Start up in the spotlight: TargetBet.

Let's meet TargetBet's Luca Pettini, while getting ready for November 6 Venture Camp in Milano.

Q.
Luca, can you tell us briefly what is your company about?

A.
TargetBet is a new internet service to support people to place online sports bets and improve their chances of winning.
Basically we give the opportunity to our users to share their bets, compare with other users and be notified when best users place a new interesting bet.

It’s all about turn sports betting social.

Q.
How did you get in touch with the Mind the Bridge project?

A.
I heard about Mind the Bridge about one year ago, reading an internet site that now I don't recall.
I forgot about it, until one day, in my University, I attended a meeting about this great opportunity. The meeting was led by last years finalist, Augusto Coppola (eris4).
His speech was very interesting and I knew from then on, I had to apply to MTB2009.

Q.
How do you think that the MtB experience can help your company to develop a global presence?

A.
MtB literally helped my company an immense amount.
Targetbet's first business plan was born especially to compete in Mtb Challenge: I entered the startup Italian scene with my participation at MtB, it’s the first important step for me and for TargetBet.

Q.
What about your expectations regarding the time you will eventually spend in Silicon Valley?

A.
I think it will be a terrific opportunity for me and for TargetBet: all the people I met during these years told me incredible things about Silicon Valley, it’s like the heaven of entrepreneurs. I think an opportunity like this can be a big step for me, and a bigger one to TargetBet.

Q.
What are your personal views of the italian startup scene?

A.
I’m new in this territory, I don’t know many people from the Italian scene, but what I can say is, I see an incredible force of will: maybe here is hard to find capital, is hard to contact angel investor, venture capitalists, but I met a lot of people with a lot of intelligent and winning ideas: I’m sure that 15min under the flashlight and investors will understand that also in Italy we have a little Silicon Valley.

Thank you Luca, and good luck then!