Solution Nation

The Israel-Vietnam relationship is very strong and multifaceted but the cultures are worlds apart. The Vietnamese culture is very hierarchical and great pains must be taken to avoid causing the Vietnamese a loss of face. In Vietnamese, there are ten words for “yes” but no words for “I,” “me,” or “you.” The following are among the issues discussed during this fascinating podcast:

• How should contracts with Vietnamese partners be drafted to ensure maximum enforceability?
• To what extent is Vietnam a springboard for Israeli companies to penetrate other Southeast Asian countries?
• How developed is the infrastructure in Vietnam and how reliable is the electricity?
• Which Vietnamese industries have the greatest pain points, and thus greatest receptivity to Israeli technology?
• What is expected in terms of gift giving? How should one respond to inducements to pay bribes?
• What are the underpinnings of an increasingly warm Israel-Vietnam relationship? 

Einat Halevy Levin is the President of the Israel-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and the Vietnam Desk Manager at BDO. Einat lived in Vietnam for five years and speaks Vietnamese fluently.

The Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Among the issues discussed during this fascinating podcast include:

• What is the primary reason that the UAE decided to normalize relations with Israel?
• What is the likelihood that other Arab countries—such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman—may normalize relations with Israel?
• What are the cultural inhibitors to Israelis and Emiratis transacting business together?
• Which Emirate industries have the greatest pain points, and thus greatest receptivity to Israeli technology?
• To what extent may warmer relations with the UAE help Israeli companies serve Muslim countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia?
• How might growing Emirate technologies in Israel foster better relations with Arab Israelis and Palestinians?

Gilad Carni is the CEO & Founder of the UAE Israel Innovation Office and the Founder & Chairman of GC Marketing Services, a NYC-based nationwide promotional and event staffing company.

Noa Gastfreund is Vice President Of Business Development at UNIPaaS Payments Technologies and the Co-Founder of the UAE-IL Tech Zone.

There are risks associated with investing in emerging companies. The technologies seem disruptive, the markets appear to be immense and the management teams seem invincible. However, not all promising companies are worthy of your hard-earned dollars (or shekels).

Edwin Dorsey, editor of the Bear Cave, does a wonderful job of discussing some of the due diligence that investors should conduct on early-stage companies. Everything from obtaining and understanding customer complaints filed with Attorneys General to deciphering SEC comment letters is explained. Learn how to determine when executive resignations are red flags as well as what the quality of auditing firms and auditing partners portends.  

Edwin talks about questionable revenue recognition practices as well as how to access the quality of board members. We discuss what investors should look for in terms of a company’s patents, the turnover of retained law firms and the role of influencers as revenue generators.

Edwin Dorsey is the editor of the Bear Cave and Sunday’s Idea Brunch newsletters. His research is impeccable and his writing is crisp. Edwin’s work is invaluable to the investment community.

Tal Paperin delivered an excellent primer on Israeli Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). 

He explained how IIoT interfaces with supply chain management software and artificial intelligence. He discussed factories procuring IIoT pre-installed on machinery versus retrofitting older equipment. 

If you don’t know the answers to the following questions, you really should listen to this podcast.

How important is 5G to IIoT? 

To what extent are employees and unions opposed to IIoT deployments? 

Can IIoT legitimately be called a ‘green technology? 

How are IIoT sensors powered? What kinds of communications protocols enable IIoT communications? To what extent are IIoT systems and sensors interoperable? 

How important is cybersecurity to ensuring the smooth running of IIoT? How rapid are IIoT sales cycles?

One of the fascinating Israeli companies that Tal introduced us to is Augury. 

Tal Paperin is the Vice President of Global Sales for Bacsoft, an Israeli IIoT Company, backed by Sun Corp. from Japan. During his career, Tal has managed all aspects of International Sales, Strategic Business Development, and Global Expansion. 

He has opened new markets, trained sales teams, secured distributors, managed budgets and pipelines, and negotiated with venture capitalists. He speaks English, Hebrew, Russian and Chinese.

Why should patent-rich companies value their patents? Because, in many cases, the majority of a company’s value lies in its intellectual property. If you can’t value your patents, you won’t get the values you deserve when negotiating capital raises, patent sales, and licensing agreements of the sales of companies.

David Wanetick discusses how factors such as claims breadth, priority dates, ease of detecting infringement, overcoming invalidity attacks, prior art searches, forward citations, prosecution histories, litigation experience of the patent attorney, and examiners’ allowance rates impact patent value.

This session addresses questions such as:

• How many valuation methods should be used when valuing patents? How can one make use of their varying conclusions? 
• How can you value a provisional patent application? How can patents enable companies to prosper when they are subject to trade bans? Why might venture capitalists prohibit their portfolio companies from enforcing their patents against infringers? 

Gain incredible insights into patent valuation from this podcast. 

David Wanetick is the CEO of IncreMental Advantage and a Managing Director at JD Merit. David has valued thousands of patents. His clients include Fortune 50 companies, emerging growth companies, mid-sized companies, tech transfer offices, national laboratories, venture capital funds, and private equity funds. He runs the Certified Patent Valuation Analyst designation and is the author of seven books.

Link for David Wanetick:  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-wanetick-5375b56/

Grove Ventures is a leading early-stage venture capital firm with some $500 million under management. Grove Ventures also supports its portfolio companies with marketing, legal, accounting, and personnel resources. 

