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

Cagliari: here we come. This Friday Special Event of the MtB Italy Tour

This week, on Friday (June 25th) we are in Cagliari, with the second of the Special Events of our Mind the Bridge Italy Tour. The venue is the Auditorium of Sardegna Ricerche in Pula (Edificio 2, Località Piscinamanna).

It is a full day program. Startup School in the morning (with Alberto Onetti and Marco Marinucci on the stage) and a session of our MtB Gym in the afternoon. In the evening we organize - with the support of our local sponsor Hosteras - a cocktail event at Villa del Borgo Relais in Santa Margherita di Pula: a dreamplace where to relax and networking. Please remember to reserve your ticket: it is free, but admissions are limited. Here is the link for RSVP (remember you have to register twice, both for the day program and evening event).

As you know, in the afternoon we are going to replicate here in Italy our Gym, i.e. the mentorship activity we regularly do in Silicon Valley with our startpus admitted to the program: companies presenting their business plans in front of a panel of venture capitalists and seasoned entreprenuers. Open discussion, comments, honest feedbacks. Ultimate goal is fine tuning the business idea (what and where it works, where and what doesn't) and making the value proposition more effective.
We got a terific feedback from Sardinia: we received over 20 applications for the Gym session in Cagliari!
Our Selection Committee worked all over the weekend for deciding the short-list of startups admitted to the Gymnasium in Cagliari. Not an easy task since we received a lot of plans, all of them quite interesting.
Anyway here are (in alphabetical order) the startups we selected for the Gym next Friday:
-MYOT
-NEURESAR
-PHILANTHROBUSINESS
-PORCOVINO
-TZENTE






As we always point out, not being in the list above does not mean that there is no potential in your plan. Thus we are looking forward to meeting all the startups (not only the selected ones) in Pula, 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 10 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.
The key word of the Gym is open discussion and honest feedback. Then partecipating to the Gym session is a MUST for all the startups, not only for the ones we selected to present. Everybody can largely benefit from the discussion of all the business ideas as well as the education program in the morning.
See you in Pula!

GYM: launch of the 1st Presentation Skills module, Milano

It's official.
Starting in October, we'll be launching the first series of the MTB GYM training modules in Italy.

We start with what we believe is the most underestimated skill for Italian startups: presentation skills.

We'll be flying directly from the Silicon Valley Elisabetta Ghisini, a top notch professional in the field (more info in the attached flier).


We'll run 2 sessions of max 15 participants / class on Oct 20 and 21.
The coaching session is mandatory for the finalists presenting at the Venture Camp event, but open for other participants.
You can apply here. The availability is limited. This is your unique opportunity to greatly improve your chances of success in front of investors or clients.
Don't miss it!

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).