Go Israel: Out of 8 stories on Techcrunch's homepage, 5 are on Israel: AllofMe, SeeToo, Google Israel, eToro and SuTree

The front page at TechCrunch looks as if it was taken out of VC Cafe today. Out of 8 posts displayed on the home page, 4 are related to Israel. If you scroll back one page, you'll see another one - not bad for a tiny country in the middle east.


Here's a quick recap:

1. Yossi Vardi invests in Tel Aviv Based startup AllofMe - the Israeli company is developing a timeline generator for digital assets. It puts your emails photos, documents and videos on a time scale, thus allowing you to keep track of your media while giving it a new perspective. Next time some one asks you "what did you do on your birthday?" AllofMe should help you answer the question. Addy Feuerstein is the Founder - the company was founded in May of 2007 and has 8 employees. (via TechCruch, Haaretz, Orli)
   
   
2. Yet another investment by Yossi Vardi - this time it's an Israel/New York City based startup called SeeToo, a web-based application that allows individuals to invite friends and family to watch home videos with them in real time in a chat room. It's a bit similar to Meebo Rooms and soon-to-be-covered by VC Cafe, Ekko TV. TechCrunch is giving away 500 invites - try to get yours here. Yoav Ilan, head of marketing and biz dev gave the demo to TechCrunch. Yoav- Can I also get a demo and some invites? (via TechCrunch)
   
   
3. Google Israel acting Evil - According to Globes Online, Google initially stated that “disclosing the blogger’s identity violated rulings on the balance between freedom of expression and a person’s right to his reputation” - BUT Google finally caved in and provided the IP address of an "anonymous" blogger to an Israeli court voluntarily as part of a defamation case against a politician. Not that I support protecting a criminal, but it's important to note: G wasn't forced to give the data - they volunteered it. (via Globes, Techchrunch)
   
   
4. Roi Carthy posted an interesting review of eToro - a visual Forex (Foreign Exchange) Trading platform that simplifies trading by allowing users to trade money in a game-like setting. The parent company is Israel-based Tradonomi Ltd - It is incorporated in Limasol - most likely for taxing purposes, with offices in Tel Aviv. Trandonomi is led by Ceo and co-founder Jonathan (Yoni) Assia. was founded in 2006 and has 30 employees. Most recently, eToro released an affiliate platform called eToro Partners. (via PR Web, Techcrunch and Linked in).
   
   
5. Bonus: scroll one page back and see an article on Israel's SuTree, an online index and library for free video lessons, tutorials, lectures and how-to's from all over the web. SuTree got a serious facelift and a content collaboration agreement with Israel based 5min.

On a related note, If you haven't done so already, please visit the new 'under construction' home of The Venture Capital Cafe at http://www.vccafe.com and subscribe to my feed. VC Cafe covers early stage companies, innovative technologies, and venture capital news with a spotlight on Israel. There's a bunch of new features and ideas on the way in December, as the VC Cafe celebrates two years!

Business Symbiosis vs. Natural Selection

Definitions of 'symbiosis' (simbe-osis, -bi-) - The American Heritage® Dictionary

1. symbiosis (n.) A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
2. symbiosis (n.) A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence

Why don't we see this more often in the business world?

Companies could benefit greatly by cooperating with one another, especially when it comes to early stage startups where life span is short and resources are limited. Instead, natural selection brings many of these early stage companies to extinction.

Some examples for "Mix and Match" come to mind:

• Israeli Start ups sutree.com and 5min.com who stood up from their stealth mode. There's a lot of overlap between these two. Sutree brings the content and depth but lacks the friendly interface and easy-to-use navigation offered by 5min.A cooperation between the two would create buzz and most likely extend their air time.
  
  
• Another example is the small Israeli company MyPixTrix, clearly an example of a one feature company. Sure, it's a very cool feature and it might even get some traffic - but wouldn't it be much better if it was integrated into Webshots or Picasa Albums for example? How about Incredimail? The small company gets the backing and protection of the big one and the killer feature gets the exposure it deserves, which creates value for the community.
  
  
• Zlango, the creator of an icon-based language for text messages (ZMS), and Fontip, developer of (FMS) – Font Messaging Service, both work hard to get user adoption (both companies were also founded in Israel). They could cannibalize each other fighting for OEM agreements with service providers, or join forces under the umbrella of the "next generation of text messaging" and start from a much stronger point in terms of developer resources and market share.
  
  
• I can go on and on, but I think you got the point by now :-)
  

I might be naive - business Symbiosis happens a lot through biz dev initiatives and M&A deals - but you don't have to agree with me. When it comes to web start ups, millions of VC dollars are spent trying to get a little slice of a pie and re-inventing the wheel, rather than thinking out of the box to combine forces for the benefit of both the companies and the users.

Special thanks to internet entrepreneur Elizabeth Katz for planting the seeds for this post.