Renana Ashkenazi introduces us to investing in genomics. As the cost, speed, and precision of genetic testing continue to improve, genomics is likely to become a more common treatment modality. Renana discusses how genetic sequencing, genetic mapping, and targeted testing can improve healthcare as well as some of the practical and moral concerns associated with genomics. 

Renana introduces us to four fascinating portfolio companies—Navina, Nucleai, Protai, and Tingo. 

Renana Ashkenazi is a General Partner at Grove Ventures. She brings almost a decade of product and managerial experience in the areas of technology, Global Innovation, and strategic marketing. Prior to joining Grove Ventures, Renana worked at Applied Materials and was an engineering research fellow at the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies at Northwestern University developing diagnostic devices for poorly resourced countries. 

No transactions lawyer or dealmaker should miss this podcast..

Professor Goshen’s articles on corporate law and securities regulation are frequently named among the Top Ten Best Articles of the year by Corporate Practice Commentator.

As the Jerome L. Greene Professor of Transactional Law and Director of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School 

The proposed and disputed Musk-Twitter transaction is perhaps the most eventful and contentious acquisition in modern times. 

Fortunately, one of the brightest legal minds dissects the terms, twists and turns, and possible outcomes of this gripping saga. 

Professor Goshen speaks about Twitter’s poison pill and fiduciary duties as well as the use of breakup fees, hell-or-high water provisions, performance clauses, waiving of financing contingencies and irreparable harm. 

On this podcast we tackle contentious issues such as why Twitter might allow Mr. Musk to disparage Twitter on Twitter and what the consequences of such disparagement might be to Mr. Musk. We discuss whether the Musk team errored in waiving normal due diligence opportunities and in not hedging against the risk of Twitter’s shares falling precipitously. 

Sparks really flew when we got to issues of Twitter’s reporting of the incidence of bots on its platform. How can bots be detected and counted? Are Twitter’s representations of the incidence of bots credible? If not, is the difference material? If the incidence of bots is much higher than Twitter reported, can such lapse trigger a material adverse event? Would that development extricate Mr. Musk from the deal? 

Linda Štucbartová is an Executive Board Member of the Czechia-Israeli Chamber of Commerce, responsible for Science, Research, and Innovation. 

Linda was also nominated as Woman of the Year for bringing Empowerment Self Defense to Czechia. Through her company, Diversio, Linda mentored more than 1,000 leaders in developing innovation ecosystems.

Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind podcast that focuses on the special relationship that Israel and Czechia enjoy. 

These two nations helped each other win independence and embrace capitalism. 

Support for Israel permeates the Czech political landscape and Czechia votes along with—or in support of Israel—99% of the time.

Israeli technology is found in cars on Czech roads, on Czech farms, and in mobile apps.

Some things you may not know are how Israeli fintech and cybersecurity companies tap Czech programmers. How the two nations host joint hackathons. How Czech and Israeli universities collaborate on foundational medical research. And how Israeli defense technologies are deployed in the Czech armed forces.

The Israeli government has undertaken several initiatives to help Czechia foster its own innovation ecosystem while Czechia often serves as the springboard for Israeli companies to reach the broader European market.

With hundreds of successful and promising companies, Israel has become a world leader in mobility. Drivers of Israel’s ascendency in mobility include Israel’s extreme population density, road fatalities that exceed the number of fallen soldiers in all of Israel’s wars, a low auto purchasing rate and limited miles of highways.

Omer Shachar opines on many segments of mobility including drones, vertical take-off and landing vehicles, autonomous vehicles, scooters, and robot delivery vehicles.

He discusses the cost of equipping vehicles with autonomous capabilities, the relevance of smart cities, the role of insurance companies and supply chain issues.

Omer introduces us to three fascinating emerging companies—Infinidome, No Traffic and Actasys. 

Omer Shachar is the Founding Partner at Next Gear Ventures and Drive TLV. 

Omer has over a decade of executive management experience in the financial and automotive industries as well as investments in early-stage startups. He was a partner of Myseedtech fund and worked in Mayer Investments. Prior to this, he was VP of the Vehicle Division for years in Kesher Rent a Car, Hertz licensee in Israel.

Venture capitalists and acquirers should conduct due diligence into the intellectual property held by Israeli companies. Shulamit Hirsch PhD, Technion’s Head of IP, discusses the following related issues. 

How to protect inventions during the research phase. 

Avoiding entanglements with research sponsors such as universities. 

When inventors should seek releases from research institutions. 

When to file for patent protection versus maintaining trade secrets. 

How emerging Israeli companies can manage their patent budgets in view of their worldwide ambitions. 

What happens to Intellectual Property sponsored by the Israeli government when Israeli companies are acquired by non-Israeli companies. 

Shulamit also discusses specific questions venture capitalists and acquirers should ask relative to target companies’ prior art searches, patent assignment histories, claims coverage and presence of patent continuations. 

Shulamit Hirsch has a PhD and is one of Israel’s leading intellectual property practitioners and advisors. She is the Head of IP, Outsourcing at the Technion. 

Shulamit also consults with some of Israel’s most promising private companies, Israel’s largest public companies and clients around the world such as the Guangzhou Sino-Israel Biotech Fund.