The best of 2011

Stating that it's been a busy year is just an understatement.

We started the year incubating 12 startups, in addition to our long term guests at the gym.

The Italian Innovation day at Stanford and then in New York were stunning successes, where our startups showed to the world to be ready for the premier league.

At least, that's what the world top VCs who judged our finalists told us (and that was pre-drinks, so we can assume they really think so).

We had a busy spring in Italy, with multiple events around the country as part of our usual MTB Italy Tour. 500+ people attended those events, dozen of startups had the opportunity to present and build their muscles.

In the meantime, the activities at the Gym got more and more dense. We hosted countless open-houses and demo days, often matched with large groups visiting from Italy (plenty!).

Among the several interesting friends we hosted Le Iene, RAI TV, Helmut Esslinger (Frog Design), Pierluigi Zappacosta (Logitech), Nerio Alessandri (Technogym) and many more.

Moreover, we launched our first Startup School: with the support of Wired, we run four 3-week sessions which got fully booked with 30+ participants.

In the midst of all this activity, we also moved our HQ from Pier 38 to the One Market landmark in San Francisco.

To top all off, November was Venture Camp month, with hundreds of participants, a memorable night with Le Iene and thousands of followers (we crossed the 3000 on FB).

What a year folks! The video says it all. As Simona, who made the video on Xmas eve, while cooking, puts it: "while putting together all those memorable moments, I re-lived the emotions and the fun while working with such a unique bunch. It's heaven."

That's exactly how I feel.

Have a memorable 2012.

Personally, I can't wait.

Stereomood wins Premio RCS 2011

Stereomood is the winner of the RCS Prize for 2011 as the most innovative startup in Digital Publishing.

As the name implies, Stereomood thrives to re-organize the way we approach, listen and discover music based not on a singer or playlist (still an extension of singers) but rather on your mood.

Feeling Christmas-y these days? Here's the right music for you!

Do you want to transmit a good karma? Here's the music that will fit you like a glove!

I personally tried the "making love" list. It didn't quite got me what I was hoping for. However it did get me pretty relaxed (and with a good karma too).

How do they do that? Their juice is their proprietary algorithm for music taxonomy: stereorank (kind of resembles the famous "pagerank" algorithm, that made Google Google - good karma?) collects tags from music blogs, crowdsource and music habits of listeners.

They are breaking the usual paradigm of listening to music (I listen what I like), and rather create an interesting alternative to discover new music, not the big hits, based on the atmosphere I'm trying to generate.

Something that theme parks or shopping malls have known for quite some time.

Love or not love, I can see why they have over 1M visitors/month with an amazing 75% of returning users. It's fun!

Monetizing their traffic won't be a walk in the park, but they are not alone in that struggle (ask Pandora, LastFM, Spotify and the likes).

And that's what they'll be working on in their 3 months incubation at the MTB GYM.

We'd better start working on the "traveling to San Francisco" music tagging...

Vinswer wins Premio Marzotto - MTB

Vinswer rules.
Last night in Vicenza, the Associazione Progetto Marzotto in collaboration with MTB, proclaimed Vinswer as the winner of the Gaetano Marzotto prize (hi-tech / international).

Vinswer provides a marketplace where professionals can sell their by-the-minute service to a relevant community.

Where's the beauty of it? Publishers can embed the service for free in minutes.

Think at an Adsense where, instead of text ads, publishers can earn significant revenue from B2C transactions... and with a better rev share plan.

The market can be enormous, the size of the infinite professional services that human beings can sell online.

Could be professional services by the minute (lawyers , designers, architects) but also, more importantly, regular folks with an interest and a talent, that can earn a few bucks in their spare time. How many Americans would love to learn Italian from a mother tongue on line or would appreciate some suggestions on how to furnish their home with taste from an Italian "interior designer"? How about cooking class?

Vinswer provides a community and a tachymeter (video, mobile or whatever).

Examples? Here's an initial implementation within the Bakeca website.

Congrats to the co-founders of Vinswer.

We'll be providing 4 months of full incubation, here at the Gym.

Get your ticket ready, we can't wait to see you in the Bay area ;-)

The finalists for the 2011 BPC are...

• Arkimedia (I Like TV)
• D-Orbit
• NextStyler
• Stereomood
• Timbuktu
• Vinswer
• Vivocha

Not much more to add, folks, it's all in the usual under-the-bridge video.
Representing ahigh diversity of Italian Innovation, played an important role in the decision.

What's next? The month of February will be incubation time, at our GYM in San Francisco.
We'll top it off with a Demo Day for investors.

Given the substantial improvement of the quality of the presenting startups, chances are that, down the line, there will be opportunities for some of the other semi-finalists.

Just a few days, and you'll hear about the winners of the 2011 Prizes.
Stay tuned. Same channels.

Venture Camp 2011: here's what happened

33 speakers, 15 startups, 375 participants, #MTBVentureCamp the top discussion topic in Italy on Twitter, just to name a few numbers.

Part of the discussions we had, ended up on the Italian Government official website. Santoro has been chasing us and our speakers every since. The real "Iene" wanted to exchange T-shirts, like you do at the end of the worldcup (expect that we run out of ours).

Established entrepreneurs who attended the events are saying our startups are officially ready to play the major league, meaning Silicon Valley (Massimo Sgrelli: "Startup italiane pronte per la Serie A")

Even more established industrialists, at the very end, communicating they want to invest heavily and directly in the Mind the Bridge Foundation (Gaetano Marzotto: min. -38)

But what happened really?? It's all kind of blurred now. I remember showing up with Iene-like sunglasses, talking with Rampagna (RCS) about the role of larger companies in Italy (to acquire startups!), with Villanueva (McKinsey) of the role of governments in promoting Startup Chile-like programs, with Earner (VC) about the chances of Italy to survive at the current pace of innovation production, while discussing the always spicy assessments of my good friend Vivek Wadhwa (Washington post, Techcrunch, etc)

I then remember Loris Degioanni and Bonzio talk about the role of role-models and father figures in one's success ("Chi vola vale, chi vale vola, chi non vola non vale (ed e' un vile)")

Bassetti, Marzotto and Beretta (that is, the best of Italian brands in the world!) kind of looking back and see how to leave a significant imprint for younger generation of entrepreneurs.

