The making of Israeli high-technology entrepreneurs: an exploratory study

Israel has an unusually large number of high-technology entrepreneurs and
companies. The influence of high-technology start-ups on the Israeli gross
national product is enormous, with no proportion to its relative size in the local
or international context. The phenomenon of Israeli high-technology entrepreneurs raised great curiosity worldwide but very little academic research attention.
In this exploratory study, in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-five
Israeli high-technology entrepreneurs, focusing on their personal as well as
professional backgrounds. Results suggest that the median successful Israeli
entrepreneur is male, in his mid-forties, with technical education, a technical
profession and an academic degree, who served in the army as an officer in
either combat or technical position and is the first born in a small family of two or three children. The interview material revealed most poignantly the influence
of service in the army on the career development of these entrepreneurs. Six
cases are provided as a demonstration of this influence.