The idea behind this book stems from the methodology developed over the 20 years of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program, a venture creation program for outstanding students that is part of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at IDC Herzliya.1 The venture creation program, referred to by its participants and the ecosystem as simply ‘Zell’, is a combination of learning by doing and learning by example. The underlying premise is that there is no right way to create a venture, but beyond the necessary trial and error on your own, there are insights to be gleaned where others have tried before.
In other words, there is no need to make the same mistakes over and over when the experience of others can help frame learnings and decisions. It's less about doing things right, and more about better understanding the implications of decisions and choices.
This chapter begins with an introduction to the Zell Program ecosystem in Zenesis; continues with a presentation of the contextual framework and structure of the book with a chapter by chapter description in The Flow of the Journey; and concludes with a discussion on the case study methodology in Case in Point.
In the course of the last 20 years, the Zell Entrepreneurship Program has evolved into an acclaimed venture creation program, providing students with an opportunity to apply advanced entrepreneurial studies to the creation of real business ventures. Generously supported in vision and funding by American business magnate, Sam Zell, the program is designed for outstanding undergraduates in their final year of studies at IDC Herzliya, who aspire to launch their own startup or join an entrepreneurial organization.
In the spirit of IDC Herzliya, Israel’s first private university, founded by educational entrepreneur Professor Uriel Reichman and modeled on liberal arts colleges in the U.S., the program combines multidisciplinary approaches and is open to students of all faculties on campus (including business administration, law, communications, computer science, government, psychology, sustainability, economics, and entrepreneurship). The program supports students as they form teams, develop ideas, and create their own startup, from ideation through validation, and on to execution.
The ecosystem of support encompassing the program – including IDC Herzliya Adelson School faculty,2 active mentors,3 a flourishing alumni network,4 and of course the continuous support of Sam Zell’s investment team, notably Ellen Havdala and the rest of the EGII team5 – offers students a gateway to making their entrepreneurial dreams a reality, or at the very least, a robust set of tools and experiences to take on their career paths.
Over the years, many venture ideas that were developed over the course of the program have been launched or put aside, fundraised or bootstrapped, turned a profit, hired employees, expanded abroad, grown, closed, merged, been acquired, or gone public. Increasingly, as the now 400 plus alumni base grows, graduates of the program have developed ventures after their ‘Zell Year,’ often many years after the program (as one example of many, Liat Mordechay Hertanu (Zell 1 – 2002) founded 24me thirteen years after she graduated).6
In the eyes of the program and of Sam Zell, all ventures founded by a student or alumnus of the program are ‘Zell Ventures,’ and all weave a story of a myriad of entrepreneurial processes and journeys that offer a platform for learning for program participants and anyone with an itch for entrepreneurship.
The Zell Ventures case studies compiled for this book all share the backbone of a venture creation narrative of ventures created by Zell graduates in the course of the program, or in the years beyond. Some of them have had the chance to work on several ventures; in some cases, previous ventures were wild successes, and in others, earlier ventures were closed. That is the way of the entrepreneurial journey.
For some, this is their first stab at entrepreneurship. This way or that, there is much to learn. The learnings offered under each chapter heading represent a curation of a topic covered in the case studies, and reflections shared in lectures to the Zell Program participants
and beyond.
The compilation of case studies and the curation of the topics were chosen based on my personal experience as the executive director of the program from May 2005 through November 2015, and as chairman of the program in the years following. I too have learned, grown, and developed as I vicariously experienced the highs and lows of entrepreneurship through the students and alumni that I had the privilege to support in navigating their journeys.
Just as there is no right way to create a venture, there is no right way to read this book. Different situations may require a different method of reading. Beyond the intuitive read of starting from page one and continuing through to the last page, there are a host of alternative possibilities.
An alternative reading option that may make sense is to choose a topic of interest relating to the startup journey, such as raising funds. Such a chapter will cover that stated topic and include references to relevant parts of the case studies that speak to that topic, which can be found at the end of the chapter. Some case studies are briefly referenced, and three to four are covered in greater depth within the chapter.
The chapter topics cover the flow of the entrepreneurial journey from concept to launch, and beyond. The Rhyme and the Reason serves as the introduction for the book and its structure. The Chicken and the Egg, explores the dilemma of forming a team first, or finding an idea and building a team around that. Regardless of the means to the end, the chapter covers the importance of team building and developing a company culture early on.
The book continues into the process of developing an idea for a venture in The Myths of Ideation, where some common perceptions are questioned and addressed regarding how good ideas are developed by program participants and alumni after the program. In A Good Idea Is Not Enough, the means to assessing ideas by validation and experimentation is covered. Popularized theories such as Lean Startup methodologies are offered in the context of concrete examples of validation techniques and experiments from Zell Program and alumni ventures.
There Is More Than One Way to Cook an Egg transitions the discussion on validation to that of iterations and pivots, which are oftentimes the natural outcome of the experimentation process. This chapter highlights the exploration of the winding road that is entrepreneurship, and the notion that there are certainly many setbacks. CAC Is King covers the business end of the venture creation process beyond product-market fit. The chapter explores how program alumni employ unit economics to ascertain if the business they are building has viability on a recurring and repeatable basis over time. Show Me the Money explores alternative means for raising money or bootstrapping to get the business off the ground. To the Moon or Bust completes the journey and delves into the outcome possibilities for Zell Ventures, from whirlwind exit to the pain of having to close a company. Entrepreneurs never fail… but they do encounter setbacks. The meaning of the title of the book in the context of the entrepreneurial journey is discussed in the final summary chapter and closing thoughts, entitled Risk and You Shall Receive.
The case studies in this book cover different overlapping topics, but not all of them cover the same topics. The case studies can be found at the end of each chapter where they were highlighted. The case studies are generally the result of an interview with one founder, even though the team may have additional Zell founders or additional founders that are not Zell graduates. The 20 interviews and follow up sessions were conducted in person or via Zoom by Lorein Abenheim and transformed by her into 22 case studies.
The Zebra Medical case study is different. As Zebra is the first Zell alumni company to be featured in a Harvard Business School Case Study, this case study is a summary version of the HBS Case Study with additional insights gleaned from a series of interviews with Eyal Gura (Zell 2 – 2003) focused on fundraising.8
The list of all mentioned founders are also indexed. Over the years, we have had many crossovers between Zell graduates employing other Zell graduates and investing in their ventures or creating joint ventures. Some of those crossovers are noted in footnotes to get a sense of the intertwined community. Finally, there are numerous Zell alumni ventures mentioned that do not yet have a case study in this publication, and many more not mentioned. Stay tuned! There will be a web version of this book that will be ever updated and always growing to include the successes and setbacks of our daring alumni entrepreneurs as they, and the program, develop and grow.
The companies mentioned in the book, whether Zell Ventures or not, all appear in the appendix, and where they are ZEP Fund9 companies, this is indicated as well.
Entrepreneurship is about doing, but as this chapter’s Sam Zell ‘nugget‘ suggests, taking the time for active empathic listening can yield tremendous value.
Each chapter has a corresponding Sam Zell ‘nugget.‘ These are a select collection of golden nugget sayings Sam Zell has said over the years, many of which are often repeated. They represent an ethos that Sam inspires or more pithy “Samisms,” that can be felt in the program and by its alumni beyond the program, in whatever they do.
“There is tremendous value in being a good listener,” as Sam Zell says. May the listening of the readers of our entrepreneurs’ journeys yield knowledge and actionable insights.