And then Vito Lomele (Jobrapido, $20M+ revenues in less than 5 years), Mario Mariani (ex Tiscali), Leandro Agro' and Gabriele Gresta (Bibop) proud representatives of a new Italy that is making waves, against all odds!

And then Nick Heller (Google) describing Google's new efforts in the "startup-incubation'

space (new incubator in London, support for similar programs in Israel and South Africa), Gesess and Baldini about their recently launched new funds.

And then Byers (Stanford) and de L'Etraz (IE) addressing the key questions entrepreneurs should answer.

And how to forget a highly inspired and always funny, Lady Innova, bringing the wisdom of the crowds (=Twitter and Facebook) in the room with the speakers.

And the evening event? Playing Light Painting with Claudio Bonoldi (boy, is that difficult!), listing to the live music of the Trio Fabio Mariani and... being totally disrupted by the Il Moralizzatore from the IENE... all flown in from Rome to attend our evening event.

Was it all real??

Did you miss it? Really??? Listen up. This is your last chance: in a few days you'll be able to see all the videos from our YT Channel.

PS the awesome pics are by Paolo Bonnacorsi, photographer (Paolo, you rock!)

The new MTB GYM @ One Market is open for business

It's been barely 3 weeks. And yet, it seems like a new era had started.
It seems like yesterday that we had to move from our beloved pirate cove, Pier38.
In the typical Silicon Valley way, where everything is dynamic and accelerated, so was our move.
And exactly on Oct 3rd, together with most of the Pier38 Startups, we moved.
Where?
It's arguably the most iconic business building in San Francisco, also known as "The Landmark", home of dozen among the most successful companies in the Bay Area (Salesforce.com and Autodesk, just to mention a couple).
One Market is the dream location for any company, a stone throw from the Ferry Building, a stunning view of the bay, and the most desirable location for public transportation, restaurants or a relaxing walk along the Embarcadero.

We occupy the entire fifth floor of the Steuart Tower, on the South-East corner of the One Market Plaza complex.
I kid you not. This is not the usual bare-bone space you are used to associate with the scrappy startup world. This is a full blown, top corporate space. How on earth can startups afford such a space? As they say here: "don't ask, don't tell" ;-)
There is still plenty of space available (30K sqf total), but things are coming together pretty quickly, including the famous common area that has been transported entirely from Pier 38.
As far as we are concerned, we took a spacious wing of the floor, filled natural light, where we can run our loud presentations, training modules, etc without killing the other startups that are busy changing the world.
In fact, since we moved in, we've been running our October session of our Startup School, and things, so far, have gone as smooth as silk.
Last night, we even hosted the first official Open House event in our new home.

We do have plenty of space, so that we are starting renting out desks to folks who are a good fit with our philosophy.
If you are interested, start having a look at the pictures here. Wondering why our pictures look so professional? Because a real pro took them, Paolo Bonaccorsi, one of the brilliant participants to our October Startup School (thanks Paolo!!).

The Venture Camp Gala Dinner. A dream venue for a rocking party.

A terrific event requires a royal celebration … and when it is time to celebrate we never refuse.
We are going to put together all the ingredients for a great party. A dream venue, fun and amazing people. And yes, we have them all!

A very special venue. The selected venue for this year Dinner Party is the Showroom EDRA, an Italian design company that has found the keys to success through fantasy, risk and imagination. We like that. And we are sure you’ll fall in love with this place at first glance.
Fun. Games and entertainment, networking and yes … pure fun (someone says Le Iene will be there..). And sure, you’ll get surprised..
Amazing people. However, what really makes the difference is you! Wanna have a proof?
Look at the pics of the last year HEROS. This year we wanna do even more..

Mark your calendar and join us for an unusual night of fun, networking and…a lot more.

yes, we are IENE too

It's true. We are IENE inside.

Following last night's airing of the Iene's special on the brain-drain in Italy, we finally showed our true self. For the few that don't know IENE (Italian for hyenas), they are the investigative reporting news show.

When Lucci contacted us (via Loris Degioanni), it wasn't quite clear what kind of cut he wanted to give to the topic.

What highly controversial story did they want to build around us?

Truth being told, both Loris and I were quite apprehensive to be devoured by "the hyenas" we all grew up with.

Now, the day after, it's all clear.

The hundreds of emails, messages, facebook/linkedin connections we received within the few hours after the show, really made it clear.

We posted some of those on our blog on Corriere.

The truth is that in Italy there's a whole world in the 20-something generation (but not only) that today is in pain.

Their well expressed messages are a clear request for help: to have the opportunity to make a difference, to feel appreciated or, sometimes, just to express their dismay about their future.

Nothing to ask really, mostly the need to talk to "an entity" that could feel their pain.

For us, being identified with that role is not only flattering. It's our life juice. It's what gets us going. It's an honour and a privilege.

Thanks.

Venture Camp 2011 warm up

5 weeks only!

The countdown is on for the MTB Venture Camp 2011, the top event hosted by Corriere della Sera, bridging technology and startup world from Silicon Valley to Italy (and back).

At its 4th edition, the event will have the usual format: a 2-day conference focused on promoting the new Italian talents coming from the MTB Business Plan competition, learn from success stories of who "made it" and address the issues that today are impeding the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem to blossom.

Some joucey news coming: significant prizes from our partners (ie Marzotto, RCS), top speakers lineup and our renowned (un-)usual Friday night party (see picture...).

