From sand dunes northward of Jaffa to a cosmopolitan city: Tel Aviv entrepreneurs’ experiences

This chapter investigates entrepreneurs’ personal experiences of working and living in Tel Aviv, Israel. The chapter notes a range of developments relevant to Tel Aviv’s cosmopolitanism – achievements in city planning, health care, design of start-up ecosystem, and the impact of mandatory military service on the formation of entrepreneurial networks. This discussion is complemented by highlights of Israel’s and Tel Aviv’s culture and the city’s unique lifestyle and permits to argue that Tel Aviv’s cosmopolitanism is based on three elements - tolerance, innovation and attractive lifestyle. The chapter then delineates six themes that the study’s participants (Tel Aviv’s entrepreneurs) indicated as the most important for their life and work. These themes are: how they perceive Tel Aviv in terms of opportunities the city offers; how effective is Tel Aviv’s entrepreneurial ecosystem; the importance of military experience; how people go about their personal relationships and a marriage; what are the divisions and inequalities in the city; and what constraints entrepreneurs experience with their start-ups. The conclusion draws insights into Tel Aviv’s unique cosmopolitanism and its limitations.