Title Media Entrepreneur & Investor Company Bio Joseph "Yossi" Vardi has helped more than 40 startups see the light of day, among them Mirabilis (makers of ICQ) and the video companies Scopus and BrightCove. He's a strategic advisor to Amazon and AOL, and a venture partner of Pitango, one of Israel's largest VC funds. He's a lively presence in the world of tech startups, with an absurd sense of humor and a refreshing set of values (restated in a much-commented-on TechCrunch post in October) that drive his approach to new investments. The takeaways: Judge the individual over the business plan; and don't shy away from an entrepreneur who has failed before: "It makes them want to win even more," he said. "One way to get to know Yossi is through his portfolio. Here´s a list of the companies he´s invested with: they include Ilcu, Foxytunes, Gteko, recently sold to Microsoft, Fixya, a very clever customer support web 2.0 site, AtlasCT, a competitor to Google Maps, and Fring, competitor to Gizmo Project or Truphone."