Tickets are available here. Remember, they go fast!

Significant discount for you early birds until Oct 10, so act now....

Here are the 15 startups admitted to 2011 Venture Camp

Here we are. After collecting the feedback from all the Instructors @ MtB Boot Camp in Turin, our Selection Committee has finally completed its job. They had a hard time to pick-up the best 15... since all the 29 startups we selected for the Boot Camp in Turin were actually very good. But a choice has to be made. And, most of the time, it is a tougher to say no than yes...

Below you can find the list of the 15 startups admitted to pitch at the Venture Camp in November (Milan @ Corriere della Sera). The final ranking merges the original evaluation from the desk analysis and the qualitative analisys we performed during the 3-day Boot Camp we organized last week.

Kudos to the selected startups but also to those that did not make it: you are good, tune a bit your business plan and never give up! We are working to organize an event dedicated to you as well as a subset of the startups that have not been admitted to the Boot Camp. We are confident that some of them have a great potential and can be the next protagonists! We are going to work with you guys...



STARTUPS ADMITTED TO 2011 MIND THE BRIDGE VENTURE CAMP

Arkimedia
D-Orbit
Frestyl
Gowar
Iubenda
Mangatar
Naevi in silico
NextStyler
Phlur
Sounday
stereomood
Timbuktu
Treedom
Vinswer
Vivocha

See you in Milan @ Venture Camp and leverage the support of your brand new Stanford interns (more info here)

MTB and Stanford solidify their partnership

I'm just back from Florence where I spent two days teaching with Tom Byers @ Stanford Campus. I had the privilege to work with the Stanford students attending the Comparative Analysis of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Course that Tom is teaching in Italy this term. Really, really bright guys.

I'm back from Florence with two phenomenal news.

Phenomenal News #1) Tom Byers will be one of our key notes speakers at the Venture Camp on Nov 4th-5th @ Corriere della Sera in Milan. He is undoubtedly one of the top expert in the world re: entrepreneurship and a terrific speaker. Then you can't miss the chance to hear from him in Italy.

Phenomenal News #2) 15 Stanford students will be assigned as "shadow interns" to the 15 startups admitted to the Venture Camp for a 2 mos period. This way our startups will benefit from the smart support of some of the most brilliant students in the world. They will be at their disposal for testing the product, doing some market research, improving the pitch, ... and, most important thing, add a fresh Silicon Valley perspective to each team... Enjoy!

Let’s Boot Camp!

Terrific speakers, awesome venue, promising startups! We are talking about the MtB Boot Camp that kicked off last Thursday in Milan (hosted by the Social Media Week) to continue for the 29 semifinalists at OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin.
More than 300 people attended the MtB Boot Camp Open Forum. Alberto Onetti (MtB Chairman) anticipated some data from the Mind the Bridge Survey 2011 “Startups in Italy. Facts and Trends” that will be presented in November at the Venture Camp. Then a group of terrific speakers animated the stage: James C. Roberts III (Lawyer & Managing Partner at Global Capital Law Group), Marco Magnocavallo (Co-Founder at Blogo and Wikli), Stefano Maruzzi (Country Director at Google Italy), Pietro Bezza (Managing Partner at Connect digital media ventures), Massimo Ciociola (Founder & CEO of MusiXMatch) and Piero Bassetti (President of the Giannino Bassetti Foundation).

Central theme for the day was the ability to embrace a culture of risk in Italy, magisterially captured by the “pony allegory” narrated by Charles Versaggi (President of Versaggi Biocommunications®), the MtB Boot Camp Director.
September 23 and September 24, different venue (Turin), but same enthusiasm: the 29 MtB semifinalists went boot-camping @OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Stazione Futuro the tag for our place, quite evocative), together with a stellar group of mentors.

Learning sessions in the morning and GYM pitching session in the afternoon. Hosted and sponsored by TOP-IX Consortium, this two days program represented both a great opportunity for startups to learn and get inspired by our Boot Camp instructors and an invaluable occasion to test themselves and improve their communication skills. Among the mentors, led by Charles Versaggi: Ivan Farneti (Partner at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures), Marco Magnocavallo (Co-Founder at Blogo and Wikli), Elisabetta Ghisini (Founder at Verba - International Communications) and Stefano Bernardi (Dave McClure’s Shadow at 500 startups).
Moreover, as already specified in our previous posts, this event represented a further selection step in the process that will bring 15 startups to the MtB Venture Camp in Milan at Corriere della Sera and later on to Silicon Valley.
Curious to know about the top 15's names???

Just stay tuned!

The end of Pier 38 (the way we know it)

It's official. By the end of the month, all Pier 38 tenants (~70 startups to our last count) will have to move out.
It doesn't really matter what's the real story behind it (Chronicle, Techcrunch) , the 400 people signing a petition or the visit of the mayor of San Francisco.

What really matters is the bottom line.
On Sep 30th, Pier 38 will stop being that unique, creative, open, vibrant hub for startups as we've known it.

We can't say enough about how this pirates cove had an impact on our beloved organization.
It's been our first home. But since we moved in, just over a year ago, things have happened faster than we all expected.

The open, anarchic spirit of this place, almost a commune where nobody has any other interest than promoting successful startups, has been deeply inspiring.

Here's where we started organizing events for all possible occasions, the end of a startup summer school, a large group of visiting students, GYM Openhouses and demo days.
You name it.
That's also where my 5-year daughter (with other 90 something people) ended up celebrating her graduation from Preschool.
It's all good.
We are definitely not worried about our new home. In fact, we'll be moving to the One Market building, another San Francisco landmark.
It's a great opportunity to grow. And we'll take it.
But, as good pirates after a successful assault, we want to honor our first battleship, or rather, our beloved galleon.

On 9/20 we'll host our GoodBye party for Pier 38. Drinks, startups and laughter. Pier 38 way.

