entreprenewer

VC money has dropped as the predominance of super-angels has arisen. Read: Series A Crunch.

Israel still has a strong hold on spot #2 in terms of talented workforce, number of exits, number of companies started, overall access to capital, etc etc. Many VC firms have offices only in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, with no mention of New York. Pretty cool!

The whole point of the article was really to illustrate that I just wanted to be a happy fish, whether or not I'm big or small.

It is hard to immigrate to Israel, that's the consequence of a democracy that must for survival's sake remain Jewish in majority.

There's an easy solution, though. Marry an Israeli. He or she doesn't have to be Jewish, either. There are millions of Muslim, Christian, Bahai, and even Buddhist Israeli passport holders.

I should also mention that the editors of the article cut what I felt was an important part - how I fell in love with the country, found that my social and family life was better here (In Israel), and how it was all about personal reasons for me - not professional...

I wish they'd left that bit in, but what can I do? ;)

I couldn't agree more. I have friends at McKinsey London who are working 8AM-11PM every night, and I have friends at McKinsey Amsterdam who work 9AM-6PM.

Different places have different cultures. I'm not going to go so far as to say that Israel's work culture is more relaxed than the valley's, because people work their asses off here, too, but I think there's definitely a more "chilled" attitude here. As an example, most people go to the army for at least 2-3 years, then take 6-12 months off to explore the world before getting their bachelor's degree (which takes 4-5 years). How many people in the valley have this kind of lax attitude? In fact, most of the valley's prized examples can't even wait to finish their freshman year of college... see the difference?

I also think the fact that most people are a little older and have a little more perspective (having served a minimum of 3 years defending their country) changes the dynamic. Just my opinions.

I realized I didn't really answer your question.

I went to learn how to turn small companies into big companies, to learn business fundamentals like finance and accounting that are so often overlooked, and to get some of the managerial skills I felt I missed out on by being an entrepreneur. When your name is on the door, you tend to think that people will just follow and listen to you, but it doesn't work that way.

I think I accomplished what I set out to, and then some. I gained a solid foundation in all the core business subjects, expanded my understanding, picked up some useful new skills, and built an incredible global network. I also had a total blast and traveled to 23 countries. Not a bad use of 1 year of your life, in my opinion.

INSEAD Singapore was a total blast. Really really fun. But in retrospect, I think I enjoyed the French campus more. Maybe it was because I went towards the end, when there wasn't as much school work and I already had built up relationships, but I felt that my quality of life was better in France (ironically). My friends and I lived in a tiny 250 year old town and drove through the forrest to class every day, our class parties were in huge Chateaus in rural France... it was just brilliant.

If you're considering going to INSEAD, I say GO FOR IT - best year of my life thus far - but make sure you spend at least 4 months on each campus, that's the best way to do it.

I'm actually not sure who the OP is... I'm the author of the article. Came here to post it myself and saw that it was already here. (You can see that my username matches the username the article links to on twitter, @entreprenewer)

The company I sold was indeed fully thought out - it was ranked one of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America by INC Magazine in 2011 ;)

It was sold by the buyer who bought it from me (acquired by a supplier), and I have no control over the content anymore, but as far as I can tell the site has been completely replaced at least twice since I sold it.

As far as "living a life of lies," I take offense, and I'm not sure where you come to this conclusion.

For me, living a life of lies meant telling myself I was meant to go to Stanford and run a Silicon Valley Startup.

Since I'm not sure there's any basis to the rest of your critique, I don't know how to respond to it.

Thanks for the correction. I didn't know that, I just knew that it came out of the famed Skunkworks :)

According to the Startup Genome reports, it's considered #2 startup scene (NYC is #3)