Last night I attended the NY IT Tech Meetup for the first time. The group is meant to connect Israeli entrepreneurs based in NYC with the resources they need to help make their companies successful. The event was very well attended and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There were a couple of startups that demo’d including Brixity and DiningFever.com. It seemed like there was some good investor representation as well, with Danny Schultz from DFJ Gotham and some guys from Tavel (sp?) as well (Israeli angel network) in attendance. After the meeting I chatted with a bunch of entrepreneurs and students.
The big announcement that came out of the meeting was that NY IT Tech Meetup was going global and reforming as a new organization called TechAviv. TechAviv will create a structured way for Israeli startups to obtain assistance from other folks in the network and also help them get access to investors. Even better, they are going to be raising a seed fund to invest in Israeli (globally) startups. Judging from the number of people at the meetup who asked me if our firm does seed rounds, I would say that there will be quite a bit of deal flow for the TechAviv folks!
Congrats to Yaron and gang for organizing a great meetup and supporting entrepreneurs in NY and abroad!