From Marco Marinucci

2011 Business Plan Competition: here is the short list of the the top 30!

This year we received a lot of submissions for our annual Business Plan Competition. Most of them are really cool and interesting projects...
Then our Selection Committee (coordinated by Fabrizio Capobianco) had a hard time to come out with a short list. But they did it. Thanks guys for the great and passionate work.
Below you can find the short list of the top 29 startups that have been admitted to the 2011 Boot Camp Mind the Bridge (with the active support of TOP-IX) organized from Sep 22nd through Sep 24th.
During the three days we will provide your with top notch training (here you can take a look at the agenda ... our speakers and instructors are impressive) and have the chance to know more about your startup and business plan. Then the Boot Camp represents a further evaluation step to identify the 15 semifinalists admitted to pitch at the Venture Camp (Nov 4th and 5th, in Milan @ Corriere della Sera).
A final note aimed at the hundreds of startups that are not included in the list below. Don't give up, there is potential in your team and idea... We are looking forward to meeting you in Milan for the opening of the BootCamp (on Sep 22nd, at 4pm, at Mediateca di Santa Teresa, the event is open, just click here to get your free ticket).
And we are planning to organize a mini Boot Camp reserved to the best startups that have not been selected...then we definitively want to stay in touch with you guys and help you succeed. And you can do it...




Startups admitted to MTB Bootcamp 2011

ARKIMEDIA
BLOMMING
COOKOUS
D-Orbit
DigitalFluency
FLYBBLE
FRESTYL
FRINZER
GOBILABS
GoWar
iubenda
mangatar
Mytata
NAEVI IN SILICO
NextStyler
OkeyDokeyEvents
Phlur
QUIPU
RickyRoubin
Smartruck
SOUNDAY
SportSquare
STEREOMOOD
TIMBUKTU
TREEDOM
TWIMBOW
Video Template
VINSWER
VIVOCHA

Startup School - A new edition coming in October

Two editions of the schools gone and - here the big news - not one, but two to go!

Indeed, given the high number of applications for the first three editions of Mind the Bridge Startup School, we decided to organize a new edition in October (10th - 28th)!

So, halfway through the 2011 Startup School activities we can definitely say we are pretty much proud of how things are going. We've hosted 12 students with different ages, from different background and coming with different goals, but every student leaves the school as they've experienced a "life changing" period. Students visited some of the most prestigious incubators and accelerator, 500 Startups, Plug and Play, Rocket Space, prestigious universities as Stanford and Berkley and the Singularity University; they participated to a few incredible events in the area, as Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, giving his speech at the Singularity University and Steve Blank talking about Entrepreneurial Education at Parisoma. Moreover a few terrific new speakers, Burton Lee, Hartmut Essingler, and Gigi Wang.

These were the regular activities MtB Startup School offers, but along these activities the students had the possibility to breath the Silicon Valley incredible vibe of energy, good ideas and technology and people.

The energy and the dynamism of the Silicon Valley are two things that surprise students every time here. "In three weeks I've learnt so many things and talked with so many interesting people; I've also talked with another startup for a possible agreement on the product development. I've experienced so many things in three weeks that have never happened in Italy in a long time." Or "Here nobody wants to read a 80 pages business plan, things are so dynamic that you need to pivot your business idea so many times according to the reaction and feedback you get from your users. A 10 pages deck is what you only need and then just talk and get feedback."

The easiness to get useful feedback is also another things that thrills students. "Here you don't need to talk with three assistants to get in touch with the CEO of a company. You just go to one of the pool party in the Valley and you can meet him there, drinking a beer with his/her t-shirt and his/her flip flop talking with other startups.". Or "The density of talented people here is incredible, you can go everywhere, just get a coffee and you can find a person ready to give you feedback on your startup and to pitch his/her startup. There are no issues here in sharing ideas, while in Italy it seems more difficult either because people are afraid that someone can steal their idea or because the person listening can simply destroy the idea but without constructive feedback. Here in Silicon Valley, people always give reasons either for a positive and for a negative feedback".

Our intent is to improve and enrich even more the activities of the school! So, if anyone is ready to experience all this and much more, the applications for the October edition are now open! Availability is limited so hurry up!

For more information contact summerschool@mindthebridge.org.

MtB Boot Camp 2011.. One more reason to be in!

The deadline (July, 31st) to participate in the Business Plan Competition is approaching and it’s time to give you one more reason to be in.
For the 25 best startups selected in the competition MtB reserves a special path that includes education, training, networking, visibility, connections with the Silicon Valley.. In one word “Opportunities”.

First stage: 3 days, 9 instructors and 2 cities, Milan and Turin!

We are talking about the MtB Boot Camp 2011, a 3 days of exclusive intense, hands-on workshop led by exceptional instructors and devoted to the 20/25 startups that will pass the first selection. This first phase represents a unique and outstanding occasion for the selected startups to receive valuable advices useful for structuring their business plan. Charles Versaggi, Ivan Farneti, Marco Magnocavallo, James C. Roberts III are some our excellent Boot Camp Instructors having the hard task to inspire, follow, comment and evaluate your project.

Let’s find out something more about them..

Charles Versaggi (president of Versaggi Biocommunications): Mr. Versaggi is our MtB Boot Camp Director. With nearly 30 years of strategic marketing and communications experience, he helped launch a number of industry firsts in life science field. His charisma had already won the attention of the last year’s startups and we are confident he will gain yours too.

Marco Asquini (Co-Founder, Italian Angels for Growth): Mr. Asquini is an industrial designer, serial entrepreneur, restructuring specialist, and the co-founder of Super//Fluo, a Pordenone-based company focused on the design and creation of Friulian TVs, plasmas and LCDs. He is also co-founder of the Italian Angels for Growth (IAG), the largest angel investment group in Italy aimed at promoting Italian entrepreneurship.

