Showing posts with label Capobianco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Capobianco. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

New Advisory Board @ MTB


While our 2010 activities are winding down and our board of directors is reflecting back on the successes and challenges ahead, we are getting fit for a memorable 2011.

To that extent, I’m very pleased to announce the set up of a new, outstanding advisory board.


Fabrizio Capobianco, old friend of MTB (and mine), already board member in 2009 and coordinator of our selection committee since 2009, mentor of several MTB startups, and main (and only) organizer of the Capo-startup-baseball night.

Professor Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, an icon of the Silicon Valley Italian community... and any other community that values entrepreneurship! He's been a strong supporter of MTB since its inception. He attended every Venture Camp event we organized since our beginnings and inspired hundreds of young entrepreneurs. His performance with Severgnini in 2009 made history.

Lesa Mitchell, COO of the Kauffman Foundation, the world most relevant entity supporting entrepreneurship. Since our first conversation, not too long ago, Lesa demonstrated her personal strong interest in supporting our bridge, re-instated with her visit to our incubator @ Pier 38 a few weeks after my first visit at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas city.

The support of such exceptional professionals in the entrepreneurship world is a testament of the high-quality work that our foundation has demonstrated since its inception in 2007.

I'm personally honored to have them on board.

If we needed to be re-energized for a new year full of activities, could we have asked for more???

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The GYM is open!

We initially announced it during the Venture Camp in Venice, and then earlier this year.
Now the Mind the Bridge Gymnasium is finally a reality!

Managed by 3 partners (Fabrizio Capobianco - Funambol, Matteo D'Aste - BAIA and myself), the idea is to offer a physical (and mental!) space in the heart of Silicon Valley to Italian startups with high growth potential.

We decided to host it within the Plug & Play tech center, one of the most established incubators in the valley with over 200 startups from multiple countries. They provide the physical space and visibility with investors, we provide hands-on services such as mentoring, regular business plan reviews and an opening to our personal networks to maximize the startup chances of success.
Today the GYM is a project under the umbrella of the Mind the Bridge foundation.
The first startups hosted in our offices in Redwood City are The Reliables and Eris 4, both finalists of the 08/09 business plan competition.
We are evaluating possible candidates on a regular basis but the bar to be invited is pretty high.

Here's a post and video from Fabrizio's blog (Silicon Valley Italia, in Italian).