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TechCrunch, Forbes and others say building relationships is key. Also, startups should make an effort to think like a reporter

Pitching to the media can be a nightmare. Spray-and-pray emails, PR firms can be too expensive for many small companies and it is hit or miss if they will come to that badass launch party.

So what is a founder to do? Some of the most recognisable names in the tech media world gave us some advice.

Jon Russell, Writer, TechCrunch

The best relationships I have with founders are long-term. That means that we have ongoing discussions about industry topics, rumours, gossip, etc., as opposed to only getting in touch when they have news.

I generally reply to most emails that appear to have been sent personally to me because I appreciate it when someone has noticed the type of stories that I cover and sees a fit with their company or client. It is not hard to spot a copy/paste email sent to multiple media — they are fine for big companies, but I believe that startup founders should identify a handful of core media and get to know them… ideally before they have news. That makes the relationship a much healthier and reciprocal one.

Josh Steimle, Contributor, Forbes

Think like a journalist and offer something of value. Journalists want to write unique stories that readers find interesting. Are you giving the journalist exclusivity? Journalists don’t want to write the same story as someone else. Have you done something newsworthy? Like raising millions of dollars, or signing up a million customers? Can something about your startup tie in with current events? Do you have interesting data? An infographic?

Michael Tegos, Singapore Reporter, Tech In Asia

When pitching to the media, it’s important to remember one thing: you are probably one of many, many startups trying to reach out to us.

Sure, it’s part of our job to hear you out, but we can get overwhelmed pretty fast. So when I see a startup pitch, I need to be able to understand what the company is all about, ideally within the first paragraph – because there will probably be 10 similar emails in my inbox that morning. If that catches my attention, then I’ll move on to the details. If the concept of your startup is too hard to explain in such brevity, at least explain why I should take the time to dig deeper.

Journalists have seen a lot of startup ideas. And I mean, a lot. So when you want to reach out about your new instant messaging app that will give LINE and WhatsApp a run for their money, chances are we’ll roll our eyes at it. Instead, try explaining why you believe your idea has legs. Why did you choose to do a messaging app in the first place? What’s the plan behind it? That has a better chance of grabbing my attention than a subject line saying you came up with a ‘WeChat killer’.

And speaking of subject lines, those help too. Stick a quick but concise description in there, an idea of what I’ll get if I click on your email (important: do not make it clickbait-y). “Startup pitch” might be accurate, but it’s not terribly interesting when faced with a full inbox in the morning.

Looking forward to your pitches!

Also Read: Hits and misses in Asian startups of 2015

Joji Philip, Founder, DEALSTREETASIA

Startups that can pitch the fact that they have raised some level of funding — be it an angel round, seed, pre-seed, pre-Series A, Series A, etc. — will immediately have the journalist’s attention.

Secondly, startups that pitch they are bootstrapped, and have sustained themselves for a period of months or years will also attract attention.

As far as I am concerned, it is very difficult to pitch to journalists when the startup is at an ideation stage, has not hired a team, or the product is not ready and the company does not have investors in the venture.

If the funding angle is ruled out, then it has to be some great number that catches the journalist’s attention. For instance, we’ve had X million users, Y million downloads or Z million transactions, among others.

I’ve come across a lot of startups that send their pitch decks to journalists. Unlike VCs, I bet that most journalists do not have the technical expertise to analyse a pitch deck and projections in detail. Even if they have the expertise, almost all journos are too lazy to do that. So, my personal opinion is this strategy does not work.

Final point is from my experience with DEALSTREETASIA. We went to investors after the product was live for a year. We decided against going at the idea stage. [We felt] It would be great if potential investors can see and feel the product, see the traction, see the numbers.

It was a fully functional product, the team was in place, expansion plans were on track, and most importantly, the promoter, while bootstrapping, had put in a significant sum personally.

Even when pitching a story to journalists, they are more likely to be interested if they know that the promoters so strongly believe in [the company] that they’ve invested everything into the venture.

Michael de Waal-Montgomery, Writer, VentureBeat

Get to know the journalist and build a relationship before you come to announce something. Plan ahead. That way, when it’s time to announce something, they’ll already be familiar with you. But every journalist works differently, so admittedly it might not be easy to meet with them all. Some are more open, whilst others are more private. Focus on the journalists that seem to be open and available to you, even if they’re from smaller publications. A ‘small’ journalist today may be a ‘big’ journalist tomorrow.

