Innovation is coming out of Israel all the time, but we often only hear on the startups that “made it” in one way or another: those that got funded by Accel, those that signed deals with Linkedin or got acquired by IBM.
The truth is that most startups don’t make it. Which means, that they also don’t make it through you’re ‘success-seeking’ radar. In an effort to beat the statistics, I’ll give platform to two early stage startups at a time.
1) Hooqs – get video content on your mobile
Hooqs is a web-based mobile media service that enables users to consume online videos and music straight from their mobile phone or wireless device – with no installation required. For quality media delivery, 3G phones & networks are needed, but in the US, you should be fine with almost any phone. Like kyte tv, BlipTV and BlogTV, Hooqs enables users to created their own online channels which they can later access by phone. The mobile platform activation is done through SMS.
Founded in 2007, Hooqs patent pending technology is a product of Syncho, a user-centric mobile media company, with an ambition to provide users with the right tools for consuming mobile media of different types and sources. The company is headquartered in Israel and has six employees. Founders are CEO Itay Gissin, former VP of business development of FlashNetworks and EVP of product Aner Ravon, the founder of the famous tech blog degardener.
Traffic on Hooqs took a bit of a dip :
2) MD Junction – find health support online.
Health is one of the highest paying categories for ads on the web. It makes sense, considering the advertising budget of drug companies on the web. According to emarketer, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries will reach $1.2 billion mark in 2008, a 22% from last year.
MD Junction is a network of hundreds of online forums on health topics, created to help people support other people while they deal with an illness or health issue. The site is relatively new, so content is still being built, but the founders were smart enough to pre-populate categories with a welcome message, thus improving SEO and enabling the real estate for future contributions.
MD Junction could use a face lift on its user interface (icons, colors and layouts still look like 1999), but I liked the idea of color-coded Awareness Ribbons for different causes. Users can choose a ribbon and show support for their cause or diagnosed loved ones. There are also health articles and diary sections, where users can blog about their experiences with an illness. Founded in 2006 by Roy and Alon, MD Junction is based in Israel. The company was recently featured in ReadWriteWeb, along with ten other sites to find health support online. Some of the prominent ones are:Trusera, DailyStrength, Healia and Israeli health startup iMedix, which seems to be in a better shape in terms of UI and traffic.
Although, one can pretty much guarantee that the site is profitable and growing:
I wish the best of luck for both. Perhaps you can help them beat the statistics.
Have a startup? want to get featured on VC Cafe? contact me with your story.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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