For years now, Israel has rightly carried the label of start-up nation. In the past few days, David Page, innovation partner at Visa Europe Collab, echoed this very theme, when he announced his company’s new r&d centre for the Holy Land.

As Bloomberg posted back in February this year, Israel is ranked the fifth most innovative country in the world. Impressive for a people of barely 8 million people and where half the land is covered in an arid desert.

It was only a couple of years ago, that pundits loved to criticise the hype of Israeli high-tech. The argument cited too many quick exits and too few companies going on to employ hundreds if not thousands.

However, this coming Monday, the Israel Growth Conference will take a very different perspective. Featuring leading execs from Wix, Outbrain, Payoneer, Kaltura and others, the participants will discuss just how former start ups can progress. They have shown how it is possible to remain independent, while building up teams in Israel (and also overseas). In fact, Wix’s launch on NASDAQ sparked a flurry of other Israeli companies raising money on American soil. It is still considered a “buy’ share at this time.

“Calcalist” is a financial newspaper, which is hosting the conference. I was struck by a feature article which raised the question; ‘when do you stop being a start up’? The answers varied, such as:

• when the key founders no longer meet in somebody’s kitchen, but field a team in a functioning office
• when you move into profit or positive cash flow
• when it just feels like you have progressed

I suspect that there is no definitive point in time for most. However, what Israel’s economy is beginning to show is that not only are new companies still joining the gravy train of trying to become the latest successful start up, there is a new trend. This reflects how young Israeli companies can adapt to their new commercial heights, yet remain located in their home territory.