Liang Hwei Teh, Singapore Editor, Vulcan Post

It’s often easy for startups to get carried away by the process and the technology that they don’t see the story. The key is to always think about the audience you want to talk to and pitch to them. Be aware of whether your readers are investors, other entrepreneurs, millennials or an auntie and craft your pitch to cater to them. Journalists are just trying to make that connection.

Wendy Tang, Writer, AllChinaTech

In order to pitch your story to journalists effectively, it is important for you to understand the scope of the media outlet.

For instance, at AllChinaTech, we cover tech giants and startups from China to an English-speaking audience, so your story idea has to have a Chinese element in it. Also, it is good to follow the reporters from the media outlet to know what kind of stories he or she writes about. For example, I’m covering the local startup scene in Beijing, if you pitch me a story of a unique business model, it will instantly catch my attention.

Also Read: Pivot your marketing instead of your product

Hannah Leung, Hong Kong Writer, e27

Some startups are concerned they cannot outsource communications to a PR agency. Having a PR team does not hurt if you have the budget, but it is not necessary. I sometimes prefer talking directly to the startup anyway. The best emails are fleshed out, honest and have interesting angles — it doesn’t matter who is sending them.

Generally, I appreciate honesty. Some startups think it is shameful to admit they have struggled. In meetings, they don’t acknowledge other companies are working on a similar concept, or that they have competitors, when that is obviously not true.  (Anyone with Google can verify that!)

There is a difference between sticking to your agenda versus sounding arrogant. If you want to gain credibility, be real.

The post Want to get your company in the news? 8 tech journos offer advice appeared first on e27.

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Image credit: Pixabay

If you’re a new startup, or contemplating starting out, odds are you are thinking of creating something as a “two-sided platform.” That is, a platform-based business where you connect service givers to customers – think Practo or Redbus.

Now, if you’re starting out, you’re probably thinking, but how do I overcome our daily challenges to get there?

The question gets all the more relevant in India now, as 2016 is going to see some major cold feet from investors. That means no more easy money, and no more “if I’m a startup, someone will fund me” assurances. Only those with solid operations in place will survive.

To help some of their mentee companies, investors Sharad Sharma and Manav Garg put together a workshop where founders from six startups in various stages of evolution – Wishberry, Superprofs, Koove, Amigobulls, Letsventure, and Instavans – got together to solve their own and each other’s problems. Here are their key takeaways.

Six startups discuss their learnings in Bangalore
Photo credit : Tech In Asia

Key metrics you should focus on to help you grow:

1. Identify your value unit. What is the core proposition you are offering? Build your entire business around that value unit.
2. For a peer-to-peer business, category leadership is key. Within your play area, find out what your niche is. Figure out what your strength is, kill that category and then move on to others.
3. Set a target for an increase in average size of your transactions.
4. Track your wallet share. How much do people transact on your site, versus a competitor’s?
5. Track your active users and their engagement patterns. What do your loyal

Key drivers that will help you hit those metrics:

1. You are going after trust, so curate, curate, curate. Don’t let everyone and anyone list on your site just to claim big numbers. Closed platforms have better success rates than open platforms.
2. Increase your efficiency. Minimize the time you waste on back-end logistics. Investing in tech could be a good idea, but in India, tech will need hard on-ground support.
3. Be prompt with your payments. Remember, both producers and consumers are your customers. If you are a taxi aggregator, pay your drivers on time. If you’re a marketplace for selling clothes, pay your sellers on time. Angry partners are disloyal partners.
4. Get users to share their stories. You’re a platform-based business, you have to make first-time users comfortable using your site.
5. Peer-to-peer platforms have an age-old chicken-and-egg problem. Demand first, or supply? Measure this carefully. To start off, it might be better to keep supply slightly short of demand.

Manav Garg (left), and Sharad Sharma (right) mentoring startups
Photo credit : Tech In Asia

Key takeaways from the workshop:

1. Create very high entry barriers for yourself. Unfortunately in India, many peer-to-peer startups already have bigger global rivals. You might be the first mover in the sector today, but what happens when the Amazon to your Flipkart sets up shop tomorrow? Work your metrics in a way that accounts for that challenge.
2. Be true to your company culture. Good people make good companies. If you imbue the right people with the right spirit, things will fall in place.
3. Don’t lose sight of the broad picture. It is very easy to be distracted by daily firefighting when you are building a business, but it helps to take a step back and take another look at what you originally set out to do.
4. The customer is your focus. Your culture, your product, your business – it’s all geared towards making a customer happy.
5. Lean on your peers to exchange ideas. There’s an ecosystem out there, where other people are going through the same challenges as you are. Don’t be afraid to ask – learning from your peers is the best!

