Full description of the 12-month Yazam Ole programme: conditions of participation, organization of work, seven stages, results and limitations.
Learn about the next cohortYazam Ole helps new immigrants settle into Israel through the creation of a new business or the development of an existing one.
Yazam Ole combines learning, the development of a real business, and integration into Israeli society.
Participants immediately apply what they learn to their own projects and test it through interaction with local people and organisations.
During the programme, participants find and develop a new business idea; test whether a business created in their country of origin can work in Israel and adapt it to the local market where necessary; develop a new line of activity within an existing business; or, by mutual agreement, join another participant’s project in a clearly defined role.
The participant works on a project during and between classes in a real environment: talking to people, testing hypotheses, looking for clients and partners, developing and refining the product, business model, financial model and MVP.
Participants whose projects are ready for launch conduct the first controlled launch with the support of the programme team.
Through this work, participants learn how Israeli culture and business relationships operate, expand their local networks, and apply their professional experience in an Israeli context.
While working on a real business project, the participant:
The programme aims to help each person become more independent in Israel’s cultural, social, and professional environment.
Entrepreneurial activity is the main practical vehicle for this integration.
The programme is designed so that every activity contributes, to some degree, to all three forms of adaptation.
Shared practice
Language, communication norms and business context
The participant develops everyday and business Hebrew, gets acquainted with local traditions and learns to act in everyday and business situations.
In classes, in practical work and in interactions with mentors and local entrepreneurs, they gain a better understanding of the norms of communication, negotiations, trust, responsibility, service and attitude to time.
If their language skills or cultural knowledge are not yet sufficient, the participant learns to prepare for interaction and use appropriate support.
Sustainable local connections and reciprocal relationships
The participant maintains important connections with their former environment and expands local social circles - among neighbors, people with common interests and the professional community.
The programme helps create sustainable mutual relationships.
Application of experience and inclusion in the professional environment
The participant checks how their previous experience and competencies are applicable in Israel, becomes familiar with local requirements and professional practices, enters a professional environment and gains experience of real work in the Israeli environment.
They form a circle of specialists, colleagues and potential partners whom they can turn to as their project develops.
The participant addresses an entrepreneurial challenge, interacts with local residents, entrepreneurs, and organisations, and builds relationships while learning the everyday, social, and business context of life in Israel.
Yazam Ole is designed for new immigrants who have lived in Israel for up to and including ten years.
You want to become an entrepreneur and are ready to search for a viable idea.
You have an early-stage or already developed business idea.
You need to determine how the business can operate in Israel.
You want to create a new line of activity or substantially change the existing one.
The programme may be right for you if:
A ready-made idea is not required. The beginning of the programme includes work on finding and shaping an idea.
Limited Hebrew, unfamiliarity with Israeli rules, or a lack of local connections are treated as part of the participant’s starting point and determine the support they may need.
The programme includes an admissions and selection process. The team evaluates motivation, entrepreneurial potential, the ability to learn and use feedback, and readiness for systematic, focused, and disciplined work throughout the programme.
A separate intake is available for reservists. Learn more about the programme for reservists
Work proceeds in recurring weekly cycles. The overall route is shared, while each specific step depends on the participant’s project and starting point.
Learn new material or a new tool
Define the next practical step
Work with people, the market, and the project
Compare the outcome with expectations
Adjust the solution and continue
At least one required meeting every active week.
There is at least one required meeting each active week. At certain stages there may be more meetings, depending on the content of the programme, the tasks of the participants and the necessary support.
The meeting may include learning new material, a workshop on mastering a tool, working on a project, preparing to interact with clients, analyzing results, working in a small group, or consulting with a curator, mentor, or specialist.
This rhythm helps to maintain attention to the project, notice difficulties in time and prevent work from piling up.
Each meeting initiates the next practical step in the project.
The participant works on the project during and between meetings. Each meeting determines the next practical step: prepare and conduct a business conversation or negotiation, collect and analyze information, test a hypothesis, clarify a proposal or revise earlier work.
