Marissa Mayer Speaking at Garage Geeks (photo by NewsGeek.co.il)
A couple of months ago Google’s Marissa Mayer arrived in the holy land, and among other places she visited the famous Garage, where she was hosted by Yossi Vardi. This was right after Soluto’s win at TechCrunch Disrupt where she was the key judge. It was my first time at the Garage, and frankly I came mostly to listen to what she had to say to the Israeli entrepreneur/geek community, considering she’s probably the coolest geek alive.
Marissa Mayer and I (Yes!) Speaking at Garage Geeks (photo by NewsGeek.co.il)
One of the first things she spoke about was Soluto’s win at TechCrunch Disrupt, and surprisingly enough I was called on-stage to talk a bit about Soluto and the win.
That’s all cool, but the coolest outcome from this event was that Ami Ben-Bassat approached me after the event and introduced StartupSeeds (Hebrew website), an organization for techie kids. Ami told me about the upcoming “Like
Conference”, that is a start-up competition where kids are the judges.
StartupSeeds (photo by Segev Shilton)
He suggested that we present Soluto as the closing event, after the votes have been cast, as a company that “did it”, i.e. that won the most exclusive competition in the world. We were happy to speak with the kids and tell them our story, but I must admit I never thought I would be so moved by the event. Seeing all those kids, seeing myself 15-20 years
ago, was an amazing experience.
Ishay Green and I at StartupSeeds (photo by Segev Shilton)
I started programming at around 10, with several friends around me (including mostly Soluto’s Ishay Green and Wix’s Roy Man).
All those kids, with their bright eyes and future, gave me a very good feeling. Seeing as old as I am, it’s very gratifying to know there’s a future :)
I’d like to quote Ishay’s closing remarks from this presentation to the kids:
Ishay Green and I at StartupSeeds (photo by Segev Shilton)
“Many old people will tell you that your generation is screwed up, and that in their time things were much better. They will talk about the loss of morals and human touch. But don’t believe them – your generation, together with our generation, will rock and make the world better”.
Roee
StartupSeeds (photo by Segev Shilton)
StartupSeeds (Photo by Segev Shilton)
