‘Godfather’ of Israel’s hi-tech industry Yossi Vardi credits ‘tiger moms’ for country's new nickname: Start-up nation
Government support, and competitive education and research in support of technology and innovation, also cited as key factors
Israel can boast an astonishing success rate when it comes to local start-ups, and the so-called “godfather” of the country’s hi-tech industry says “tiger moms” play a large role.
Yossi Vardi said many business founders in his motherland are indebted to their mothers for pushing them to excel from childhood.
“The true answer to why many entrepreneurs in Israel can be so successful today is they have their Jewish mother,” said Vardi, dubbed the “father of ICQ”, once the most popular online messaging tool in the world.
“Your Jewish mother will push you to succeed and push you to go all the time. My mother since [I was] six has been telling me, ‘All your cousins are smart’, and ‘How can you be an idiot? I’m the mother of idiot. How can this happen?'” he said during a panel discussion at SLUSH, Europe’s largest start-up conference. It is taking place in the Finnish capital of Helsinki this week.
Vardi made his point, and proved his mother wrong, by emerging as one of the most successful venture capital investors and innovators in technology of his era.