Larger tasks—product development, assembling a business model, financial calculations, and launch preparation—are divided into a sequence of interconnected steps and followed through several meetings.
One order of stages and different initial situations of the participants.
The group goes through the stages in the same order. Each participant applies them to their original situation, idea or existing business. The individual trajectory takes into account entrepreneurial experience, the nature of the project, the time available, the pace of external work and the challenges encountered.
Participants come from a variety of entrepreneurial backgrounds. Those starting a business for the first time receive a consistent framework, tools and support. Experienced entrepreneurs apply their experience to the Israeli environment, learn new tools, deepen their practice and help other participants.
All participants go through the general steps of the programme and apply them to their current project. Previous experience helps to carry out individual tasks in depth and support the group.
The group and programme team help participants prepare each action and make sense of the result.
The programme includes:
Participants carry out the work and make entrepreneurial decisions themselves. The team helps them prepare, understand the results, and choose the next well-founded step.
Participants move through the stages in the same overall order.
At every step, the project gains a new level of clarity and may be continued, changed, or stopped.
Participants get to know each other, talk about their experience, resources, interests and possible areas of business. They get an idea of how they can be useful to each other and what support each may need. The group agrees on rules of work, feedback, confidentiality and mutual support.
By the end of the stage, each participant formulates the purpose of their participation, understands their place in the group and moves on to the next stage with a business idea, a possible direction or a specific area of search.
Participants explore and refine existing ideas, find new directions, and receive structured feedback from the group. Invited entrepreneurs with experience in Israel help to consider and evaluate ideas from different entrepreneurial perspectives, take into account the peculiarities of the local market and formulate questions for further testing. At subsequent stages, invited entrepreneurs periodically join the participants’ projects and help to comprehend new results and solutions in the context of the Israeli business environment.
By the end of the stage, the participant forms a basic working hypothesis for further research. This hypothesis may change after receiving evidence from the field. Other promising areas are retained as alternatives, and the participant directs their main attention to one idea.
If there is still no ready-made idea, the participant can move to the next stage with a specific search area, an assumption about the problem, and a plan to communicate with potential clients, users, or others who may encounter it.
The participant determines who faces the perceived problem, who will use the solution, who decides the choice, who pays, and who influences the choice. They learn how to conduct research interviews: asking questions about real-life experiences, clarifying answers, and recording facts. After preparation, the participant communicates personally with potential clients and users, receiving language or organizational support if needed.
At this stage, the participant studies real situations and people's behavior: when a problem arises, how it is solved now, what alternatives they use, what they put off, what difficulties they face and what results they want to achieve.
The result of this stage is an understanding of the client, the problem and the existing method of solving it, based on evidence from the field. The participant then decides whether to continue with the current idea, refine or change the selected customer group, reframe the problem, or stop the idea.
Based on customer information, the participant considers different ways to solve the identified problem. The group, teachers, mentors and specialists help expand the field of options, see possible limitations and compare solutions taking into account the needs of the client and the conditions of the Israeli market.
The participant selects a primary option, describes the future customer journey, formulates a preliminary proposal, and creates a simple, understandable version of the solution for further testing. A suitable backup direction can be saved in case the main decision is not confirmed.
The end of the stage is the readiness to conduct a real test, the results of which can be meaningfully interpreted and used for the next decision.
The participant tests the developed solution with potential customers, users and people making purchasing decisions. They receive feedback on how accurately the customers and their needs are defined, whether the proposal is clear and whether it corresponds to the real situation.
During testing, the participant also looks for evidence that potential customers are willing to take a meaningful next step: continue a business conversation, try the solution, provide relevant information, make an introduction to a decision-maker, join a pilot, discuss terms, or confirm their interest in writing.
The programme includes at least two successive testing cycles. In the first, the participant prepares the test, works with potential customers, and records the results. They then analyse the evidence and adjust the solution, offer, or approach. The revised version is tested in the second cycle.
Positive feedback by itself does not confirm demand. Refusals also do not prove the inconsistency of the idea. It is important to see the real behavior of potential clients, understand the reasons for their actions and make an informed decision about the next step: continue working, change the project, conduct additional spot checks, or stop.