Ivan Farneti (Partner at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures): Mr. Farneti has been an active venture capital investor in start-up businesses both in Europe and in the US since 1997. He is a Partner at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures where he focuses on enterprise, internet and mobile software and services. 

Marco Magnocavallo (Co-Founder at Blogo and Wikli): Mr. Magnocavallo is a serial entrepreneur, product manager and technology executive. Known as an angel investor and a successful serial entrepreneur, Marco has recently invested in companies in the US, UK and in Italy including: WebMynd, NextDigest, NoiseToys, Iubenda and Fubles. The latter was one of the finalists of the MtB past edition.

Massimo Ciociola (Founder & CEO of MusiXMatch): Mr. Ciociola is founder and CEO of MusiXMatch , a new startup focused on Music + Online Ads Platform. He has more than 11 years worldwide experience in Mobile Entertainment and Music Market. In 1999 he founded one of the first Mobile Entertainment player: Wireless Solutions spa, then part of DADA Group in 2001 (DA.MI).

James C. Robert III (Lawyer & Managing Partner, Global Capital Law Group):
Mr. Roberts is the managing partner of the law firm, Global Capital Law Group, and CEO of its affiliated strategic consulting firm, Global Capital Strategic Group. His work (in both law and consulting) span several fields: startups, venture capital, licensing, international expansion and mergers & acquisitions in digital media and technology (e.g., cross-platform or mobile projects), cleantech and other advanced technology initiatives, especially those that cross borders.

Pietro Bezza (Managing Partner at Connect digital media ventures): Pietro is a passionate entrepreneur turned active early stage investor, with 12+ years experience in Internet, Mobile and Media sectors. He is member of IAG; he is Mentor at Seedcamp and Oxygen Accelerator.
Pietro acts as angel investor, co-founder and/or advisor in internet-based and consumer brand project and in promising startups, such as RisparmioSuper, winner of Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition 2010.

Alberto Onetti, Chairman of Mind the Foundation and Leonardo Camiciotti, Development Program Director at Top-IX Consortium complete this magnificent frame.

The MtB Boot Camp represents also a compulsory step for deciding the 15 semifinalists that will pitch at the MtB Venture Camp. However, regardless of the selection results, thanks to the MtB Boot Camp you will have terrific advantages. Besides benefit from the experience of our prominent Mentors in helping you dealing with your business plan structure, you will soon have the opportunity to get in contact with strategic people, investor and entrepreneurs. Entering in the “Mind the Bridge world”, indeed, will give you access to the Silicon Valley network, an incredible opportunity to see your business taking off.

But when and where the MtB Boot Camp is going to take place?
The workshop will open in Milan with a Public Forum held in September 22nd in occasion of the Social Media Week. Then the MtB bandwagon moves to Turin for a 2 days of lessons, pitches and suggestions (Sept 23rd, 24th), reserved to the 25 selected startups, to help them in clarifying, creating and communicating their business vision, proprietary science and technology into a viable business plan, worthy of financial support. This year, thanks to the partnership with TOP-IX Consortium these two intense days will be held at OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni, a masterpiece of industrial architecture set up to celebrate the 150 years of Italy in the heart of Turin

.

What are you waiting for? Send us your Biz Plan and save the dates!

Nicola Allieta, the jackpot winner

Back in Febrary we announced the amazing opportunity for the best recent graduate to join us in Silicon Valley, supported by a significant package.

Now, a few months later, the dream came true for one lucky candidate.

We are excited to introduce Nicola as a new team member, based out of our HQs in San Francisco.

Here's his story:

A true man of the valley. To the Silicon Valley, home to many of the world's largest hi-tech corporations, from the Aosta Valley known for...well...cheese. No matter how much he has traveled since leaving his native Aosta after high school, it seems that Nicola was destined to settle down in a valley.

Nicola started his education in management at at the Università degli Studi di Pavia where he graduate in Marketing and E-Business. During this period he spent 1 year in Strasbourg through the EU Erasmus programme. He then completed a three-year graduate Master programme in Management at the French ESCP Europe spending 2 years across London and Paris. He recently graduated in Business Administration at the University of Turin.

His professional background is mainly in the entertainment industry having worked for a film financing boutique in London and a major distribution and production company in Paris. Nicola’s interest in entrepreneurship sparked through an international research project on business incubators.

The survival challenges faced by startups and the risks undertaken by venture capitalists remind him of the often hazardous business of entertainment. In both ventures the challenge is to pre-determine the outcome, be it a Fortune 500 company or an Oscar winning blockbuster (although Nicola does spot the differences between a sci- fi script and a business plan).

You'll hear more from him here and here.
Questions? Feel free to contact him at nallieta@mindthebridge.org

Startup's.. cool!

People living in San Francisco during this weeks will certainly agree that there's not a full summer in the city, the fog and the cold wind are good and habitual friends here. Although the cold summer, 5 guys decided to leave the 95 °F (35 °C) in Italy to attend the first edition of Mind the Bridge Startup Summer School. They brought a few sweaters in their luggage, a business idea in their mind and a lot of excitement for this life-changing experience.

Simone Lini, 21 years and at his second year at Bocconi university, is developing a business on a carpool system. Massimo Garzulino and Danilo Spanò, 25 years both and at their last year respectively of Law and Business School at University of Pavia, have a patent on a wall mobile charger. Andrea Amedeo, 32 years and expert in communication, is developing a systems of feedbacks on top of a social network and finally Andrea Morra, 34 years, physicist and MBA, is developing a tracking system to avoid falsification of goods.

Whatever their idea, they decided to spend their holidays to get their first experience of the startups world in the most entrepreneurial area in the world, the Silicon Valley, because yes, also in Italy for increasingly more people "startup is cool"!

