It is not easy to set up an interview with Amit Kochavi. First, he is busy preparing for his high school matriculation exam in math, and then another in civics. We finally manage to meet at a caf , immediately after an exam. He is a tall, handsome young man. A little shy, mainly embarrassed by my interest in him and the idea of being interviewed for a newspaper. He doesn't look at all like the stereotypical nerd, even though at the tender age of 17 he has already launched an entrepreneurs' accelerator program, started several initiatives in the field and founded his own startup company. He is not the least bit arrogant or overconfident, which could have easily been a natural consequence of his impressive resume and the fact that a couple of years ago he spent his summer vacation meeting investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and in Los Angeles. From my own experience, I know it is not easy to get teenagers to talk. And I have an entire interview to do with this one, without forgetting that before he is a CEO and an entrepreneur, he is a 17-year-old who has just completed his senior year of high school, taking the exams in mathematics, physics, computer science, software engineering and computing, as well as other core subjects. Explaining why he opted to take the more challenging elective exams, he says: "I have always taken an interest in these subjects. They give me a good foundation for the future." He does not get it from home. Kochavi's parents are not in the high-tech business. His father, Doron, is a real estate lawyer, and his mother, Tammy, born in the U.S., produces documentary films. His older half sister from his father's first marriage lives with her husband in London and is studying for a Ph.D. in art history. Kochavi's first project came when he was 14. It was born out of the technological gap between him and his grandmother Azriella, then aged 80. She had asked her grandson to teach her the basics of using a computer -- surfing the Internet, sending emails, creating a Word document. "I taught her and explained everything to her, but when I came to visit her she would not remember anything I had explained in the previous visit," he said. "She asked a ton of questions. It was very confusing for her, for example, that when she typed a query into Google it would provide a jungle of information that she did not know what to do with. "I went home and started compiling guides on using a computer: how to open a Facebook account, how to set up an email account and send emails, and lots of other topics. For some of the things there were already existing guides, and for others I compiled my own guides. The explanation in each guide is divided into stages, and for each stage there is a screen shot to demonstrate the action, so it is very clear. "After a month and a half of work, I gathered all the guides, those that already existed and those that I had built, onto one site. I called it 'Shmoogle It' because my grandmother always says, 'Google, shmoogle.'" Q: You were only in the ninth grade. Where did you get the know-how? "In seventh and eighth grades I learned a little computer science at school. In order to build the site, I started teaching myself how to program at home, through the Internet and with books. Programming is nothing special. It sounds like a big deal, but anyone can learn to write code -- it is just a tool. The hard part is finding a good idea and developing products and new technology. "In 'Shmoogle' I didn't do anything innovative, technologically speaking. It was not like building a smartphone or a computer. If you learn the basics you can build any application. You can always improve, but the important thing is the idea. I didn't invent a new application, it was just a website that provided people who lack knowledge about computers with guides that can teach them." "Shmoogle It" first became operational in March 2012. As expected, the first person to use it was grandma Azriella. In its first three months, Kochavi says, it was visited by 2 million users, from China, the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Kochavi started attending startup conventions, where he met entrepreneurs, almost all older than him. A friend of his father's helped him with initial infrastructure he would need to promote his site. That was when he became familiar with crowdfunding platforms, where capital for a project is raised from a large number of private individuals investing small sums. "Two months after 'Shmoogle It' launched, I went on Indiegogo, the largest crowdfunding site, and set my goal at $20,000, if I remember correctly. I don't know what I was thinking," he laughs. "I think I raised about a 10th of that. I don't even remember what I wrote, but I can find it if you want." He uses my laptop to find his Indiegogo page, recalling that he had asked for $18,000, but managed to raise only $2,696 from 46 people in the allotted month. In fluent English, the page described the birth of "Shmoogle It" and detailed what investors could expect in return for their contribution: a bumper sticker for contributing $10, and a package of a sticker, a bracelet, a T-shirt and a personal thank-you letter for $75. Kochavi looks at his Indiegogo page and laughs again. Even at such a young age, he has already developed the charming ability to look back at his earlier projects and laugh in embarrassment about things he tried "at the start." He used the little money he managed to raise to upgrade the site's design and to market it. His grandmother became a regular user and was eventually joined by 3 million others from around the world. Kochavi's parents were