If the results of the checks allow us to move further, the participant connects the project into an integral system:
The financial model relates price, expected demand, sales volume, production or service capabilities, expenses, cash flow, required start-up capital and main risks. It helps assess whether a business can deliver on its promises to customers, maintain required quality, and meet the participant's financial goals under different scenarios.
By the end of the stage, the participant understands whether it makes sense to continue the project, what conditions are necessary to launch it, whether the available money and resources are sufficient, and whether the business will be able to fulfill its obligations in terms of timing, volume and quality. Based on the results of this work, the participant prepares the launch, addresses specific gaps, returns for additional testing, changes the model, or stops the project.
The participant who decides to continue the project conducts the first controlled launch of the business within predetermined boundaries.
Before the launch, potential customers, the content of the proposal, price, terms, conditions, acceptable volume of orders, necessary resources, costs, workload and main risks are determined. The participant approaches potential clients with a specific commercial proposal, conducts business negotiations, answers questions, discusses conditions and accompanies the decision-making process. Each accepted obligation is fulfilled to the agreed extent, recording the actual costs of time, money and resources.
After the first launch cycle, the participant compares real results with the business model: evaluates the performance of acquisition channels, customer response, actual costs, timing and quality of implementation. They then corrects the identified deficiencies and repeats the commercial cycle within the agreed boundaries.
The purpose of the stage is to go through the full cycle of real business, fulfill accepted obligations, receive the first predetermined commercial confirmation from the market and make a subsequent decision based on the experience gained.
Leaving an idea behind after thorough research or validation is a normal entrepreneurial outcome.
If a participant finds that a project is not viable, cannot be implemented in the intended form, or requires an unacceptable investment of money, time, or effort, they document the findings and stop working on it.
Find a new direction and repeat the necessary previous steps.
Join the participant’s project by mutual agreement and in a clearly defined role.
Record what was learned and decide what to do next without the current project.
The participant may then:
A participant may change ideas several times during the programme if enough time and support remain to complete the necessary stages.
A new idea may also emerge near the end of the programme. The participant and team then determine whether there is enough time to study customers, design and test the solution, build the business model, and launch. If there is enough time, the new idea becomes the participant’s current project. Otherwise, the participant documents the idea, identifies its main hypotheses and first actions, and continues working on it after the programme.
While without a working idea, the participant continues the cultural and social parts of the programme. New observations, relationships, and contacts may become the source of the next business idea or the next attempt to create a business.
The programme has two interconnected outcomes: changes in the participant’s adaptation and the outcome of their work on a business project.
The entrepreneurial outcome may take one of three forms.
A participant who completes the learning route gains practical experience with entrepreneurial tools, a better understanding of the Israeli business environment, a wider local network, and the ability to find the support they need. They move from an initial idea to a decision about its future and can repeat the process with another business hypothesis.
Changes in cultural, social, and professional adaptation are considered separately and in relation to each participant’s starting point. The programme does not use a single overall adaptation score.
The tools have been mastered, the stages have been completed, and the experience can be applied to the next idea.
The participant studied the materials, mastered the proposed tools, completed the assigned work and went through the general stages of the programme. Along the way, they may have stopped the original idea, changed direction, or made an informed decision not to launch the project.
They gain hands-on experience in customer research, hypothesis testing, solution design, business model building, and financial calculations. This experience can be independently applied to the next idea after the programme.
This result confirms completion of the educational part of the programme.
The project has been assembled, the initial conditions are clear, the decision to launch can be postponed.
The participant researched customers and their needs, tested key assumptions, assembled a business and financial model, determined the product or service, price, operating conditions, required resources and the sequence of first actions.
The project can begin with clear starting conditions. A participant may delay the launch due to changes in personal circumstances, lack of necessary resources, reassessment of risks, changes in priorities, or a conscious decision not to continue with this particular project.
This is an independent result of the programme: the learning path has been completed, the project has been assembled and prepared, the decision to launch has been postponed.
