Israelnewsletter.com had the opportunity to sit down with serial entrepreneur, Shai Wininger, about his new startup and hear how he enjoys running a family business.
Please tell us about your background.
Shai Wininger, Developer of Kotel Notes: I am a so called “serial entrepreneur” born and raised in Israel, married with two children and living in Haifa.
I then started to focus on the emerging mobile computing industry and started Handsmart (www.handsmart.com). Handsmart offered the first Adobe Flash generation platform for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile. From there I joined forces with a leading mobile software company called Mobideo (www.mobideo.com) with which I co-founded a spin off for developing mobile software for the Aerospace Industry – “Mobideo Aerospace” (air.mobideo.com).
What is PushTuck and why Kotel Notes?
SW: Nowadays, along with my wife (who is a talented, highly-creative graphic designer), I’ve started a new venture called PushTuck. PushTuck (which has a double meaning in Hebrew and English) is a family business aimed at developing innovative software for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch platforms. I think that in our case the words “family business” is literally the case (my kids do the quality assurance 
…
The idea of Kotel Notes came to me after visiting the Western Wall and seeing the large amount of tourists who come to the Wall to place their prayers and wishes. It occurred to me that providing this service to Jews all over the world could be a great service. I love the fact that our ancient religion could be combined nowadays with cutting-edge technology.
What’s the business model?
SW: I love simple things and I love easy-to-use software. I think that the basis for success in this competitive business is your ability to create compelling, clear, and low cost applications and then sell them to a mass market. That way you can make your revenues without being a financial burden for the home user. Apple’s software ecosystem allows us to do just that.
About Zack Miller