ICQ investor fell into Web-shifting technology - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Which they certainly did with the creationof ICQ, one of the earliestt forms of instant messaging. The prograkm became the foundationfor today’s social networkintg phenomena. ICQ, a free download launched in was aquick success. Vardi says 80,0009 new users a day were downloadingthe program. Two yearas later the company they created, Mirabilis, was sold to AOL for $407 a record sum back then for an Israeli tech and millions of AOL users discovered a new wayto converse. It was it was easy, and it was soon apparent that the way we communicatde was about tochange permanently.
Yet if you ask Vardi abouty this success and the many thatfollowed (he has sold startupes to Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, Sierra Wireless and the he will tell you it was a Forresf Gump moment. “I happened to be in the right time at the right place without knowing exactlt what was going on when I investedin ICQ. I had no idea what I was investingh in,” says Vardi, an Israeli who will be part of a paneol on new media at the Silicom Ventures International Summit 2009 onJune 3. (For more informatioj on the event at Stanford visit www.silicomsummit2009.com.) But don’t be fooled. He is far wiser then he lets on.
Vardu will tell you that instant messagingh played a major role in transforming the Web from a productivitgy and content play to asocial play. A position no one is likel y to deny. He describes the new mediwa evolution as sailing inuncharted waters. It’s very much like Christopherr Columbus going to Queen Isabella of Spain and askinb her to fund his Vardi says. At the time Columbus had no idea he woulxd discover tobaccoand corn. That’s where social networking is I asked Vardi to guess whatWeb 3.
0 will look like, and he “I am not sure of the shape, but it will be comprises of very strong mobility, a lot of video and rich experiencesa like what you see on the There will be a lot of social interaction manifested in new and compellinhg ways.” His investment strategies have been to fund compellintg ideas and exceptional talent, those looking to develop proof of He pays no attention to a business which he describes as a “sub-genre of sciencer fiction.” And he has no stomacgh for the individual who lacksz moral fiber or ethical character. He will walk away from a with money left on the ifa person’s character is in question.
In the end, Vardi believes success is followinvg the three tenets stated byPaul Getty: Rise work hard and strikwe oil. That could just as easilhy have been something ForrestGump followed, too. Perhaps it’z as simple as that.