Martin Varsavsky is an Argentine/Spanish entrepreneur, founder of seven companies in the past 20 years.



In 1984, while still in college, Martin Varsavsky started his first business, Urban Capital Corporation, one of the early leaders of the loft movement in downtown Manhattan. This was soon followed in 1986 by Medicorp Services, a Canadian biotechnology company, a pioneer in AIDS and PSA testing. His third business, Viatel Ltd., Martin’s first venture into the world of telecom, was founded in 1990. This company is best known for inventing call back and building the first pan European fiber optic network ahead of liberalization.



MV’s best-known ventures were founded during the last decade. In 1998 MV started Jazztel Telecomunicaciones (Jazztel), Spain’s second largest publicly traded telecom operator. In 1999 he founded Ya.com, Spain’s third largest internet web site/DSL provider that includes the second largest Spanish language web agency www.viajar.com. But not all of MV´s companies were successful. In 2000 he started Germany’s largest ASP, Einsteinet, and the company was sold in 2003 at no return to him or investors.



Martin’s current venture is FON, founded in November in 2005, a community-empowered company dedicated to building the world’s largest global WiFi network bottom up, spreading the power of WiFi around the world, with one million hot spots by 2010. Fon attracted Skype, eBay and Google as partners and quickly became the largest WiFi community in the world.



Martin Varsavsky also engages not for profit activities. For the past 8 years, he has been teaching entrepreneurship at the Instituto de Empresa, Spain’s leading business school. Martin Varsavsky also manages the Varsavsky Foundation best known as founder of two large educational projects in Latin America, Educ.ar (Argentina) and EducarChile (Chile) and the Safe Democracy Foundation. MV was Ambassador at Large of Argentina between 2001 up to 2005. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, and is board member of the Instituto de Empresa.



Martin Varsavsky has written numerous articles on business and international relations that have been published in several international publications including El Pais and Newsweek. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences around the world and active blogger. He is the recipient of various honors and rewards, among them European Telecommunications Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998, ECTA´s European Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999, Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2000, and Spanish Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000, Pickering Prize from Columbia University 2004.



Martin Varsavsky received his BA from New York University, and holds an MA in International Affairs and an MA in Business Administration from Columbia University.



In his spare time, Martin enjoys cycling, piloting, cooking asados and sailing.

Blog Entries by Martin Varsavsky

I am a pilot and I believe aviation could be much safer

1 Comments | Posted June 1, 2009 | 01:23 PM (EST)


I am a pilot. Not a professional pilot, as in real life I am a CEO of Fon a tech company. But in my spare time I became a pilot and fly a small jet, a Citation Jet. During my training as a pilot I was shocked to find...

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Andrew McLaughlin's Move from Google to the Obama administration

2 Comments | Posted May 29, 2009 | 08:56 PM (EST)


The news of Andrew McLaughlin's departure from Google to work as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the Obama administration just came out in the New York Times. The article mentions that there are critics who believe that this move will benefit Google as a company. I have a response...

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Spanish Supreme Court Forces Judge to marry Gay couples

20 Comments | Posted May 29, 2009 | 08:06 PM (EST)


If you still think about Spain as a conservative, Catholic country you can change your mind. Spain is one of the most liberal and secular countries on the planet now, up there with The Netherlands. Gambling, prostitution, are either legal or losely regulated. Even downloading movies and music is legal...

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How Amazon, as Apple, Can Succeed in a World of Piracy

9 Comments | Posted May 3, 2009 | 02:12 PM (EST)


So far I have had 3 Kindles. Two came as a gift (one from Jeff Bezos). They did not last much in my hands. Alexa my eldest daughter got the first one and Isabella, my second daughter, the second one. They read more books than I do, they deserved them....

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The Age of the Unthinkable Explained by Joshua Cooper Ramo

Posted April 19, 2009 | 05:21 AM (EST)


What I like about Joshua Cooper Ramo's book, the Age of the Unthinkable, is that it it starts with the premise that complexity in world affairs is here to stay. Maybe it is Joshua's background in physics that has made him see foreign policy as an area where Heisenberg's

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The Spanish Solution to the Global Crisis

Posted February 15, 2009 | 03:28 PM (EST)


I live in Spain. I used to live in America, Manhattan to be precise. I moved to Spain because this country has an economy the size of California but interestingly people here both work less and worry less than in California, not a small achievement. While in Spain I built...

