Sand Hill Road vs. Hamenofim St.

Sand hill road is the VC capital of the world. The majority of the west coast funds are all located in (almost) walking distance. It's a very efficient model: easier for the VCs that are cooperating on deals and easier for the entrepreneurs.

Israel has copied that model, and in the past few years most of the VCs rented offices in Herzliya Pituach (North of Tel-Aviv), and specifically in Ackerstein buildings: 4 buildings that host most of Israeli VCs. Beyond Gemini (We were the first!), you will find the following groups in those buildings: Pitango, Greylock, Benchmark, BRM, Genesis, Medica, Carmel, and others.

After spending (almost) 18 months on Sand Hill, and over 5 years in Herzliya Pitauch, I thought it will be fair to compare the 2 centers. Clearly, there is more money and fame on Sand Hill. But what about the important stuff? Check the table below… I think Sand Hill Road can learn a few things from the Israeli VC scene.

	Hamenofim St.	Sand Hill Road
Food	Score: 10. Anything from Sushi to Humus, the quality and quantity of food (at all hours) is remarkable	Score: 1. A highly expensive Sushi, and a low-end Mexican place. That's it. Any good meal requires a 10 minute drive to downtown Palo Alto
Gas	Score: 5. Normal prices. Nothing different than the rest of Israel. Still more expensive than anywhere in the US.	Score: 5. Price adjusted for (filthy) rich VCs. Seriously… $4 per gallon? Only on Sand Hill
Night life	Score: 10. Great nighlife, way beyond high tech and VCs. Going out for drinks or food after a late night partners meeting is a great treat	Score: 0. Just night. No life.
Cellular reception	Score: 10. Great reception. In building, in parking garages. Everywhere. One can argue that there are too many base stations frying our brains…	Score: 5. Works ok, although nearby areas are terrible, especially on the 280 and near Stanford.
Entrepreneurs	Score: 5. Some companies are located nearby, although prices have gone up, so startups are moving to other areas	Score: 2. You can find some companies that are still living in the VC facilities (USVP, Sequoia).
Coffee	Score: 8. Some great places include Hillel, Arcaffe, Aroma, and Coffee Bean. A 10 would have given if SiCaffe (NY & Tel-Aviv) would open a Herzliya location	Score: 5. Starbucks only. I actually like Starbucks (That's the reason for the relative high score).
Noise level	Score: 5. Like everything in Israel, noise level is too high	Score: 10. Can beat the calm atmosphere on Sand Hill combined with the great weather.

Comments

[guy grimland]

OMG, that's a great post. pls translate it to hebrew so i can post it at TheMarker

[Ben Jerry]

Great one, hope Arrington & Co will pick it up, as well as for TheMarker.Here's some additional suggested categories & scores:

Girls - Hamenofim Scores 5: Few good looking and plenty of SAP – “stay away, please… “ Sand Hill Scores 9: Very hard to beat the beautiful girls & well kept soccer Moms on Stanford Shopping Center.
Bike Accessibility - Hamenofim Scores 1: You will get killed/asthma/stress if attempting to get to work on a bike.Sand Hill Scores 10: You have a dedicated path, and everybody treats you with respect.
Proximity to LPs - Hamenofim Scores 0: Israeli Institutional Investors don’t invest in Israel’s future. Sand Hill Scores 10: You don’t need to cross the Atlantic, they are all in the US.
Chances of NOT meeting your Ex-Girlfriend, former Boss & Military commander and other people you don’t want to see - Hamenofim Scores 2: On your way to lunch and back, you will meet everyone you tried to avoid in your after work life. Sand Hill Scores 10: Nobody knows Israelis there, and you don’t walk to lunch – you drive.
Seeing lights in Senior Venture Partners’ offices past 5:01PM - Hamenofim Scores 5: Some work hard in Israel… but some don’t….Sand Hill Scores 1: At 5:02PM, Sand Hill Road is vacant from senior VCs. However, they do work better than Israelis between 9:00AM – 5:00PM, and not wasting time.

[Net]

Hey good post Danny! After my 2nd month here I am just dreaming of good coffee - Starbucks is just branded cat-piss...

[Ofer Bar]

Nice post, it's a maetter of personal perspective after all :)
Cheers
Ofer

http://www.nuconomy.com/

[Tali Aben]

Ah, the good 'ol life. I would add the view:
Hamenofim: 10 (!)
Sandhill : 5 - it's just green, with a nice view of the parking lot depending on your office location
Of course, you can't compare the quality of that ridiculously expensive sushi joint in Sharon heights to our Kyoto...

[gene]

Thanks, nice nostalgic post. Ten years ago I traded Ra'anana for the Bay Area. Let me add my two cents - how far you can get in
----------- HaMenofim -------- Sand Hill Rd
10 min -- The beach --------- Downtown Palo Alto
25 min -- Highway 2 --------- SFO, Pacific Ocean
40 min -- Highway 2,5 ------ Downtown San Francisco
1 hour -- Jerusalem, Tel Aviv -- Carmel, Berkeley,
3.5 hours Mt. Hermon ------ South Lake Tahoe

Overall -- 2 ----------------------- 8