involved, and they encouraged him, but they lack a fundamental understanding of the industry. "My cousin on my dad's side founded a startup company at age 25, and he served as a kind of inspiration for me. I remember asking him a lot of questions. He was extremely helpful," Kochavi says. At high school, Kochavi deepened his familiarity with the field. He studied computer science and programming and continued to attend professional conferences. He became aware of the entrepreneurial hub TechLoft, a shared office space and community for startup entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv. He began visiting regularly and eventually came up with his next idea: a computerized map of Israel's restaurants. "I visited TechLoft twice a week and worked on my start up ideas: Shmoogle and IsraeliFoodMap. I met several startup entrepreneurs who helped me a lot. I'm still in touch with many of them," he says. At the end of 10th grade, he came to the conclusion that "Shmoogle It" had run its course. "I felt that I was unable to grow or reach a large number of users, because my target audience, those senior citizens over 70, are tough to reach. All in all it was nice, but I was already working on a new idea I wanted to develop so I stopped putting effort into the site. It became inactive," he says. The new idea, his third, was an actual application, one that would link groups of people on the basis of shared interests and location with the help of social events. "I called the application GroopMeUp. We had to spell the word 'group' wrong because I found out that the name was already taken. "I started building the application, but I felt that I needed more information to move forward with it, so I decided to intern at an incubator in Los Angeles. My maternal grandparents live there, so I thought that if I went there over the summer it would help me network and get to more places in the future." When Kochavi says "incubator," he means a technological incubator, a business that invests in entrepreneurs just starting to develop technological ideas and provides initial funding. Though most incubators do not open their doors to interns, certainly not teens, Kochavi talks about interning at an incubator the same way other teens talk about a summer job at McDonald's. Q: How did you even know about the possibility of interning at an incubator in Los Angeles? "I knew that there were incubators in Israel. I don't know if they have interns. I went on the websites of various incubators in Los Angeles to see what they do, and I saw that they had interns. So I sent requests to some of them. My English is at mother tongue level because my mother spoke only English to me when I was a child. So I wrote the requests myself. Mom only looked it over." A CEO of one of the incubators contacted him and asked him what added value he could offer the company. Kochavi reads his answer from his iPhone, which demonstrates his tremendous willpower and ambition. He chuckles in embarrassment again over his youthful fearlessness. "I want you to know that I am not just a typical 15-year-old looking for a 'fun' experience. I want to learn, gain life skills and contribute to the incubator," he wrote. "I saw that he had signed his note to me with his initials, so as a joke I signed my note with my initials and a smiley face," he says. StartEngine agreed to take on the smart, ambitious kid from Israel. He spent the entire summer following 10th grade in Los Angeles, living at his grandparents' house. "I was there for two months in the incubator. I organized a tour of U.S. universities to seek out interesting startup companies for investment. "I also built two new functions for their website and upgraded it. During that time I contacted all kinds of young entrepreneurs, and one of them recently came to Israel with the Taglit-Birthright program, and we met up. "A friend of my grandparents, a lawyer, helped me set up meetings with venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. I had more than 10 meetings in three days. I simply sent them my resume and asked to present the new idea I was working on." Q: Did you believe that venture capital firms would agree to meet a 15-year-old boy? "They agreed to meet me because the minute a 15-year-old comes and they see that he is serious and really wants to learn, they want to help. I didn't come looking to raise money, I just wanted to meet and hear their thoughts. They are anxious to find new ideas from young entrepreneurs." Q: Did anyone accompany you to the meetings? Negotiate for you? "My father, who came on vacation to my grandparents, drove me during those three days, but stayed outside during the meetings. It was important for me that the investors get an impression only of me and what I represent." Q: Did you wear shorts and a T-shirt or something a bit more respectable? "I wore a button-down shirt and pants. Nothing more respectable." Q: Did you ultimately manage to raise money? "Yes, but not from them. In the incubator where I interned, I compiled all the information on mentors who accompany startup companies for the incubator. The internship provided me direct access to these mentors, so I approached some of them and tried to interest them in a new idea I had for an application. Ultimately I managed to raise $30,000 from three mentors -- $10,000 from each in exchange for 3.3% for each on the basis of a projected value of $300,000." When Kochavi returned to Israel with $30,000 in seed money, he began recruiting people to advance his new startup company. "I advertised on LinkedIn that I was looking for two marketers, a designer and a programmer. I found them. They