Nervous, a young man rises and strides to the front of the conference room, his eyes darting around. The perceptive observer notices a small lump in his throat, as he observes the eyes of those present boring into him. Thoughts race through his mind – Am I good enough? What if they laugh at me?

Well, there’s no turning back now; he’s here, and it’s his turn. So the presentation begins – and as he feared, he’s in for it. “Too loud,” shouts one, “no, not loud enough,” says another. “I don’t get it. How are you going to make money with this idea?” “Isn’t there already an application that does this?” “It sounds good, but what’s your selling point? Without an elevator pitch, you’ve got nothing!” And so on. He sweats as emotions churn inside him – anger, indignation, even hints of depression. Am I really that incompetent? But then our young man remembers where he is, and sighs with relief; better here, at “presentation practice,” than in front of the investors!

Call it the last revenge of capitalism over the hippy-dippy 60s and 70s: The techniques perfected back then by therapists doing group counseling are now a mainstay of Israeli hi-tech life. Instead of seeking to enhance the personalities if participants, today’s hi-tech “group therapy” sessions are dedicated to marshaling the power of “the we” to helping entrepreneurs improve their game and presentation, the better to attract investors to their startup idea.

“Today’s investment climate is tough, and any entrepreneur seeking funds had better be on top of their game,” says Sharon Weshler, a social media expert and sponsor of a series of roundtables dedicated to helping entrepreneurs improve their pitch. “The roundtables are a form of social networking where entrepreneurs can get together and help each other improve their presentations,” Weshler says, and the experience and input of the members of the group can go a long way towards making each one “the best that they can be,” he says. Once they work out the kinks in their presentation, says Weshler, companies have a much better chance of making the money connections they need to survive and grow – and some of those investors may just come from one of his many contacts in the VC and angel investment world, he says.

At a recent roundtable run by Weshler and Aviad Levy of the Termiks startup center, eight entrepreneurs showed off what they hoped would be their million-shekel ideas. One of them, Yubitech, definitely seemed quite ready for prime time – but then the company has already moved beyond being just an idea or an early beta, and has won a bunch of awards and contests with its cellphone platform development technology. Perhaps Yubitech CEO Danny Weissberg was attending as an example of just how far candidates can go with the right kind of guidance.

Most of the other ideas were pretty early stage, ranging from the practical (an innovative nursing home management) to trendy (an environmentally friendly business portal) to futuristic (genetic manipulation of grains) to downright mysterious (a home media device that the inventor would not disclose too much about). In each presentation, participants peppered presenters with questions about the how, what and why of their product – as in how easy it would be for investors to “grok” the idea, what problem or meet it was supposed to solve or supply, and why it was better than the competition (or, if there was no competition, why the world needed it).

Interestingly, not all the presenters were able to answer those questions satisfactorily, indicating that they had not given much thought to marketing. And that’s too bad, says Weshler. “Without the marketing, the greatest idea in the world will just sit on the shelf. The only way to get your idea across is to make it make sense to the people who can give it life, the investors.” That quality and saleability are divorced from each other is clear to anyone who has gone to a bad Hollywood blockbuster that got funded for tens of millions, or watched a z-grade TV show that keeps coming back, season after season – while the quality movies are relegated to the art-house cinemas, and the good shows get axed after half a season. After each presentation, Weshler and Levy gave participants their considered opinions on what the presenter needed to do to improve their presentation – so that their quality ideas get the funding they deserve.

Once an entrepreneur has the appropriate feedback from his or her peers, what comes next? Well, the smart ones will start working on their pitch – and for that, they can turn to Top Class, a Ramat Gan firm that runs various courses and classes in schools and companies to help participants improve their English. And for the hi-tech entrepreneur, Top Class runs business english courses, training participants to improve their “elevator pitches” – where you sum up what your business or product does in the two minutes you would have someone’s attention while you rode with them in an elevator – as well as how to handle a business lunch, with participants sitting down to a meal, complete with English language menus, learning how to handle deal-making over the dinner table.

“There are over 4,000 startups operating in Israel at any one time, and each year about 1,000 open and close, or get bought out or go public” says Weshler, “so every four years there is virtually a new set of startups.” That there are so many great ideas is testimony to the creativity of the Israeli mind, but that there is so much turnover (most of the thousand definitely do not get to the next stage, says Weshler) shows just how much work is needed on the marketing side. Folks like Weshler, Levy, and Top Class directors Shoshi Gal and Tali Treistman are doing what they can to improve things. “I am a strong believer in the power of the group to help,” Weshler says. “When people get together, there’s no limit to what they can do.”

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Of course, there’s a good reason for that, says Knesset Member Robert Ilatov of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. “Until now, the hi-tech industry was able to hold its own. But with the recent worldwide recession, investment money has almost dried up.” With hi-tech such an integral part of the economy – constituting as much as half of the country’s exports – the government really has no choice but to get involved, at least temporarily, in order to keep the industry alive to fight another day.

