Sphere
#37
2015
28
Burning bright
The source of the tech success of Israel,
also known as the “Start-up Nation”, is
unknown to many Hong Kong people.
It is no mystery, however, to the Li Ka
Shing Foundation (LKSF), which has long
supported connections between Haifa’s
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
and Guangdong’s Shantou University
(see
Sphere
#35), seeking to link Israel’s
innovative spirit with education in China.
The Techcracker Lab programme
continues that bridge building by giving
enterprising young people a chance
to see Israel up close to learn how
to cultivate innovation and operate
successful start-ups.
This new programme supported a large
cadre of carefully selected university
and high school students, accompanied
by their teachers and professors, to
visit the “Start-Up Nation” for a week
in early 2015. The Consulate General of
Israel sponsors media to document the
exchange. The over 100 participants
found the experience an eye-opener.
Davon Hui, from Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, and Felix Yung, a student in
the University of Hong Kong, shared their
thoughts with
Sphere
. “I am grateful for
the sponsorship of LKSF,” says Mr Yung.
“Not only have I had the opportunity
to learn about entrepreneurship and
experience the culture of Israel that
breeds innovation, the trip made me
realise that the development of a
society will depend on the advancement
of technology. And thanks to the
Foundation, I am able to visit a place
where people normally will not go at
this young age and learn something that
cannot be possibly learnt in Hong Kong.”
The can-do spirit
Apart from learning about the
conceptualising, funding and
development of start-ups, participants
interacted with prominent
entrepreneurs and, at the end of the
visit, had the chance to pitch a business
plan to start-up experts.
Mr Yung cited meeting Waze founder
Uri Levine as one of the highlights of the
trip. Waze is a traffic and navigation app
that was sold to Google for USD1.1 billion
in 2013. One thing that struck Mr Yung
was the perseverance Mr Levine
has demonstrated, explaining, “Uri
shared with us that every start-up faces
a cycle—the motivation will drop as
a start-up struggles to materialise a
business idea and later rise again. He
says it is like crossing the desert, where
you find the scenery is always the same,
but as long as you keep walking, you will
find your way out of the desert one day
and see a different picture.”
Mr Hui too was impressed with the
spirit of the entrepreneurs. He worried
he lacked the technical skills to set up
his business but, after hearing from
Wibbitz founder Zohar Dayan, Mr Hui
discovered that Mr Dayan once felt he
too lacked the technical background
to build his groundbreaking app that
allows users to literally watch news
articles. And even though Mr Dayan
failed many times in the early days,
he persisted and finally emerged as
a success.
City tough, desert tough
Mr Dayan’s spirit is perhaps part of
Israel’s national fibre. With limited
natural resources, resilience in the face
of adversity has created the Israel of
today, rewarding the nation’s innovation
and perseverance. These are the exact
qualities required for a start-up to
blossom and an entrepreneur to be
successful.
LKSF sought to give the relatively
sheltered Hongkongers a taste of Israel-
style mental toughness needed to reach
their goals. Apart from spending a night
camping in the desert, participants went
swimming in the cold Dead Sea and
trained to shoot with an M-16 rifle and a
pistol in the heavy snow. “We were wet
and it was very cold,” Mr Yung recalls of
his first-ever shooting experience. “The
weather condition was not good, but we
pulled ourselves together and stayed
till the end of the shooting exercise.” To
him, the training was an experience he
would never forget.
From learning to application
Mr Hui had the idea to take styrofoam
and transform it into condoms. He is
keen to emphasise the environmental
upside of recycling. Moreover, “apart
from being a gimmick, I believe my idea
will really help the Third World to fight
HIV.” It might take some time before we
see the next-generation condom in the
market, but Mr Hui has learned from this
trip to be persistent.
Mr Yung, on the other hand, is eager to
dive into the online shopping business
as he sees the market potential
growing. Leveraging the network he
established on his trip and the lessons
learnt from successful entrepreneurs,
he has firm plans to open his business
someday.
Both students were excited about the
insights they gleaned on their trip. “It is
not easy to become an entrepreneur in
Hong Kong, but this trip has provided
me an invaluable opportunity to move
in this direction,” says Mr Hui. At a time
when Hong Kong is exploring ways to
encourage young people to become
entrepreneurs, LKSF is fanning the flames
of innovation in eager young minds to
help them become the next Thomas
Edison, Craig Venter or Elon Musk.
>>
LKSF sparks innovation
