“I’m the VP of development at a startup. I enlisted on October 7, and since then, I’ve been in the reserves on and off. The company informed me that the situation is no longer possible, and they are looking for someone who can give 100% because they are suffering (and that’s true). I understand them completely, and we came to a joint conclusion that I should leave.” This tweet was published last week on @FeedTechILUncen on X. Although it is a very personal tweet, it reflects what is happening below the surface in the Israeli high-tech industry in recent months. These underground currents are manifested beyond heavy personnel costs and pose a real threat to the continued success of the industry in Israel. More and more companies, including early-stage startups, prefer to “spread the risk” and recruit more workers abroad to avoid shutting down operations or damaging development, as has been the case in the last eight months.
“In large companies, there has always been a dispersion of personnel across different countries, but today there is a tendency to be more strict about this to ensure continuity in situations of massive reserve recruitment or regional instability,” says Micha Kaufman, co-founder and CEO of Fiverr, which employs 770 people in Israel and around the world and is traded in New York at a value of $1 billion.
