Papaito: Israel’s First Music-Centric Startup and Creative Space & Events Center

In my travels band and forth to Israel, I got to know Keren Atia-Litani, who has run some wonderful conferences on social media for businesses. Her events were always firsts rate and she attracted wonderful speakers and experts from all over the world.

During the recent DLD Festival in September, Keren held the opening party at a place located at the southern tip of Florentin. Knowing the location, and knowing that Karen knows how to do amazing events, I knew it would be worth attending.

Little did I know that upon entering Papaito, I’d be so blown away by what I saw and experienced.

Upon entering you see a complete guitar shop to your right. Straight ahead, you see the bar. Pivot slightly to the right, and you see a performance space.   Head back through the myriad of hallways and you find a guitar and accessories repair depot, and depending what time of day (or night) it is, you let your ears guide you into the variety of music and performance spaces for the artists that are making, creating, and building something very special.

Founded by Perry Atita and Itay Ben-Mergy, Papaito is also the home of Levana pro audio, a line of guitars, stomp boxes and studio gear that are sold worldwide.

Being entrepreneurs and musicians, Perry and itay connected the dots and saw a need for a space where other like-minded startups could have a place to make and create software and music or any kind of art.

Keren and “Papaito” are holding meetups, making their practice and recording space available to traditional musicians and well as startup entrepreneurs.    There’s even a covered outdoor space where larger events and concerts can be held.

I have always been of the belief that music and coding are really the same thing; you just express yourself in a different form.

It’s great to see the continuous evolution and variety of spaces in Israel like Papaito that are being made available to those who create.

Be it music or software, at the end of the day, it’s really all code.