“I met Merage Institute personnel for the first time almost a year ago. It was right after my company, OffLA, filed the registration forms to be part of “The Best Idea: Merage 45+ Entrepreneur Competition 2014”.

I never, never saw a group of such a kind and helpful people, working together, full with a joy, most of them as volunteers, but, all of them share the desire to contribute, to lead young Israeli companies toward a success.

After winning the 1st prize in the competition, a prize that totally improved the route of my company during the last months, I joined HLS2015 Seminar.

I must say it was very intensive and hard work, but a great experience. 

I thought, as many Israeli people does, that American business people are actually Israeli business people that simply speak and write in English instead of Hebrew. 

Thus, if you can speak English – this is all you need to make business in the states. It was a big, big mistake…

During the seminar, wrapped by the warm hospitality of the families that opened their homes for us every evening, we realized that culture gaps are not so small as we thought, we understood that behavioral and even discussion habits are different, that we do need a lot to learn and practice in order to increase our companies chances to make business in the states. The extraordinary lecturers made the class hours to be a great experience, even though it was in English, which was not so easy for many of us. The dedicated tours that were arranged for us simply completed the whole process to be very fruitful and helped us see the big picture. 

I learned and experienced a lot in the seminar and see it now as a must for Israeli CEO or BD manager, if he or she really want to make business in the US. 

I want to thank each one of the staff that was involved in the seminar and especially to Mr. Paul Merage, who invented that brilliant idea and made it happen.

I wish all of you all the best.”