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Jews Should Learn from African Americans and Move On

Posted January 19, 2009 | 07:38 AM (EST)


As Israel ends its...
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Are Walter Noel and Andres Piedrahita of Fairfield Victims of Bernard Madoff?

Posted December 14, 2008 | 06:55 AM (EST)


As the main supplier of capital to Bernard Madoff with $7bn...
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Why save all three of the automakers?

Posted December 4, 2008 | 12:33 PM (EST)


As we watch the Big Three CEOs and their staff parade through Washington asking for help why are not we considering saving two out of the three automakers? I know that the way Paulson helped his former buddies at Goldman Sachs letting Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and even Merrill Lynch...

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Calling myself Martin Hussein Varsavsky gives me a taste of what Islamophobia is like

Posted October 30, 2008 | 09:04 PM (EST)


I write one of the most popular blogs in the Spanish language. I have good and bad news to report from the Spanish world vis a vis Obama.

The good news about Barack Hussein Obama is that 87% of my Spanish readers would...

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Volkswagen Is the Most Valuable Company in the world and the Banks We Are All Bailing Out Are Down as a Result

Posted October 28, 2008 | 02:08 PM (EST)


If I had to give a prize to the craziest financial story of the year this one would win it. Look at what is going on right now. Morgan Stanley shares are down 26% and Goldman Sachs 11% because Volkswagen shares are up 90% today and up from...

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We are Not Going to Party Like it's 1999!

Posted October 12, 2008 | 03:00 PM (EST)


When I was in college Prince used to sing "we are going to party like it´s 1999". Surprisingly that´s what the markets are singing now. 1999 was almost a decade ago but the value of stocks now is the value of stocks in 1999. If you had kept a...

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Compensation Clash in the Making

Posted October 11, 2008 | 05:12 AM (EST)


Salaries in the US government are low compared to the private sector. Salaries in the banking world are the highest in the world. Last year the top investment banks paid out $33 billion dollars in bonuses to their employees. The Average compensation among managers of investment banks was over a...

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United States, Please Emulate Ireland and Germany and Insure all Depositors

Posted October 7, 2008 | 09:00 AM (EST)


United States, please tell every bank depositor that all their savings in US banks, regardless of the amount, are insured by the FDIC. Not doing this is creating silent runs on banks. Especially from big customers who can go outside the U.S. Moreover, it is making people move away from...

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The Trillion Dollar Solution to the Trillion Dollar Problem: Give US Nationality to Those who Buy $1 Million in US Real Estate

Posted September 30, 2008 | 08:32 AM (EST)


We live in a strange world now. A world in which Western democracies are broke and totalitarian regimes are flooded with cash. Examples of people with cash: the Saudis, the Chinese, the Russians. Example of people without cash. The Americans. So how can we make the people with cash give...

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Spanish companies are Worth more than US Giants

Posted September 30, 2008 | 06:40 AM (EST)


I used to live in the US. I live in Spain. I moved in 95. When I moved to Spain the US economy dwarfed the Spanish economy. This morning I went into Yahoo Finance and started checking out market caps of US versus Spanish companies. Yes companies from Spain, that...

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The Spanair Pilots Probably Didn't Put the Flaps Down, But is it Their Fault?

Posted September 23, 2008 | 02:55 PM (EST)


I am a pilot. I fly private jets. I am not a great pilot and, since I had to fly alone to obtain my license, I lack sufficient confidence in my abilities to do so again. Specifically, I do not fly alone because too much of what goes on in...

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Robin Hood Bush?

Posted September 20, 2008 | 04:49 AM (EST)


Yes, we all know that this is the administration that robbed from the poor and gave to the rich and there are countless examples of that. The most obvious one are the lucrative contracts given to friends of the Bush Administration in Iraq paid for by the US taxpayer. And...

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Joshua Ramo's New Web Site and His Commentator Work at NBC During the Olympics

Posted August 7, 2008 | 11:47 AM (EST)


There are friends you just hang out with and have a great time. And there are friends who you both hang out with and learn a great deal from. Joshua Ramo is on the second group. Joshua to me is my "eyes and ears into Chinese culture." Joshua is American...

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FBI Increases What Already Is the Highest Incarceration Rate in the World

Posted June 20, 2008 | 08:18 AM (EST)


Robert MuellerImage via WikipediaI just read that 406 people have been arrested in the States by the...

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