Wise Words from Yossi Vardi

DemoCamp 22, which happened last night in Toronto, was really the “Yossi Vardi Show”. Vardi, a successful Israeli high-tech serial entrepreneur, regaled the crowd with insight, advice and a series of entertaining stories. His first answer during an on-stage interview lasted 37 minutes.

Perhaps the best insight Vardi gave last night was how innovation and entrepreneurship is not a result of education or tech savviness or government policies but a culture driven by the need to excel.

“Without this culture, it is hard to have innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said, adding that a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem starts with thousands of “small buds” that eventually lead to the creation of strong, viable companies.

Vardi, who is probably best known for selling Mirablis (the creator of ICQ) to AOL for $400-million, said his enthusiasm for investing in start-ups has much to do with how much he likes working with smart, young people.

As for what how he decides to invest, Vardi said his approach includes not reading business plans, which he sees them as a “sub-genre of science fiction”; talking to entrepreneurs rather than letting them open their laptops to do demos, and investing in people with good character.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from last night is how Canada could really, really use a Yossi Vardi – someone with a passion for start-ups and the financial ability to fund and support them.

The Canadian high-tech landscape is chock-a-block with smart entrepreneurs who could do a lot with a minimal amount of investment. Unfortunately, the financial ecosystem doesn’t exist to do it, at least not yet.