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Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, image via Fortune Live Media

Today at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun dropped a few surprising quotes. Namely, he debunked the idea that a smartphone company’s number-one goal is, well, selling smartphones.

“Xiaomi does not emphasize goals such as smartphone sales anymore,” he said during an onstage interview that was transcribed by the official MIUI blog.

“I want to get rid of traditional key performance indicators,” Lei Jun added.

It’s certainly possible that Xiaomi is reworking its KPIs to give less weight to smartphone sales. After all, Xiaomi is not exclusively a phone company – it sells everything from Windows tablets to fitness trackers to water purifiers.

But it’s also entirely possible that this is damage control. Last year, Xiaomi was brimming with confidence. After a stellar 2014, the company announced its 2015 sales target: 100 million phones. By this March, it was clear that that prediction was a bit too optimistic, and Lei Jun announced that the company was aiming for a – still massive – 80 million sales. But that seems to have been a bit out of the company’s reach as well.

The company, often called “China’s Apple”, has not released its official sales figures for the last quarter of 2015, but it looks like even with its successful Singles Day sale of some US$110 million, the company will likely fall short of its 80 million sales target.

A different company

All together, Lei Jun’s statements are damage control, sure, but they’re also a reminder that smartphone sales alone aren’t a great metric for judging the state of the company in 2015.

Starting in late 2014, Xiaomi saw sales of its cheap MiBand fitness tracker skyrocket, and also expanded its smarthome tech offerings to include air and water purifiers. This year the company has also released new 3D TVs, updated tablets, scooters, and a variety of other non-phone devices. Smartphones are still a fundamental part of the company’s model, but they are no longer the only driver of growth.

In the previous quarter, Xiaomi saw domestic competitor Huawei surpass it in smartphone sales, according to Canalys. If the companies were being judged by their phone sales alone, then it may be time for the folks at Xiaomi to get worried. But Lei Jun seems unfazed.

“I don’t really care [about] numbers such as global shipments and market share anymore,” he told the Wuzhen audience. “What we care the most is the customer’s satisfaction.”

That sounds like PR spin, but it’s also a smart strategy for Xiaomi. As the company becomes an established brand – instead of an insurgent startup – it makes sense to focus on more than just raw numbers. Smartphone consumers are notoriously not loyal to brands, especially when it comes to Android platforms. If Xiaomi can foster some semblance of brand loyalty, then they’ll be able to accomplish a feat that companies like Samsung, HTC, and others have found elusive.

The company also has to face up to the fact that its expansion plans, particularly in India, have not resulted in explosive growth. In its third quarter, smartphone sales outside of China made up just 7 percent of the company’s total, and figuring out how to grow that number will surely be a top priority for Xiaomi in the coming year.

Measured by phone sales alone, Xiaomi’s 2015 may look a bit underwhelming. But then, you could argue that setting insane targets and falling short of them isn’t failure, per se. It will take some time (and a peek into fourth-quarter financial reports, once they’re out) to see how Xiaomi really did this year.

If 2014 was the year when Xiaomi blew through everyone’s expectations, then 2015 seems to have been the year when the company realized that it can’t set its sights on startup-level growth forever. It’s now one of the grown-ups, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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A few months ago, SoftBank-backed Housing awarded pink slips to around 600 people with plans to lay off 200 more

Just weeks after the Indian media reported on the massive lay-off at Housing, another Indian startup has handed over pink slip to 100 employees.

Mumbai-based Grabhouse, a VC-funded broker-free online rental platform, has laid off 100 staffers as part of its restructuring plans, according to Livemint.

In an e-mailed response to a section of media, Grabhouse’s Co-founder Pankhuri Shrivastava said:

“We have been forced to lay off employees due to restructuring of our business. This has been a tough decision for us and we are doing all we can to help people who have been let go. We have organised a special recruitment team to help these employees find their next role asap and will continue to support this effort any way we can. Grabhouse is increasingly focussing on creating better technology solutions that can connect home seekers and owners in the most efficient manner possible. As we continue to try and build stronger technology solutions, we are closing down the more operational parts of the business — this restructuring has forced us to make some tough choices. During this period, we will take all measures to ensure our customers and services remain unaffected.”

