Faces Of The Startup Nation: Q&A With Ed Frank Of Axis Innovation

Ed Frank hails from the United States, but moved to Israel in 1990. He is the founder of Axis Innovation, which brings a unique perspective to growth-stage startups seeking international partners. Serving as an investor, entrepreneur and mentor during his career, Ed has also managed international technology joint ventures, M&A activities and strategic investments.  Axis is connected to tech ecosystems around the world and has hosted investors from more than 50 countries that have led to more than 10 transactions led by Axis and Bootcamp Ventures, which Ed co-founded. 

What or who is your biggest inspiration? Nathan Sharansky, a fighter for democracy, who had a long road from Moscow to prison to being a minister in the Israeli government.

Nathan Sharansky

What were your first steps in the business world? An entrepreneurs club in college that financed most of my education and summer jobs at IBM’s semiconductor plant in East Fishkill, New York – the world’s largest and most efficient.

Who is the one person, past or present, you’d love to have dinner with? Jack Ma (founder of Alibaba), who changed the way that China shops and interacts online after several business failures. He created a company with a market cap that recently surpassed Facebook.

Falafel or Shawarma? Falafel. Breakfast of champions – fast, cheap and 1000 calories.

What’s your hidden talent? The ability to encourage people to help achieve their goals.

What is the best place you’ve ever traveled to? Hong Kong, a combination of new and old world, as fastpace as New York, incredibly efficient, exciting, and exotic.

Star Wars or Star Trek?  Star Trek – where the future became the present and 50 years later is still relevant.

What are you totally addicted to? Emails.

What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Moving to Israel before the Gulf War and staying here for more than 24 years.

If you weren’t an investor, what would you be? A life coach.

Frank speaking at an Axis event in Nazareth

Tel Aviv or New York? New York. I’m from New York originally, the world’s melting pot with everything you could ever want or people to meet or places to go available 24/7.

What is the best advise you’ve ever received from your parents?  “If one door closes, another one opens” which of course is bound to happen in our personal and business lives many many times.

Burger or green juice? Burger for the carnivores in us.

The Axis Corporate Edition event will take place on Monday, December 15th from 9am – 1pm at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Over 20 corporate investors and agencies will be in attendance, including: Deutsche Telecom, IBM, Intel Capital, Sandisk Ventures, Nokia, Yandex, Singtel, Perion, Orange, MS Ventures, Mail.Ru, Siemens, Mastercard, Elbit, Ford, Microsoft, and more.

NoCamels “Faces of the Startup Nation” features the leading entrepreneurs, innovators, investors and visionaries to give you an exclusive peak into the movers and shakers of Israel’s innovation scene. If you want to suggest a “Face”,  write us in the comments below!

Photos: courtesy/ Twitter/ Axis Tel Aviv