Conducted a controlled launch and received predetermined market action.
The participant conducted a controlled launch of their own business, a new direction of an existing business, or a project of another participant in which they play an agreed role.
They have gone through at least one full sales cycle: approached potential clients with a specific proposal, negotiated terms, received the first confirmed action from the market, fulfilled the commitments made, and reviewed the actual results with the programme team.
Before launching, for each project it is determined which action will be considered the first positive result. Depending on the business, this could be a payment, an order, an advance, a paid pilot, a signed contract, or another predetermined commercially significant action. Positive feedback and verbal promises without subsequent action by the client are not considered such a result.
A completed launch without such a result is saved as a separate practical result of the participant and confirms completion of the training part of the programme. full completion occurs after a predetermined commercially significant market action.
The business does not yet need to become profitable or sustainable to complete the programme. The transition to stable activity usually takes longer and may become the content of graduate support after the programme.
The participant receives a final document confirming full completion of the programme.
Before the start of training, participants are provided with precise criteria for each result and conditions for receiving final documents.
Yazam Ole cannot guarantee:
Participation outcomes depend first and foremost on the individual: their decisions, discipline, attitude to their work, and readiness to act. The programme team—teachers, mentors, experts, curators, and facilitators—helps participants master the necessary tools, prepare for practical action, find relevant people and specialists, review results, correct mistakes, and make well-founded decisions.
The team uses its available knowledge, experience, connections, and opportunities to improve each participant’s chances of building a viable business and integrating successfully in Israel. Responsibility for the project, decisions, and completed work remains with the participant.
The programme is built around a consistent sequence of stages, mastery of essential knowledge and tools, a regular working rhythm, practical engagement with the Israeli environment, thoughtful analysis of evidence, and continuous support from the team.
No. You can come to the programme without a ready-made business idea. At the beginning, there is a stage of searching, creating and initially developing possible directions. What is really needed is a serious intention to engage in entrepreneurship and a willingness to look for your own working idea.
Yes. The participant chooses a new direction or a significant change in an existing business and guides it through all stages of the programme - from research to launch. The experience of an entrepreneur helps you work deeper on your own project and share practical knowledge with other participants.
Yes. You may apply with basic Hebrew or no Hebrew at all. Language proficiency is considered when assessing each participant’s starting point and the support they need.
Growing a business in Israel involves communicating with local residents, clients, entrepreneurs and organizations. Therefore, the participant must be prepared to gradually learn and use Hebrew, as well as work with translation, prepared materials and the help of others. The programme helps you prepare for such interaction and gradually become more independent.
Participants look for clients and partners with the support of the team. Teachers, mentors and experts help determine who to look for, prepare an appeal, select appropriate communities and channels, and overcome language and cultural difficulties.
When the team has the right opportunity, they can recommend a specific person, community or event, or help make connections. The programme cannot promise a specific client, partner or the result of such an acquaintance in advance.
The participant will analyze the information received and determine the reasons for this result. After that, they can change the decision, choose another group of clients, clarify the problem, significantly rework the project, find a new idea, or join the project of another participant by mutual agreement.
Stopping an unviable or unsuitable idea early is also a rewarding entrepreneurial outcome. It allows you to save time and resources and use the experience gained in your next attempt.
The main programme takes 12 months. This period includes all seven stages, regular mandatory meetings, independent work between them and a controlled launch for participants whose projects will be prepared for it.
After completing the main programme, the participant who launched the business can continue to work with the team in the format of post-programme support on separately agreed terms. The content of the support will be determined by the real tasks of the existing business.
No. full completion means that the participant has completed the intended path, launched the project and received the first pre-determined commercial confirmation from the market.
Profitability, growth and sustainability of a business usually require additional time. They depend on the decisions of the entrepreneur, the market situation, available resources and other conditions.
Leave your contact details to receive information about dates, participation terms, and the start of admissions once they are published.
Learn about the next cohortYazam Ole combines structured business education, the creation and launch of a real business, and active participation in Israel’s business and public life. This approach accelerates the cultural, social, and professional integration of new immigrants.
