Agassi Changes The World

Something happened here: Shai Agassi, who became one of the senior people at SAP after selling them his company for an imaginary sum, who could have become the CEO, got up and turned to a new direction. Just like that, without requesting permission. Without checking with the senior high-tech people in Israel to see what they have to offer, and without asking us, the venture capital people, what have we planned for the rest of his life, Agassi decided - on his own - what path to follow.

If he had decided to found a new start-up, we would all have understood and accepted, and patiently waited till the moment he tired. Until he would have realized that without us, the VC’s, he could not continue alone and would have turned to us for help. We would have engulfed him with love, invested in him without end and helped him to become a successful serial entrepreneur, for the glory of the Israeli high-tech.

But no. Mr. Agassi is no longer satisfied with making money for himself and for us, his potential investors. He is aiming high, to change the world. He wants to create a Better Place here, like the name of his company. He wants to electrify our cars, spread half a million charging stations all over our tiny country, significantly improve the quality of the air here, and shatter our cursed dependency on the international oil sources. He is threatening us with establishing scores of research, production and development companies, which will create thousands of new jobs and all sorts of other unnecessary good things in the same vein.

While waiting for my coffee at "Aroma", I study Agassi's story, spread out over five color pages in the newspaper I am holding. I am so absorbed in the fascinating story that I fail to notice that another pair of eyes, which belong to a friend of mine, are reading it with me. He too is a resident of Hamenofim Street, a seasoned and experienced high-tech investor.

"So what do you say about the charlatan?" He opens to see whether I, in my innocence, have been charmed by the photographs of Agassi smiling, or whether I belong to the same rare breed of those, who know right from wrong, and who are not taken in by every bit of nonsense that is published in the newspapers.

"Amazing, simply amazing", I say in admiration. "Here’s a project of a national scale. In a country like ours, where the last national project was planting roses in the Knesset garden, an entrepreneur steps forward, and without making excuses, with extraordinary daring, goes for something that can change the world. I'm speechless".

"Come on", my friend says impatiently, "Are you too falling for this nonsense? Don't you understand that the electrical power necessary for this car, multiplied by the energy per hour required by the battery, divided by the square root of the energy emission differential, will cause this amusing car to travel at a speed of 100 km/h at the best, and it will have a range of less than one hundred kilometers? Can't you see that while our oil dependency may drop miraculously, we will not be able to afford to drive jeeps with engines of fifty thousand cc's and two hundred thousand horse power while everyone around us is demonstrating responsibility and adopting nature preservation values? Where exactly do you think are you living?"

Confronted by such an attack, I am left with no choice but to reexamine my position. "Sources in the know say that nobody is even willing to produce these cars of his, no serious company will enter this madness!" I announce with the importance of someone who is in the know. (I had an oil change when I filled my car up with gas today, and that is what the nice attendant at the gas station said).

Now I have caused him satisfaction. My conversation companion smiles at me in relief. "And he wants to make millions out of this business, this Agassi. Do you understand? At your expense and at mine, and on the backs of us all. He thinks we are a whole country of suckers!"

We finish our coffee happily and say goodbye. Not to worry, somebody is sure to make Agassi fail and we can peacefully continue living our air-polluting, oil dependent, horribly wasteful, lifestyle. Everything is fine. Funny to see with how much fondness this project is being accepted all over the world, by executives of giant corporations and amongst world leaders. What do they know anyway? But that is what we are here for, the Israelis, to protect the world. So that, heaven forbid, it will not turn into a Better Place!
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(Published by “Globes” – 3 February 2008)