And in the big debate between "born-to-be entrepreneur" or "trained-to-be entrepreneur" they just jumped in the action without waiting for other people's answer to this big question, deciding to try, to share their project with the speakers of our seminars and with other startups in the area, ready to see their business model destroyed and to rebuild a new one with the feedbacks received.

Are those guys born to be entrepreneur? I guess they just took the risk to become one.

2011 Business Plan Competition: what a Selection Committee!

While we are approaching to the deadline for the 2011 Business Plan Comepetition, our Selection Commitee has been integrated with phenomenal adds-on.
Now we have 40 people -investors, angels and entreprenuers- representing the best of breed of the seed and venture capital eco-system, both in Italy and abroad.
Here you can find the updated list of members. Welcome to the new entrants and thank again to the core group of members who support us since day one.
The Commitee is coordinated - as usual - by Fabrizio Capobianco, Founder and President of Funambol Inc. (on the right in the pic, shot last Friday in Pavia at the Summer Meeting of the Giovani Industriali di Pavia, where we had a lot of fun discussing how to exploit connections between Italy and US).
Don't miss the deadline for submitting your business idea, that is July 31st. 20 days are remaining, then hurry up!

Super-closing for the MtB Italy Tour 2011!

Last week more than 150 people attended the Genova final date of Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2011 hosted by IIT – Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia.

With amazing guest speakers talking about their successful entrepreneurial experiences in Silicon Valley and giving inspiring lessons, MtB met the enthusiasm and attention of the participants who felt immediately involved in the discussion. Thanks to Marco Marinucci, Fabrizio Capobianco and Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, who told their stories and enriched the discussion with their comments, the Startup School coordinated by Alberto Onetti represented a real interactive moment for learning and collecting inestimable hints.

Moreover, the insights and feedbacks given to the startups selected to pitch by the panels of experts during the Gym Session, gave a panorama of what are the must-haves for an effective presentation for high technology based products: do not go too deep into the features of the product (often very complex), but focus on the value proposition and the discriminators.

Mission accomplished! A few days after the end of the MtB Italy Tour 2011 we feel even more eager to receive the business ideas from all the other Italian talents we haven’t the chance to meet.
The Business Plan Competition 2011 is open! It’s time to send us your ideas..
Remember, the deadline is July 31st.

Mind the Bridge Startup Summer School & Wired

Finally we have the names of the two winners of the scholarship Mind the Bridge offers in collaboration with Wired!

• Mariano Ambrosio, 24 years (Roma)
• Simone Lini, 21 years (Crema)

Although both very young, Simone and Mariano have submitted a promising business idea they will work on while they are host at Pier38. They will join the other selected students for this first edition of Mind the Bridge Summer School starting on.. July 11th!

A special thank to all the other applicants that have not been selected for the scholarship. Don't miss the opportunity to participate to the Business Plan Competition or stay tuned because, given the high number of applicants, we might replicate the school during this fall!

Well, it's almost time to start.. we will keep you posted on this brand new Mind the Bridge initiative!

Are you ready for Genova? Here the selected startups!

The last date of the Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2011 will be hosted in one of the most prestigious landmarks of technology, the IIT- Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Tomorrow we have the opportunity to hear from 6 exciting startups showcasing their business ideas!

Thanks to the presence of Marco Marinucci (MtB Executive Director), born in Genova and Google Manager in Silicon Valley, and of Fabrizio Capobianco (Funambol President&Chairman), both arriving from San Francisco to take part in the event, the Startup School coordinated by Alberto Onetti, will be further enriched of invaluable insights and experiences.
The afternoon, structured as a Gym Session, will be devoted to a bunch of startups presenting their business idea in front of a panel composed by relevant investors and seasoned entrepreneurs such as Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (Univ. of Barkeley), Giuseppe Rasero (Genova High Tech, Leonardo Technology Spa), Joe Petillon (Banner Ventures LLC) and many others. Goal of the session will be to give constructive feedbacks to the admitted startups and look in deep at their business in order to seek out either the points of strength or of weakness.

What about the selected projects? Here are the names of the startups that will present tomorrow.

1. SunWise

2. Twimbow

3. 3Brain

4. Best Creativity

5. NANOMED 

6. Arbot Technology

This time the choice has been even harder than usual. Besides receiving a high number of Business Plans, we found a quite consistent number of interesting ideas. Thus, our choice has been driven not only by the quality of the idea, but also by its attitude to be discussed and its potential to be a helpful case study for the audience. Do not feel left out! Not being selected does not mean there is no potential in your plan. On the opposite, we are pleased to invite you to attend both to the Gym Session- for listening to the precious feedbacks and advices provided by the magnificent panel of experts to the startups- and the education program in the morning.

See you in Genova!

Great day in Pavia! Learn more about the selected startups..

Startups, enthusiasm, constructive feedbacks, terrific speakers.. that’s what you need for organizing a successful event!

Yesterday, we recreated for a day the atmosphere of Silicon Valley in Pavia, involving startups, entrepreneurs and investors, students, Ph.Ds and whoever was interested in learning how to turn an idea into business.

The introductions of the Mayor of Pavia, and of Margherita Balconi and Annalisa Tocchio, respectively the President of the local Polo Tecnologico and industrial association immediately set the tone: create an ecosystem in Pavia to support a new generation of Italian entrepreneurs.

The speeches of Alberto Onetti, Charles Versaggi and Fabrizio Capobianco inspired the participants.

And in the afternoon, a Gym session. Six startups were invited to present their innovative business idea, in front of a panel of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. Let’s briefly introduce them!

Among the early stage ideas we heard from Linksten - a mobile application that reproduces a short jingle during the idle time while your smartphone opens a link, THE WHITE RABBIT – an innovative software platform aimed at providing innovative solutions for business, education, healthcare, home and social needs through touch-screen applications - and EasyGoing - a multi-platform (social web, website, SMS, mobile app, telephone) management system for car pooling. The presenters got a lot comments, feedback and tips that for sure will help them to focus more on their business and exploit their business idea.