Of course, nothing comes for free – and with the government set to become an investor in Israeli hi-tech, entrepreneurs should prepare for at least some strings, if they take the cash, says Ilatov. “Obviously there must be a balance – a comfort level that both the government and private investors and owners will feel comfortable with.” But, he adds, “Like any other investor, the government has a right to ask for conditions from those who benefit from the taxpayer’s money,” he says.

There is a difference between the government and private investors, though; while an angel or VC looks at the bottom line, the government is likely to look at the “greater good” its money can bring about. “It’s not just about the developers and engineers,” Ilatov says. “For every worker in hi-tech there are six or seven supporting workers – the waitresses in the restaurants where they eat lunch, the cleaning staff who prepare the office for the workers, the taxi drivers who take the software people home at night.” If 7,000 hi-tech workers lost their jobs this year, that means some 50,000 other workers  are out of a job, too. Any help the government proffers to the hi-tech industry must go to help those support workers, as well as the elite tech workers, the MK says.

Clearly, Ilatov has done some thinking about the troubles Israel’s hi-tech industry faces – and he has decided to do something about it. Ilatov has established the Knesset’s first Hi-tech Lobby group, which he hopes will bring together government officials, leaders of varied hi-tech industries, university administrators, and members of Israel’s financial community, in order to give Israeli hi-tech a boost in the arm during troubled times.

The first meeting of the lobby saw well over 100 people get together at the Knesset to try and put together an agenda for a plan of action. Amazingly, this was the first time the Knesset saw such a comprehensive discussion of the problems and plusses of Israel’s hi-tech industry, Ilatov told me in an interview later. And, he added, by “hi-tech” he means all the advanced industries Israel is known for – computer networking and security, Web 2.0, biotech, medical devices, cleantech, etc. Representatives of those industries were present at the first lobby meeting, with speakers summing up what their businesses were facing as the recession continues.

Startups and established companies are, of course, just one aspect of the industry, he adds; it all starts in the universities, and maybe even earlier, at the high school level. So, there were also a number of top university officials at the meeting as well, discussing the difficulties faced by computer and science departments in the schools. Fact: The student to lecturer ratio in the country’s computer science departments are among the worst of any department, hovering at about 40:1.

With so many diverse ideas and interests represented, more than an initial exploration of the issues could not have been expected, says Ilatov. “The meeting was very helpful in clarifying a possible agenda, to help us decide what, if any steps to take or legislation to pursue in order to help the industries survive and thrive.”

One of those pieces of legislation is likely to be a rule that will require Israeli pension funds to invest at least some of their money in Israeli hi-tech. “Much, if not most, of the investment and VC money in Israeli hi-tech comes from abroad,” says Ilatov. But pension funds, arguably the Israeli investors with the biggest pockets, have barely given a shekel to local hi-tech, preferring to invest their money in far-flung places, says the MK. If it’s good enough for American VC’s to sink their money into an Israeli startup, Ilatov says, it’s good enough for a huge pension fund to allocate at least some of their funds to the same purpose. “It’s not like it’s any riskier than some of the other things they’ve invested in,” like Central European real estate, Ilatov says. “Americans who invest in Israeli hi-tech get excellent returns, and pension fund investors will as well. We intend to bring up the issue with the heads of the pension funds and try to persuade them that it’s in their, and the country’s, best interests to invest locally. If they agree, that’s fine. But if not, legislation of some sort may be necessary.”

Several other issues were brought up at the meeting: A number of speakers derided a new law that is to be passed as part of the “package deal” between the government and the Histadrut, which gives the union the right to organize among workers in any workplace, including in hi-tech companies (Ilatov thinks this is a bad law, because it will only scare off investors, and won’t help workers, who make far more than the average wage anyway). The names “India” and “China” were mentioned by more than one speaker, the latter for the potential business opportunities available, and the former in the context of the formidable challenge Israel faces in maintaining its position as a hi-tech power. And, there were calls to simplify the investment process, eliminate red tape, and generally do everything possible to encourage foreign investment.

One would have thought that many of these issues would have been hammered out, considering the importance of hi-tech to the country’s economy. But they haven’t, and that’s worrying. Where does one begin? With the universities? Helping existing companies stay in business? Helping fledging startups with great ideas to survive long enough to turn a profit, instead of selling their technology to multinationals for a relative pittance? Do we start with the universities, helping them produce more qualified personnel to fill the great need for top quality people? Or do we try and encourage a love of the sciences in high school and even elementary school students – many of whom, according to one speaker at the meeting, don’t know their multiplication tables as late as sixth grade? Yes, MK Ilatov says. All these areas are important, and we are just going to have to find a way to fund programs to work on all these levels. A tall order indeed, it would appear.

To all those who think being a Knesset member is a cushy job: Take an example from MK Ilatov. I’m sure he didn’t think setting Israel’s hi-tech policy right would be easy, but I’d guess he didn’t realize it would be this complicated. Like Charlie Brown, he has a chance to be a hero, if he succeeds. Let’s not think about the alternative.