Also Read: Rahul Yadav fired from Housing as “behaviour not befitting a CEO”

Surprisingly, the development comes just a couple of months after the firm grabbed US$10 million in Series B round of funding from Sequoia Capital and Kalaari Capital — two leading VC firms in India. Previously, Grabhouse’s had raised US$2 million in Series A round from the same set of investors in November last year.

Founded in 2013 by Prateek Shukla and Shrivastava, Grabhouse is a rental property listing website for Indian cities. The platform claims to have served a million customers as of October this year. It has a presence across 11 cities in the country.

Is online real estate going though consolidation?

Over a dozen online real estate companies are operating in India, most of who are backed by large VC investors. The last three-four months have not been so great for many of these companies, as they either slimmed down operations or fired people in large numbers. This can be directly attributed to an over-all decline in the realty space in the country.

SoftBank-backed Housing started the lay-off drive by awarding pink slips to around 600 employees three-four months ago, as per The Economic Times. The same publication reported last month that the Mumbai-based startup is planning to lay off another 200 people to tighten costs.

This is in addition to a few M&A developments in the recent past. Last month, Google Capital-backed real estate portal CommonFloor.com agreed to merge with Mumbai-cased online classifieds company Quikr. Just two days after this report came out, Quikr announced the acquisition of realtycompass, a real-estate analytics platform that provides builder ratings and detailed project analysis to consumers.

In yet another incident, the Bangalore office of NoBroker — a VC-funded online real estate marketplace that connects flat owners and tenants directly with each other by eliminating middle men — came under attack from around 40-50 people in September, allegedly brokers, for “the disruption it is causing in the market”.

If these are any indications, not all is well in the real estate industry in India. The segment, which has been a darling of VC investors for the past two years, is going through a consolidation of sorts. Eventually, large sharks will gobble up small fishes, and only two or three players will monopolise the industry.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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The occasion was a reason to go to town for online shoppers as e-retailers saw close to 30,000 orders made

Were you one of those who succumbed to the dark side and the deals offered during Cyber Monday, Singles Day and 12.12? (Image Credit: Stefano Buttafoco/Shutterstock.com)

The e-commerce industry is thriving, having attracted nearly US$112 billion in investments globally in 2014 according to a Frost & Sullivan research paper. A PayPal study conducted by Nielsen in 2011 forecasted the Singapore online shopping market to reach S$4.4 billion (US$3.1 billion) this year.

The appetite for e-commerce is partly fed by retail holidays such as Cyber Monday, Singles Day, and more recent phenomenon 12.12, Zalora’s attempt to deliver Southeast Asia’s answer to the first two. Various e-commerce players brought these retail holidays to prominence, hoping to cash in on consumers’ appetites for a good deal or two.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiering all over the world today, Shopback — a Singapore-based e-commerce startup that offers shoppers cashback rewards for their purchases — has released an infographic containing statistics from online shopping through the more than 500 e-retailers on its platform, comparing the performances and detailing the origins of these retail holidays.

“Judging me by my size, do you?” we imagine a certain green Jedi master saying.

Here is the stats warsy infographic:

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Photo credit: 401K

The Philippines has an ambitious target for its startup ecosystem. By 2020, the country aims to have 500 startups that have raised total funding of US$200 million from investors and raked in a valuation of US$2 billion. It’s got a long way to go, but it’s making good progress. This year, we’ve listed at least 15 Philippine startups that earned investors’ vote of confidence. Here they are:

Paynamics

In January, internet payment solutions provider Paynamics raised an undisclosed amount of series A funding from Tokyo-based Beenos, a global internet and ecommerce startup incubator. Paynamics said it would mainly use the money to get more merchants to sign up.

Read our full report here.

Salarium

Salarium founder and CEO Judah Hirsch

Salarium, an end-to-end payroll system providing time and attendance keeping, payroll and expense processing, and salary disbursement, took home the much-coveted equity investment worth US$500,000 from Seedstars World (SSW) in February after winning the global startup competition. Salarium bested nine other finalists that pitched their business ideas in front of an international and prestigious jury at the SSW event in Geneva, Switzerland.

Read the story here.