Danmax Tech Solutions, tpenso and iLIKE.TV presented their prototypes and products.

Danmax Tech Solutions produces an universal charger for cell phones to be applied into the wall’s outlet.
iLIKE.TV, structured as a web tv channel on cross-media social platforms, allows users to be involved to the shows, influence and interact with them via a secondary screen.
tpenso presented its product - Margerita Salvadita - an innovative device that reduces the risk of needlestick injury from syringes.


Then a lot of good and promising ideas…and - for one of them - an incredible opportunity to make it happen.
We were able to open the door of the MtB Gym to one of the 6 startups. This thanks to Durabo, whose general manager - Tommaso Mazzocchi - volunteered to offer this opportunity to one of the startups in memory of his father Antonio.
Carlo Giuberchio, tpenso founder, received the best of the day award. For him a 3 months stay at the Gym, the mentorship program held @ Pier 38 in San Francisco. Great opportunity for exploiting the business potential of his device!

Carlo, see you in two weeks in San Francisco! All the others, see you on Wednesday next week in Genova!

Summer School: who's in!

MTB people,

after launching our first Summer Startup School a few weeks ago, we did experience an overwhelming response from you.

One more sign that the popularity of the Silicon Valley-Startup pair is at its tipping point amongst Italians.

Here are the candidates who made it through, for our next 3 sessions (July, August, September):

• Andrea Amedeo
• Andrea Morra
• Luigi Greco
• Marco Solfato
• Enrico Prunotto
• Albert William Pozzi
• Fabio Parisi
• Eugenio Pugliese
• Matteo Bortolu
• Giancarlo Vergine
• Luca Bernardi
• Alessandro Coscia
• Michele Orsi
• Giorgio Bertolino
• Federica Riva
• Alejandro Martinez
• Giuseppe Pace

We are still working on the selection for the promotion in collaboration with Wired.it

Stay tuned to get more info.

In the meantime, congrats to all those who have been accepted.

You can start packing (and don't forget some thick socks + hat!)

Pavia, here we go!

Guys, we are almost there! Everything is ready for the third date of the MtB Italy Tour 2011. The venue is Pavia, the date Friday, June 17th. 6 cool startups have been selected, investors and entrepreneurs are eager to meet young talented entrepreneurs. Moreover special guests are coming to participate in the event!

Just to mention a few.. Alberto Onetti, MtB Chairman, serial entrepreneur and professor in Finance and Innovation Management, is the most suitable person to give you the nuts and bolts for starting up a business.

Directly from San Francisco, Charles Versaggi will provide you with invaluable insights about how to tell your business story. Founder of Versaggi BioCommunications and MtB Mentor, Charles is recognized not only for his experience as entrepreneur, but also for his cheerful charisma and unique communication skills.

Among the others, Francesco Carione (New Business Director and Digital Incubator @ RCS Group) will introduce you to the RCS Digital Publishing Prize, an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs with an innovative idea in the digital media/publishing field. Joe Petillon (Banner Ventures LLC), Maurizio Liverani (Baryon Capital Corporation) and a lot of other investors and entrepreneurs will populate our investors panel, providing stratups with comments and helpful tips. Not enough reasons to join us in Pavia? Last but not least, Barbara Labate, the winner of the Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition 2010, awarded last month @ the Italian Innovation Day in New York, will tell us her engaging experience at the MtB Gym in San Francisco. See you there!

Startups admitted @ Gym Session in Pavia

On Friday the 17th (yep, Friday the 17th...), we are in Pavia for the second date of our Italy Tour 2011. In the afternoon we replicate a Gym session, with a bunch of startpus pitching in front of a panel of venture capitalists and seasoned entreprenuers.
As usual we received a lot of applications.
Anyway, here are (in alphabetical order) the startups we selected for the Gym in Pavia:
- Danmax Tech Solutions
- Easygoing
- iLIKE.TV
- Linksten
- The White Rabbit
- tpenso



As we always point out, not being in the list above does not mean that there is no potential in your plan. You can largely benefit from the discussion of all the business ideas as well as the education program in the morning(BTW Charles Versaggi is joining me on the stage...terrific opportunity to learn). Thus we are looking forward to meeting all the startups (not only the selected ones) in Pavia, where to share insights and provide some feedback.
We strongly suggest to take part to the whole event with your entire management team (please register with all the members if you haven't yet done). Startups admitted to the Gym session have 8 minutes for presenting their idea (we will send you a template for helping you in structuring the presentation). Presentation will be followed by 20/25 minute time of Q&A.

Gym OpenHouse: Jun 9th

We are adding an important feature to our Mind the Beer social mix.

Fear not. Booze will still be part of the mix.

But in addition, starting this Thu June 9th, we are planning to open the door of the GYM incubator and add a demo area for some selected startups.

..... more Info here.

We plan to run those events throughout "the summer" (disclaimer: no summer in San Francisco).

The following startups will be showcased (in "demo-with-a-beer" mode):

• Hyperfair, Andrea Ballarini.
• Spreaker, Francesco Baschieri
• Beintoo, Antonio Tomarchio
• Vinswer, Daniele Alberti
• Quipu, Elisabetta Bianchini
• SMANIA, Silvia Bossi
• QIRIS, Nicholas Caporusso
• Treedom, Lorenzo Martelletti

An awesome mix between startups hosted at the GYM and the subset of the 2011 Fulbright-BEST winners who run a startup (including the ones supported by MTB).

Spend the summer in San Francisco: startup summer school

Tired to spend the summer in Costa Smeralda?
Had enough of the usual month on your yacht in Saint Tropez?
It's time to get serious about your ambitions to become a successful entrepreneur... and spend your summer in San Francisco!

