Middle East Peace–Through Tech

Silicon Valley is full of conferences and “summits”, but this week I dropped in on a pretty unusual one: A confab at the Rosewood Hotel that brought together Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs and VCs.

It wasn’t exactly a peace summit—though techies from all backgrounds did gather in the same room together and collectively nosh on tuna, deli meats and hummus at lunchtime. The main idea, according to conference organizers, was simply to introduce these people to one another on neutral turf (sadly, thousands of miles away from their homes and businesses) and give them some ideas about how to better do business together. In the Middle East, after all, many Palestinian and other Arab entrepreneurs live just miles from the tech hotspot of Tel Aviv. But many can’t easily travel there, or participate in the kind of industry networking that is often so essential for startups to secure funding.

Consider the case of one ground-breaking startup, a software company called G.ho.st that kept offices in both Jerusalem and Ramallah. When employees in different locations had to talk to each other in person, they were forced to trek to a café at a gas station along the Jerusalem-Jericho Road, basically in the middle of the desert. Despite funding from Benchmark Capital (which has an office in Israel) and other investors, the company didn’t make it. Who knows if the company’s special political and geographical issues played a role—though obviously startups of all stripes can have a rough time standing out in their respective markets.

This week’s summit, sponsored by several VC firms and organized by Kleiner Perkins and Bessemer Venture Partners, tried to give Middle Eastern entrepreneurs more ammunition to keep their companies afloat and growing. Huge Valley names like LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Google’s Omid Kordestani and Yelp’s Vivek Patel all spoke during the event and offered their thoughts on tech trends and specific business issues. Hoffman spoke about how to integrate social functionality into enterprise businesses, while Patel addressed the issue of making Web sites more international—a big issue for entrepreneurs living in smaller, regional markets. Another presenter, IMVU co-founder Eric Ries, discussed the hot “lean startup” movement and offered practical tips for convincing potential recruits of the value of stock options, versus straight salary. Kleiner Partner Bing Gordon, a board member of popular online-gaming outfit Zynga, discussed incorporating game dynamics into online businesses. Finally, Ted Schlein of Kleiner and David Cowan of Bessemer spoke to attendees about general startup issues and how to develop a positive board of directors.

Clearly, plenty of these topics cross national borders, making the discussion relevant for all the entrepreneurs who traveled thousands of miles to attend. Maybe next time the Middle East’s political reality will have improved enough for everyone to gather closer to home.

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