Summary: The California-born Brian Blum moved with his family to Israel in 1994. Once there, he merged his twin loves of technology and writing and became a business journalist, and his work appears throughout the country. In 2012, he and his family became enamored with an Israeli electric car startup called Better Place. The company had an ingenious idea. Ten years ago, Better Place CEO Shai Agassi was on list after list of the world's most innovative young entrepreneurs. He appeared on magazine covers and was invited all over the world to present his vision for the future of electric cars. In a sense, Shai Agassi was Elon Musk before Elon Musk. Agassi's company had an audacious plan. At the time, people were reluctant to buy electric cars because they were afraid the battery wouldn't last all the way to their destination. Sure, they could do short errands, but what if they wanted to drive long distances? How would they charge their car? And more to the point, even if they could charge their car, they'd have to wait several hours for the battery to work again. (Plug-in technology for fast charging at an affordable price didn't exist yet.) Agassi's Better Place company had a solution. Brian Blum was a Better Place customer and decided to write a book about the company. In this week's episode, we visit Blum's Jerusalem home to discuss the Better Place story. Plus: The bizarre reason why most people who bought the car – including Blum – had to return it. For extra notes, photos and a complete transcript of this episode, please visit www.ourfriendfromisrael.com.
