THAT'S ALL , the rest is history!
I remember my backwater desert town 50k population where they quickly build cheap office buildings and stuffed them with all these 1-2 person "startups" full of bearded Soviet Phd's. They called them "hothouses" (of ideas). What happened to Israel can not be repeated again unless US collapses and 1 million of Silicon Valley engineers(not that they have so much) will move back to India or China.
He also did an introductory talk which was brilliant, on Fora.tv. I'll post the link here, but it may be affected by the new Pay Wall.
http://fora.tv/2009/11/03/Start-Up_Nation_The_Story_of_Israe...
But more importantly (IMHO), Israel was the beneficiary of the largesse and support of a people decimated by the horrors of WW2.
It's fair to say that the US probably had a large cultural impact on the development of Israel, both for direct economic reasons but also that the US has a large Jewish population.
The lesson I personally take from the success of Israel is how important it is for a country to be bound together by a common set of ideals and purpose. Not that I'm arguing for any kind of cultural homogeny but if people in one country become sufficiently different it tends to drive that country apart. I think you see that in the US today as the red and blue state divide.
Like you, i think its more important to focus on being bound by a common set of ideals and purpose.
The 6 types of companies Blank outlines:
* "Lifestyle companies", like the companies associated with individual professional surfers.
* "Small businesses", like money-losing corner groceries.
* "Scalable businesses" (ie, your typical YC company, "born to be big")
* "Born to flip" companies that are conceived of as features of some other company's product
* "Large companies" like Google
* "Social companies" with missions other than making money
The implication of my brief comment was specifically that this way of breaking down companies suggests that he's promoting venture capital.
