[Business Week] Stacy Perman - For nearly 40 years Yossi Vardi has helped to found and nurture over 60 Israeli companies in industries that include software, Internet, telecommunications, and energy. He was the founding investor in Mirabilis, which created ICQ, sold to AOL in 1998 for $400 million. Vardi says: "It's not about technology. Technology is like a piano. You need to have it to create music but you really need the pianist....There is this culture in places like Israel and Silicon Valley where there is a certain energy, where people are willing to take chances and risks and fight for new ideas." "U.S. multinationals do more R and D here than any other country in the world....This is a 'startup country,' socially and culturally, it is in our heritage, our ethos. It all started with the kibbutz that started a new way of life in agriculture. The country is constantly renewing itself all the time."
2008-01-04 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive