Guy Franklin has been working with Israeli startups for over 10 years now. 3 years ago, Guy moved to New York City working for Ernst and Young. He quickly noticed that as an Israeli who wanted to get in touch with Israeli startup companies operating from New York, he couldn’t find any simple way to do that. So he came up with the idea of creating a map of all of the Israeli startup companies to help other Israelis.
When Guy started, the list was short – only 60 companies. Today, he has over 250 companies on the map, and he is adding almost 10 new companies every month.
Guy says that The main focus is technology video, ad tech, mobile and social. It seems that most of the startups moving to New York are moving there after they have completed a round A or even more than that.
The first tip Guy would like to give Israeli startups who are interested in starting operations in New York City is that the first person matters the most. That person needs to hit the ground running and to be super talented in creating connections with the locals. This person, usually a local or one of the founders of the company can have a very serious impact on how successful the company is going to be in New York.
Another thing Guy says is that today, more and more American and Chinese VCs and also many American angels see the potential in Israeli companies and he thinks Israeli entrepreneurs should pay attention to that. However, Investors in New York prefer companies which are located in the US, preferably close to them. So when approaching those investors one should take this into consideration.
Guy also mentioned that many entrepreneurs in Israel tend to ignore Tax issues when they start the company. While working for Ernest and Young, he saw that many companies are built in a structure which exposes the Entrepreneurs and the company to the taxes they wouldn’t have to pay if only planed the process correctly. Guy thinks it’s important to pay attention to this issue in the beginning, as can damage the company and even cause delays of an IPO.
Guy recently launched an app for Mapped in New York. You can get push notifications about Israeli Tech news (in NY) and even chat with other Israeli entrepreneurs in New York.
You can also use the app to find your next job – a special button in the app allows you so see which of the Israeli companies in New York are now looking for new employees. This is great for Israelis and others who are looking for opportunities in New York.