ZipMatch

The ZipMatch team

Real estate marketplace ZipMatch closed a US$2.5 million series A round sometime in March and it’s using the money to develop more products for homebuyers and brokers, and to expand across the Philippines and Southeast Asia. Singapore­-based venture capital firm Monk’s Hill Ventures led the round. Existing investor 500 Startups participated as well.

Read the story here.

Cogito

In April, Cogito received seed funding of an undisclosed sum from Philippine investment firm Kickstart Ventures. The startup is a software-as-a-service platform that allows businesses to create and automate workflows in minutes, and connect these workflows to cloud services.

Read more about Cogito here.

Medix

mClinica CEO Farouk Meralli with Medix founder Marc Medina

In April, cloud-based clinic management service Medix sold a stake to mClinica, a mobile healthtech provider for the pharmaceutical industry, kicking off a strategic alliance between the two.

Medix launched in the Philippines in 2013 as a software-as-a-service for dental practices, but it recently developed an electronic medical record platform that has gained traction among hospitals and clinics in the Philippines. By partnering with mClinica, which maintains digital networks of pharmacies across Asia, Medix will gain operational expertise for entry into new markets and access to mClinica’s client base, which includes some of the world’s largest healthcare companies. For mClinica, the deal includes equity in the company, as well as access to Medix’s technologies and development resources.

Know more about the deal here.

Pouch

Pouch is a startup that introduced NFC (near field communication) payment wristbands for huge events. The concept of paying using wristbands already exists in mature markets like the US and Europe (the popular Lollapalooza festival is one event that made use of them). However, the idea is still very new to Southeast Asia. Pouch aims to be a leader in this space in the region, and key to making this happen is the US$500,000 seed funding it raised from Malaysia-based Captii Ventures in June.

Read our full story here.

TaskUs

TaskUs founders Bryce Maddock and Jasper Weir

TaskUs, an outsourcing startup servicing tech startups, raised US$15 million in series A funding from Philippines-based private equity fund Navegar in June. Most people probably haven’t heard of the company, but it’s the secret weapon that a chunk of Silicon Valley has used for years. Founded in 2008, TaskUs handles customer support and back-office services for rapidly-growing startup juggernauts like Uber, Groupon, and Tinder – to name a few.

Read the story here.

Mobkard

IdeaSpace President Earl Martin Valencia, Globaltronics CEO William Guido, and Mobkard co-founders Francis Uy and Carlo Calimon

Mobkard raised US$375,000 in funding from digital signage advertising firm Globaltronics in July so it could extend the use of its location-based loyalty solutions service to the general public. Mobkard initially focused on the so-called business-to-communities market and created loyalty solutions apps for over a dozen businesses and organizations. While the company continues to do this, it has expanded its service for use by any merchant through its apps on the Apple Store and Google Play Store.

Read more about Mobkard here.

Partyphile

Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups injected an undisclosed amount of seed funding into nightlife app Partyphile in September after the company proved it has had some traction. Partyphile helps people discover Manila’s nightlife, hassle free. Through the app, users can get on the guest lists of all the top clubs in the capital, which means no more lining up or paying entrance fees. Users can also book tables and buy all-access VIP memberships, charged to their monthly phone bills.

Read more here.

Lifetrack

Eric Schulze, Lifetrack founder and CEO

Lifetrack is a radiology software platform that pairs hospital residents in emerging markets with experienced radiologists around the world who can help evaluate medical images. In October, the company raised an undisclosed amount of funding from strategic investors, including Kickstart Ventures.

Here’s the full report.

Rappler

Independent online news site Rappler raised funding twice this year – from North Base Media in May, then from Omidyar Network in October. Omidyar Network is a fund created by eBay founder and entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, while NBM was founded by prominent journalists Marcus Brauchli, who headed the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post newsrooms; Sasa Vucinic, founder and former head of the Soros-backed Media Development Investment Fund; and Stuart Karle, former Reuters COO.

Read our reports here and here.

Lenddo

Lenddo co-founder Richard Eldridge

Lenddo, a fintech startup that focuses on the Philippines, closed a series B round in October from new investors AT Capital and Life.SREDA, and existing investors Omidyar Network, Blumberg Capital, and Golden Gate Ventures. Lenddo is a platform that helps people use their social connections to build creditworthiness and get access to financial services. It now has live deployments in more than 10 countries since opening up its technology to third parties early this year. Banks, card issuers, telcos, P2P lenders, and fintech startups are now using Lenddo to get more customers and manage their risks.

