Coworking in Silicon Wadi: The Startup Scene and a Strong Sense of Community

Tel Aviv is Israel’s very own Silicon Valley, or should we say Silicon Wadi. Ranked number 5 in the 2015 Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking, Tel Aviv has established itself as one of the world’s top tech and startup scenes.

In a city where people seem to glorify and fully embrace innovation, it comes as no surprise that coworking, incubator, and accelerator spaces have slowly been growing in numbers.

In an interview with Virgin News, Nir Zohar–President and COO of Wix.com–said that Tel Aviv has “basically adopted an open door policy, where knowledge sharing is the norm.” In a culture where individuals are openly sharing knowledge and collaborating together, the idea of using shared workspaces is, as you can imagine, a popular one.

Dan Zakai, Founder and CEO of Mindspace told Allwork that “Tel Aviv is known as ‘The City that Never Sleeps’; the startup scene here is definitely awake, alive, and kicking, and it’s looking for inspiring spaces to work from. Coworking spaces are offering exactly that–inspiring spaces that also foster a growing community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and movers and shakers from various industries.”

Due to the high demand of these types of workspaces, the coworking movement is growing and evolving quickly in Israel, and particularly in Tel Aviv.

[ezcol_1half][/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end][/ezcol_1half_end] “There are various coworking and incubator spaces that are blooming, and many are realizing that this is a concept that simply works well with the startup scene. Different coworking operators are taking different approaches and directions, with many specializing in particular niches–some focusing only on early stage startups, while others targeting mainly freelancers and the like.”

We’ve also seen how some are focusing their efforts in empowering women entrepreneurs in the area.

For its part, Mindspace opens its doors to everyone. “At Mindspace, we are proud to say that we are able to provide workspace for companies of any size, as well as freelancers and entrepreneurs.”

But coworking in Silicon Wadi goes beyond that of inspiring workplaces.

According to a Forbes article by David Yin, “the Israeli culture is indispensable to its innovation ecosystem. Many talk about a strong sense of community(…)In Israel, serial entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike are passionate about mentoring others, believing their efforts get multiplied when their mentees do the same in the future.”

Collaboration and a sense of community are key aspects of coworking, incubator, and accelerator spaces. The true value of these spaces comes in the shape and form of connections that are made and business opportunities that may arise from sharing knowledge, time, and physical space. A phenomenon that appears to happen naturally and easily in the Middle Eastern country.