Education Minister Naftali Bennett participated last night (Wednesday) alongside other investors in the "Failure Evening" of the Kama-Tech organization, which works to integrate Haredim into high-tech.
In a conversation with Michael Eisenberg, from the venture capital fund Aleph, who was one of the first investors in Bennett's startup, the two shared their personal failures with the hundreds of participants in the evening.
Bennett said that after the company grew to 70 employees and expenses increased to over a million dollars a month, they discovered that they were avoiding facing reality and realizing that there was no demand for the product they were developing - when only a quick recovery and change of direction saved them from collapse.
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To Eisenberg's question about the differences between high-tech and politics, Bennett replied that while in high-tech his approach advocated complete transparency - towards the team and towards investors, in politics it is necessary to keep your real plans away from the eyes of your partners.
In response to the audience's question whether family owners can also be good entrepreneurs, in light of the investment required by ventures - Minister Bennett replied: There is a difference between women who are efficient and practical, know how to utilize their time, and avoid excessive ego preoccupation, and men who tend to be inefficient and therefore will have more difficulty maneuvering between family and venture.
In this context, Eisenberg noted that there are studies showing that women who attended girls-only schools are more proactive and productive.
In response, Bennett silenced him with a smiling rebuke: "Shh... religion!""
At the beginning of the conference, Moshe Friedman, founder of Kama-Tech, spoke about his personal failure in the startup he founded - which resulted in the establishment of the organization.
Later in the evening, the CEO of the Innovation Authority and former CEO of Apple-Israel, Aharon Aharon, appeared alongside Yizhar Shai, co-founder of Keren Kenan Partners and one of the leaders of the venture capital industry in Israel.
In connection with tonight's topic, Aharon said that when he arrived for the job interview at Apple headquarters in the US, after going through 17 (!) job interviews in two days, in the 18th interview he was asked the so-called expected question by the interviewer: What are your shortcomings?
In response, he asked the interviewer how much time he had to answer. After being told that the time allotted for this question was two minutes, he responded: "Then let's focus on the advantages, two minutes will surely be enough for that...""
Aharon spoke about the authority's commitment to encouraging employment oriented towards innovation and entrepreneurship in the Haredi sector, and said that this is one of his main goals in the position.
Later, Yizhar Shai shared one of his major failures, when the fund he was a partner in refused to invest in Wize.
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