We got to the beach bright and early and ready to learn. Today, our classroom was the beach. The conversation started out about the Better Place project and entrepreneur Shai Agassi’s image of a “better place”.

With almost $1 billion in funding and ambitions to replace petroleum-based cars with a network of cheap electrics, Shai Agassi’s Better Place was remarkable even by the standards of world-changing startups. So was its epic failure. A 21st-century cautionary tale.  –Fast Company

Since we were on the beach, it was hard to hear everyone and comments continued to be repeated. So we went off the original plan, split into groups and continued to discuss the project. We all took part in the conversation within the smaller groups and discussed the execution and the failures of Shai Agassi’s vision.

Guest blogger: Leana is a sophomore at Brandeis University

I learned a lot about this lesson on the beach and not only about Better Place. We are all here to invest our time to learn about start-ups, Israel, venture capitalists, and more. And especially in startups, nothing ever goes as planned, and you can either give up or find a new way. And here Steve saw a situation what wasn’t working as planned and directed it in another direction.

I usually like to have a plan and stick to it, but that’s not reality. Things change and life takes us in every direction and it’s our turn to go with it and find the best way to move forward. So I look at the beach class as a success, because it was a minor example of curve balls that will be thrown our way. Since we broke up into smaller groups, we had the opportunity to listen and talk with our peers and open our minds to what could have been improved to really make Better Place, a real better place.