio (cherry tomatoes), and RummiKub. |
Above is my oral pitch of my business idea in Hebrew. I chose to upload this assignment because it is taking the information that I gathered from the course and presenting it with my classmates and the professor. My ability to create a business plan, present it in Hebrew, and upload it for everyone to see has helped me grow both as a business student, a Hebrew speaker, and person overall. I really enjoyed presenting my pitch and listening to my other classmates' ideas. Below is a a translation of the pitch.
Tired of buying hiking gear? And in the end, you end up only using once or twice? Are you tired of transporting and packing your equipment like ski boots, snow pants, kayak, tents, and more?
The solution...? Gear2Go
Gear2Go saves you the hassle of purchasing, transporting, and storing equipment. Our company provides equipment rental for the short-term and long-term for any type of adventure you want. A family ski trip to Colorado? Backpacking in Thailand? Hiking, biking, and more? We will provide everything someone would need for these trips.
Gear2Go allows people to rent whatever they want, need, and desire about, whether it be clothes, equipment and supplies. Are you flying to your destination? Gear2Go can save you the hassle of packing your trip gear. For an additional cost, Gear2Go will ship your order to your destination, saving you time, money and stress. We want you to enjoy your trip, so let us take care of all the little details.
Are you going to new destinations or going on a first time adventure? We offer complimentary packing assistance. We will provide a customized packing list based on your personal travel itinerary, including destinations and dates of travel. We will show you all the clothes and equipment required for your special trip type, and you can edit and customize this list at any time, for free!
So, are you ready to take the pressure off packing and transporting gear and instead experience your adventurous spirit? Go see the world with Gear2Go!
Above is the final draft of my startup business idea, Gear2Go. I chose to upload this assignment because it is a culmination of everything that this course taught about startups, how they are formed, and why they are successful. This assignment of creating a business model and plan helped give a real-life experience and application to the course concepts and materials we learned about.
Gear2Go is an online trip equipment rental company. Gear2Go's services allow for travelers to save customers the time of shopping for trip gear, packing it away, and then keep the equipment laying around until the next trip. Gear2Go offers both short-term and long-term rental of any type of trip gear, whether it's a Thailand backpacking trip, and Iceland hiking trip, or a Colorado skiing trip, we've got all the supplies and gear you would need. We also offer complimentary packing itineraries if you input your trip location and date, so we can best find the gear and clothing you would need for your trip specific to your location and time of year. Furthermore, for an additional cost, we can ship your gear to your destination so that you do not have to worry about packing all of the gear yourself, making the overall process smoother and more cost-effective. For Gear2Go's sales and marketing strategy, we are partnering with social media influencers that travel and blog about their trips. They will help promote our company and gain a large market segment by doing this. We are able to partner with these influencers by offering them complementary gear to rent, try out, and report back to us. This way, they can get the first hand exposure to our products and services, then share their reviews with others to help us improve and gain more customers.
Gear2Go is an online trip equipment rental company. Gear2Go's services allow for travelers to save customers the time of shopping for trip gear, packing it away, and then keep the equipment laying around until the next trip. Gear2Go offers both short-term and long-term rental of any type of trip gear, whether it's a Thailand backpacking trip, and Iceland hiking trip, or a Colorado skiing trip, we've got all the supplies and gear you would need. We also offer complimentary packing itineraries if you input your trip location and date, so we can best find the gear and clothing you would need for your trip specific to your location and time of year. Furthermore, for an additional cost, we can ship your gear to your destination so that you do not have to worry about packing all of the gear yourself, making the overall process smoother and more cost-effective. For Gear2Go's sales and marketing strategy, we are partnering with social media influencers that travel and blog about their trips. They will help promote our company and gain a large market segment by doing this. We are able to partner with these influencers by offering them complementary gear to rent, try out, and report back to us. This way, they can get the first hand exposure to our products and services, then share their reviews with others to help us improve and gain more customers.
Above, I am presenting a reflection about my time in HEBR249E. This assignment describes what I gained from this course, why I liked it and recommend it to others, and how this course helped shape my future business ideas. Below is an English translation.
Hello to everyone. I really learned a lot from this course and enjoyed it very much. I learned that if you have a good idea that you are passionate about, do not give up on your dreams of going through with it. A good example of this can be seen in on of our past topics about the invention of the "Re-walk" and the story of Radi Kiyyuf. Amit Gofer, the inventor of "Re-walk", created a "walking-assistance" machine for people with leg paralysis. Despite Amit knowing that he could not benefit from his own invention (he is paralyzed from the chest down), Amit did not hesitate to help other paralyzed people walk with his invention, like Radi Kiyyuf. Radi is an Israeli Druze that was paralyzed after getting injured while defending his country. With the "Re-walk" Radi can once again stand up straight and walk with the assistance of the "Re-walk" machine.
Another thing that I learned this semester is that you can take an idea, and modify it in a way that benefits you. This is like the lesson plan where we learned about Israel finding a natural solution to get clean energy, which the company "SolarEdge" uses solar panels to power Israel, using clean energy as the primary source of energy. Additionally, I learned that just because an idea or business model failed in one place in the world, it doesn't mean it can't be successful in another part of the world. A great example of this is from what we learned this week about a pool-cleaning robot called the "Dolphin", which failed in South Africa. Lenny Hirsch, the greater of the "Dolphin" robot, left South Africa and brought the "Dolphin" to a small Kibbutz (a collective living community) in Israel. He concluded a deal to leave his South African factory and move production to Israel. After the move, the "Dolphin" became a global success and the company is one of the top robotics-producing companies in the world.
This course has helped me shape my own startup business model. From this course, I learned how to think outside of the box to come up with unique and creative ideas that do not already exist. My original business model that I came up with needed to be modified and adapted to be more unique, so I had to learn how to improve an idea that already existed to make it more unique and attractive, yet still successful. From this experience, I learned a lot about myself as an innovator and business student, as well as the overall startup process and how to improve the innovative process to create unique solutions and ideas moving forward to better compete against already existing business models and products. Going forward, this practicum has prepared me well by teaching me the necessary skills for my internship this summer working with an Israeli startup company in Tel Aviv, Israel. I hope that the rest of my time at UMD will further deepen the knowledge and skills sets that I have acquired while studying at UMD. I want to discover more and see what aspects of business really intrigue me to help frame a possible career goal in the future.
Post graduation, I want to continue working in business and possibly start my own business one day. I think that the skills and knowledge that I gained from being ind scholars, this practicum course, and my other classes will serve me well moving forward as I grow into a working professional out of college.
Above are some images of startup products mentioned in my course reflection from left to right: the "Re-walk" machine, the "Dolphin" pool-cleaning machine, and the "SolarEdge" solar panels and the system that stores collected energy.