Ronen Berman overcame dysgraphia, a fire and family health troubles to win EasyStart with his ideas for complex compound products. 

It was the final stage of the monthly EasyStart contest. Four eager entrepreneurs displayed their goods to the panel of judges, which this month included Dan David, inventor and businessman, and sponsor of the EasyStart Competition, together with TheMarker. The prize: a $100,000 loan under very good terms to leverage their business.

Ronen Berman started the show with his display of "extreme" products. In the last year he has sold NIS 250,000 worth of goods, not much by the criteria of the business world, but his fervor is infectious. His forte is complex compounds, which the contest judges believe can be utilized in industrial products, for instance in helicopters.  Advertisement

Berman is modest in demeanor, yet confident. He speaks firmly but listens, too. Some of the judges think he's the man for the check, others aren't so sure. The contest is a tough one, but Berman prevails. Only time can tell whether he'll meet expectations.

Ronen Berman is autodidactic - everything he knows, he taught himself. "I started studying for an academic degree several times, but never managed to finish it," he says. It was relatively late in his life that he was diagnosed as dysgraphic, which had severely hampered him at school. Dysgraphia is trouble with fine motor skills that impairs the ability to write and spell.

"I survived because I floated," he says. "They always used to say about me, 'He has potential,' and used to send me to the distinguished study tracks, but my spelling mistakes and habit of reversing letters made it very hard. As far as I was concerned, school was a complete disaster."

School may have been terrible but Berman did fine elsewhere. By the age of five he was water-skiing with his parents and by eight was a pro. Later he learned to ride a bicycle and together with a friend, started building fuel-powered vehicles. "I suppose God loves a fool, because otherwise I don't know how I survived," he laughs. "We did so many stupid things on two or four wheels."

He spent his army service in the Military Police, "a time not easy and not glamorous," but in handling addicts and alcoholics, he learned about another strong side to his personality: standing by the underdog.

Meanwhile, young Berman taught himself computer programming and after his discharge from the army, he joined a software company founded by his brother, which computerized cement plants. He left after five years, preferring to keep family and business apart.

High-tech was waiting, despite his lack of formal education. Berman's last job was as software department manager at Bezeqcall. "I managed large projects and the pay was excellent," he says.

"It enabled me to buy everything I like: some motorcycles, the most expensive bicycle, snowboards. I always was an extremist and when I was working, I could afford to enjoy it. Today I barely have the money to buy a pair of pants."

Berman left the high-tech sector after 14 long years, frustrated at his inability to find true expression of himself in work. "I believe people should reinvent themselves every now and again," he professes: "It makes them deeper and develops them personally."

Four years ago, opportunity beckoned as Bezeqcall restructured. He felt it was his wakeup call to move on, and he decided not to look for another job. It was time to found a company of his own.

After six months of reviewing the market, Berman took NIS 300,000 that he'd saved and opened a workshop. With one employee, he began a long period of trial and error in making protection gear using complex compounds (not plastic or metal) for dirt-bike riders. Available gear is made in China and is of dubious quality, he explains. He wanted to make a unique, quality line of products, manually, with a touch of Zionism.

After six months, results started to materialize: the molds were ready and the products started to take shape. Berman started talking with major distribution companies. And then the fire blazed.

"It was a horrible experience," he relates. "You're standing there in front of your plant. The flames are roaring and the feeling of helplessness is terrible. You know that if you could only get in, you could save valuable things, or the motorcycle that cost $10,000 and was right there at the entrance, or products that clients had already ordered. But the fire fighters are shouting at you to keep your distance and it's clear that any attempt is suicide. Everything collapsed right before my eyes. I stood there crying before the flames."

Trouble comes in threes, they say. That's nonsense, but just as Berman was trying to recover his spirits from the fire, and to realize that insurance wouldn't pay a penny in compensation, his baby daughter was hospitalized in serious condition after one of her lungs stopped functioning, and his wife's second pregnancy took a dangerous turn. That put everything into proportion, he says.

Once the health problems were resolved, he thought of returning to the safe life of high tech. But he realized he couldn't live with himself if he didn't try again.

In mid-2005 Berman spent another NIS 200,000 of his savings on rebuilding. He rented a building that had previously been a chicken coop, collected old furnishings ("Passover is a godsend, everybody throws out their old cupboards") and made new molds. The word got out and people from industry started taking an interest in this outfit that could work with complex compounds.

Berman decided against taking a salary for himself, and relied on his parents and wife to keep the family in pita. And then he made a key marketing decision: no major distributors. Direct marketing to stores was the way, and via Internet, too.

The next stage was to find some financial backing, which is how Berman reached EasyStart. With the $100,000 loan he'll be renting a new place, get ISO approval, market himself to the defense industries and develop products for "gravity sports" - snowboarding, skateboarding and so on.

The potential is vast, he says, "And we'll make it because we're good."