all still work with me on the basis of future options. I also recruited the law firm of Yigal Arnon for help with the legal aspects. "In the first year of working on GroopMeUp, when I was in 11th grade, we launched. The first version has been upgraded significantly since then and is expected to be launched on iOS [Apple's operating system] in the coming weeks, after Apple approves it." But after visiting Los Angeles, school and his startup company were not enough. "Back in the 10th grade, I applied for a program that cultivates leadership among young people, called LEAD. Participation in the program includes starting a social initiative that has to do with your personal interests. After a year-long process I was accepted, so I started working on my social initiative in the 11th grade." The idea for the initiative sprouted before he was accepted into the program: to found an entrepreneurial accelerator for teens within Tel Aviv high schools, to bring students closer to the high-tech world. "I called the project TechLounge. In order to establish it, I approached the head of the education board at the Tel Aviv Municipality, Dafna Lev, and she helped me advance the idea in the municipality. "That is also how I learned that the municipality was holding a competition for innovation in education among the institutions under its authority. They suggested that I enter the competition even though I was just a teen. I entered my project into the competition. In March 2015, I was told that my project won the 'Crowd Favorite' award and that a budget had been allocated to the project, which I would partly manage. The accelerators will begin operating at the start of the next school year." At the same time, he started recruiting mentors for his accelerators, people he had met at conferences and at TechLoft. The first class in the accelerator he founded began in 2014, when he himself began the 12th grade. There were 25 students in that first class from Kochavi's school, ranging from 10th to 12th grade. They were divided into five teams, and each team worked on its own startup idea. "Imagine teens without any knowledge or experience meeting with professional mentors twice a week," he says. He says that not all the students who started the year made it to the end of the year. "They had school work, and it wasn't easy. But at the end there were 12 students with three startups that have already began to network. Everything has slowed down a bit now. Everyone is busy with exams." Q: What did you learn about yourself in this project? "I learned how to conduct myself as a leader and where my difficulties lie. I learned to bring more emotion into the work and not just operate on the basis of logic. In situations where I need to have an interpersonal interaction, my tendency has always been to go for the practical, and I didn't always listen. "I learned that you can't be a good manager without paying attention to the emotional aspect, unless you want to be a dictator. People will perform their tasks much better if you listen to them and meet them halfway in certain situations, and if you find a way to solve problems in a manner that suits both sides. "Another thing that I learned is to prioritize and manage my time. Now, for example, I know that I need to put all my efforts into my exams, so I am focusing mainly on that. It also has to do with my upbringing. My mother and father taught me that you need self-discipline and dedication if you want to achieve certain goals. You need to know how to focus on whatever is most important at any given time. I learned to forgo fun things sometimes, like meeting friends or playing basketball, to achieve a goal that is more important to me." Q: What about a girlfriend? He laughs, embarrassed. "That is irrelevant to this interview. I could tell you, but I'd rather not go into it here." The GroopMeUp application is slated to be available on the Apple Store very soon. The high school accelerator program has been awarded a budget of millions of shekels from the Tel Aviv Municipality and is slated to encompass 12 schools in the coming year. "My dream is that the technological accelerator program will be expanded to all the high schools in the country," he says. "That teens will have the opportunity to realize their ideas and march the high-tech industry forward from a young age." When he is not busy founding startup companies, Kochavi likes to play basketball and tennis, play the guitar, and as of six months ago, surf. He has good friends with whom he spends time. Ahead of his coming military service, he is trying out for elite intelligence units and for the Israeli Air Force's pilots' course. His biggest dream now is to become a pilot. "That is an ambition that overshadows everything we talked about now. It has been my dream since I was four years old, and my grandparents gave me a flight simulator. I became addicted to simulators. If I make it to the pilots' course, all my startup activities will be put on hold for a few years. This desire is simply stronger than me. I am sure that I will be able to continue advancing in the flight field after the army as well." Q: That sounds like a lot of mountains to climb. Where does this ambition come from? "I like to challenge myself. I don't expect 100% from myself, I expect 120%. I mostly enjoy myself and do things that interest me, even if it is difficult sometimes. The satisfaction is much greater when you manage to achieve your goals. It could be that my ambition comes from my upbringing and my family. The fact is that my sister is now getting her Ph.D. No one pressured her to do it. She is studying something that she loves."
