Ashton Kutcher to Tel Aviv Start-ups: “Look Within For Inspiration” - Levi Shapiro

TV star Ashton Kutcher accompanied by his manager Guy Oseary addressed an audience of 1500 Tel Aviv techies last week Their Grade A venture fund together with partner Ron Burkle has invested more than 200 million in 30 early stage technology ventures such as Airbnb Path Fabcom and Spotify This trip to Israel Kutcheramp8217s fourth was to scout potential Israeli startup investmentsamp8220The film industry brings people together and so does technologyamp8221 said Kutcher amp8220I see them as similar platformsamp8230 My goal is to embrace the people the amp8216natural resourcesamp8217 of Israel and to build businesses with the creative Israelisamp8220When I went into business with Guy a few years ago we decided we wanted to change the world and we looked for investments that would do that We especially looked at companies that let you connect with people socially trusting each other on the Internetamp8221Jerusalemborn Oseary has been investing in Israeli startups for the last seven years and describes his investment philosophy as amp8220Founders Firstamp8221 Oseary manages AListers like Madonna Demi Moore Lucy Liu and Alex Rodriguez and he executive produced the Twilight series of filmsKutcher who studied chemical engineering and has 145 million Twitter followers httpstwittercomaplusk embraced technology early in his career amp8220I started a film production company when I was 21 I surrounded myself with people who were building things to communicate in different ways and that appealed to meamp8221Kutcher invests in consumerfacing companies and software platforms and he views mobile as a key component He devotes 1020 hours a week to trying to identify the next thing in apps He does not invest in digital content citing the low profit margins and lack of ROIKutcher played Steve Jobs on film but his advice for startup founders is to discover their own path amp8220Anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur like someone else is actually looking in the wrong direction You donamp8217t look out for inspiration you look in You have to ask yourself how can I be better today at solving the problem I am trying to solve for my company I wouldnamp8217t encourage anyone to be like me Just be like youamp8221Levi Shapiro is a Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors a research and strategy firm focusing on the technology media and telecom sectors He can be reached at levitmtstratcom or via twitter levshapiroRead all Levi39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Unleavened MediaCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Ashton Kutcher to Tel Aviv Start-ups: “Look Within For Inspiration” - Levi Shapiro

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