Pas Pas, Fresh2Ket, iMpok

As an offshoot of its pre-accelerator program Alpha Startups in Cebu province last November, Malaysia’s 1337 Ventures invested in three Philippine startups – Pas Pas, Fresk2Ket, and iMpok. Pas Pas is a last-mile, SMS-based delivery service, while Fresk2Ket is a marketplace that connects farmers with restaurants and other businesses. iMpok is a cash deposit microfinancing platform for schools.

Each received a “micro fund” worth US$1,000 and US$5,000 worth of Amazon Web Services credit. 1337 Ventures said it would inject another PHP 500,000 (US$10,600) into each of the startups if they would be able to get their minimum viable products off the ground and register some traction over the next three months.

See our report.

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The prestigious summit of leadership and innovation will host guests from Europe, Africa and the Middle East

Making its first appearance outside of the US, Forbes has announced that this year’s 30 Under 30 Summit EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) will take place in Israel next spring. The five-day event will be held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, kicking off on April 3.

With the announcement of the event, an initial list of speakers and guests was released, including former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres, experienced Internet entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, and Co-Founder of Waze Uri Levine.

Joining the group from abroad are names like Miki Kuusi who helped to found Helsinki’s Slush and is now leading his latest startup Wolt; Sir Ronald Chen of Apex Partners, as well as actress Zosia Mamet from the HBO series Girls.

The event will open by the historical Kedumim Square in Jaffa, with a full schedule of panels and festivities planned for the first two days. The group will receive a tour of Tel Aviv’s hi-tech hub with a tour around the iconic Rothschild Boulevard before moving on to Jerusalem where it will explore the rich sights of the city.

While in Jerusalem, the group will be holding events at the Tower of David in the Old City, as well as at the Israel Museum, offering a contrast between the city’s fascinating history and the innovation that is helping drive its future.

According to Matthew Krieger, one of the spokesmen for the event, there will be 600 participants in attendance divided evenly between the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Also Read: Why is Israel, a land of startups, weak at gaming?

Why Israel?

The decision to fly out to the Startup Nation for this event was clear. Krieger, said, “When you think about entrepreneurship and innovation, Israel is the first place that comes to mind, both from a technology point of view as well as a social impact perspective. Israel plays a big role throughout the world. This was a key factor in the minds of the organisers when they were looking where to hold the event.”

The organisers hope that the event will be an opportunity to meet people from different walks of life from across the world from the same age bracket and figure out how to build the next generation of their industries.

Part of the decision to come to Israel relied on the cooperation of the cities. Krieger said that the organisers of the event are working closely with the municipalities to make sure that it is going to be successful.

He notes that holding the entrepreneurial event at the Israel Museum and bringing the groups to key locations like the Old City of Jerusalem or the heart of Tel Aviv on Rothschild Boulevard show that they are deeply committed to making this a successful event.

Jerusalem standing out

While Tel Aviv has built up its reputation as the capital of the Startup Nation with its bustling tech scene, Jerusalem has been working hard to make its own name as a centre for business and entrepreneurship.

The local government has played a role in bringing attention back to the city. Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat told Geektime that, “Jerusalem is one of the strongest brands in the world with over 3,000 years of investment and today we are emerging as one of the top hubs for innovation and excellence. As an entrepreneur, I deeply value the importance of bringing creative minds together and as Mayor of Jerusalem, I am honoured to be hosting the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Jerusalem and look forward to welcoming the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs to our city.”

Also Read: Meet Made in JLM, a driving force in Jerusalem’s tech revolution

Barak Cohen, who is the Deputy Director for Development and International Relations at The Israel Museum where part of the event will be hosted, told Geektime that, “Jerusalem is the obvious choice for an event celebrating ingenuity and entrepreneurship and the next generation of global leadership because it isn’t simply a hi-tech hub or gorgeous destination for a conference, but something much grander…it is the epicentre of human history and culture!”

On the final day, participants will have the chance to volunteer with community organisations in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, as well as in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Krieger explained that the event wants to connect people coming in from abroad to the organisations taking part in the service day and build lasting relationships, while giving them a way to follow up with them after they leave. The list of organisations will be published later after they have been finalised.

The article Forbes set to hold first ever 30 Under 30 outside of U.S. in Israel this April first appeared on Geektime. 

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