In case you haven't noticed, a few days ago we officially opened the doors of our GYM incubator in San Francisco for a summer startup school.For 3 weeks, you'll leave the life of our startups incubated at Pier 38, follow a number of seminars, and, most importantly, you can work on your project.
Don't have one yet? No problem.
You'll get assigned to one of the startups and will work on their business plan!

We have very limited availability, so apply ASAP if you don't want to miss this life changing opportunity (and I'm not kidding...).
Else, you'll be forced to spend yet another summer in Costa Smeralda!

You'll find all detailed information here.

Presenting Premio Gaetano Marzotto

Do you want an additional compelling reason to participate in the Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition 2011? Here you go.
You can be eligible for the Premio Gaetano Marzotto for young high-tech entrepreneurial ideas.

How does it work?
The Project Gaetano Marzotto aims at supporting a young entrepreneurial idea developed in a high-tech field with the possibility to grow internationally. As presented by Alberto Onetti in the video above, thanks to the partnership with Associazione Gaetano Marzotto, we can offer to one of the selected startups the opportunity to attend our Gym program @Pier 38, our incubator in San Francisco, for a period of 4 month.
It is a terrific opportunity! You will learn how to structure your business idea, making your business plan valuable, solid and successful! Relationship with potential partners and investors will be facilitated, and everything happens in the heart of the Silicon Valley, totally free of charge!

How to enroll for the Premio Gaetano Marzotto for young high tech entrepreneurial ideas?
Just apply for the Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition 2011 (deadline July, 31st), have an innovative high-tech idea and be under 35 (for startups at least one of the founders’ team should respect this criteria).
Young Innovators, we want you!

The Business Plan Competition 2011 is open!

Are you a wanna-be entrepreneur? Are you a talent with an innovative idea? We are waiting for you!

After a few weeks from the Italian Innovation Day (IID) in New York and Stanford, which declared Barbara Labate (Super Compare) and Marco Brini (Minteos) as the winners of the BPC 2010, the applications for fifth edition of the Business Plan Competition are open now!

To participate you have just to fill the Executive Summary you can download from our web site and send it together with your Business Plan to bpc.selection.2011@mindthebridge.org not later than midnight of July 31st, 2011.
Here it is possible to download the documents required (Executive Summary and Business Plan) and find all the rules and instructions.
And.. that’s all!

Why should you submit your Business Plan?
Participating in the Business Plan Competition give you the chance to live a unique experience. The best 15 innovative ideas will be admitted free of charge to Training modules and have an opportunity to pitch @ the MtB Venture Camp that will be held in Milan at Corriere della Sera on November 4th and 5th.

Selected finalists will be admitted - for one month (in March 2011) to the MtB Gym, our mentoring program we run in Silicon Valley, and the investor roadshow we organize both on East and West Coast. Then a unique opportunity to get trained and spend a month in Silicon Valley, a strategic place where to focus on your business plan, meet investors, potential customers and partners.

Want to hear from our last year finalists? Here is the video of some of our alumni talking about their experience with MtB!



Finally, thanks to the partnership with RCS Media Group and with Progetto Gaetano Marzotto, starting this year we introduced two new Prizes. The RCS Digital Publishing Prize will offer the opportunity to a startup operating in the digital media/publishing space to attend our Gym Program in San Francisco for 3 months instead of one. The Premio Gaetano Marzotto, which extends the Gym period to 4 months, will be devoted to a young entrepreneurial idea (max 35 years old) developed in a high tech area with possibilities to grow internationally.

So, what are you waiting for? We are looking forward to receive your application!

For further information visit our page regarding the BPC 2011 or write to information@mindthebridge.org

Presenting the RCS Digital Publishing Prize

Great news for the startups attending the Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition!
Starting this year, we have a new important award that further enhances our partnership with RCS Mediagroup.

The RCS Digital Publishing Prize has been officially presented last week in New York City @ the Italian Innovation Day. The Prize aims at supporting innovation in the publishing, advertising and media industries. More specifically, the goal is to improve either the user experience of digital readers (content, value, etc.) or the appeal of digital publishing platforms for advertisers.


That's how Alceo Rapagna, CIO of RCS Mediagroup, introduces the goals of the RCS Digital Publishing Prize.
The startup awarded with the RCS Digital Publishing Prize will be incubated – free of charge - for a period of three months at the Gym Program in San Francisco. A terrific chance to turn your business idea into a solid and sound business plan and create business and funding connections in the ecosystem of the Silicon Valley!

What do you have to do to apply for the RCS Digital Publishing Prize?
Just have a disruptive idea in the digital media/publishing space and make the application to the Business Plan Competition 2011 (deadline is Jul 31st).
Digital Innovators, we want you!

Mind the Bridge @StartuParty at The Hub Milan

StartuParty is an initiative launched by a bunch of start-uppers who would like to involve new people in the Italian Startup & Innovation world; following the example of Assisti (Associazione Italiana Startup Innovative) and in partnership with The Hub Milan and Startup-Business, its purpose is to bring new energy into the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem, in particular students and young entrepreneurs in a very informal way and pulling them with the “party” call up!

StartuParty will be a very easy-going event where the aim is to involve students who will be the future entrepreneurs, into the entrepreneurial community and try to cross the chasm of the diffusion of Innovation culture in Italy.

In fact, StartuParty format consists of a series of "theme party” where many wannabe-start-uppers who had not made yet the first pitch are invited, besides the case-hardened start-uppers. A number of parties will be launched to put in touch start-uppers, geeks, coders, wannabe entrepreneurs, business angels, venture capitalists and everyone interested in the early stage ecosystem.

The first event will be held in Milan, on Thursday, May 19th starting from 9 p.m. @The Hub Milan (Via Paolo Sarpi 8), music by Stefano Bernardi (dPixel).

Mind the Bridge will be there, what about you?