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

Startups admitted to 2010 MTB Venture Camp

After collecting the feedback from all the Instructors @ MtB Boot Camp in Varese, our selection committee has finally completed its effort. Below you can find the list of the 15 startups admitted to pitch at the Venture Camp event 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.

Congratulation to the winners but also to those that did not make it: tune your business plan and do not give up! That's why we decided to open the Coaching session in Pavia also to the remaining 17 startups. We are confident that they can be the next protagonists!
STARTUPS ADMITTED TO 2010 MIND THE BRIDGE VENTURE CAMP

> ADMOBSPHERE
> eRALOS3
> FUBLES
> GET CONNECTED MOPAPP
> INTERVIEWEB
> ISN VIRTUAL WORLDS
> KONKURI
> MINTEOS
> PORCO VINO
> RADIO TOUCH
> ReMEMBRANE
> SMANIA
> UNPLUGGED
> WE SPORT
> XAPIO

Stay connected for more details and ... see you in October in Pavia and in November in Milan!

Selection is completed. And the winners are ...

After spending a full month working on it, our Selection Committee coordinated by Fabrizio Capobianco has finally completed its job. Selecting the best business plans has been quite a challenge, because the number and quality of the proposals we received.
In our selection process we focused on quality, with a particular attention on diversity, including subject matter, geography and gender. We decided to merge the Business Plan Competion and Call for Ideas into a single ranking.
Below, you find the list of the startups admitted to the Mind the Bridge BootCamp (in Varese, from September 23rd through September 25th). It is a 30+ list. During the Bootcamp we will extract the short list of the 15 semi-finalists presenting @ Corriere della Sera in Milan in November.
Congratulations to the selected startups and also to those that did not make it: tune your business plan and do not give up!

> ADMOBSPHERE
> ASV
> BIOPAN
> CITY TOURING
> eRALOS3
> FUBLES
> GANTOR
> GET CONNECTED MOPAPP
> HAPPY MINUTE
> INTERVIEWEB
> ISN VIRTUAL WORLDS
> KONKURI
> MAKOO
> MINTEOS
> NETHICAL
> OKOBICI
> ORANGE CLOUD
> PARKVICE
> PHILANTHROBUSINESS
> PORCO VINO
> RADIO TOUCH
> ReMEMBRANE
> REPUTAG
> SECURO
> SMANIA
> TEAM
> TODAY EXTREME DISCOUNTS
> TZENTE
> UMBRA MED
> UNPLUGGED
> VIDEO PAY ME
> WE SPORT
> XAPIO



The selected startups are admitted - free of charge - to our Bootcamp (that will be held in Varese on Sep 23-25) and to the Coaching session (that is scheduled in Pavia on Oct 14-16). During these two events we provide the startups with tailored training and mentoring and select the 15 semi-finalists to be admitted to pitch at the Venture Camp in November (on Nov 5-6 @ Corriere della Sera in Milan).
More information by email and on our website. See you in Varese!

Business Plan Competition: Selection is ongoing

Deadline for Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition is over.
This year we received hundreds of Business Plans & Call for Ideas. Really a lot, better than any other previous Mind the Bridge (which is definitively a great sign).
Now it's time for our Selection Committee to start its job (actually they already have). It is quite a challenge given the high number of submissions we received. But we are committed to complete the selection by the end of the first week of September. And we are not going to miss it.
Below you can find the list of the components of 2010 MTB Selection Committee, that is coordinate by our Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO: they are all top-notch Italian and international venture capitalists, business angels and professionals. Thank you to all them for their continuous help and support!
Their goal is to select the best 30 proposals. The selected top 30 entrepreneurs will be admitted free of charge to our Bootcamp (that will be held in Varese on Sep 23-25) and Coaching (that is scheduled in Pavia on Oct 14-16). During these two events we provide the startups with tailored training and mentoring and select the 15 semi-finalists who will be admitted to present at the Venture Camp in November (on Nov 5-6 @ Corriere della Sera in Milan).
If you are confident that you business plan is good enough, please save all these dates.
Stay tuned to check the list of admitted startups.


MTB Business Plan Competition
2010 Selection Committee
Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol (coordinator)
Alessio Beverina, Sofinnova Partners
Claudio Giuliano, Innogest
Fausto Boni, 360 Capital Partner
Leonardo Camiciotti, Top-ix
Gianluca Dettori, Dpixel
Pietro Dova, XG Ventures
Lorenzo Franchini, IAG
Ruggero Frezza, M31
Maurizio Liverani, Classfinance
Massimiliano Magrini, Annapurna Ventures
Nicola Nicoletti, Pricewaterhouse Cooper
Stefano Peroncini, Quantica
Maurizio Petitbon, Kreos Capital
Mauro Pretolani, TLCOM
Nicola Redi, Fondamenta
Elisabeth Robinson - NicOx/Fulbright BEST
Carol Sand, The Angels' Forum, The Halo Funds
Giuseppe Serazzi, PNCube
Maria Silva, Genova High Tech
Pietro Strada, Centerboard Partners
Alberto Trombetta, Finlombarda
Davide Turco, Atlante Ventures, Intesa San Paolo
Luca Ungarelli, Golden Mouse
Charles Versaggi, Versaggi Biocommunications

-10 days to MTB 2010 Competitions deadline

Dear friends,
this is a reminder that the deadline to submit proposals for the 2010/11 edition of the Mind The Bridge
- Business Plan Competition and
- Call for Ideas
is fast approaching: JULY 31 is the last days for submitting your executives summary!
This year competition is accompanied by a number of highly stimulating prizes, on top of the usual goodies (training, presenting at Venture Camp event @ Corriere della Sera, incubation in Silicon Valley).
We would appreciate if you can give visibility to this opportunity to your network through your highly effective communication tools.

Mind the Bridge Business Plan Competition 2010: deadline is approaching!

July 31st, 12am CET: this is the final deadline for submitting your Executive Summary and Business Plan and try to start your own way to Silicon Valley.
We have a lot of news this year.
Firstly, we have Prizes for the best startups. Not money, but grants to cover the costs the startups have during their period of stay at our Gym in Silicon Valley. Stay tuned for more details. Meanwhile don't miss the deadline for submitting your idea. Late comers are not adimitted.
Secondly, besides our mainstream Business Plan Competition (BPC), we have launched a new program, named Call for Ideas (C4I), dedicated to proto-enterpreneurs with an idea at the very early stage. Check the website to understand which competion does fit best with your idea.
Don't miss the opportunity! Less than 20 days to the final deadline...

2010 Business Plan Competition: the race is open!

Since the beginning of this week, the Mind the Bridge 2010/11 cycle is up and running.
The deadline to submit your business plan is July 31st.





You know the rules of our Business Plan Competition (BPC). We are looking for highly innovative startups, focused on a global market, with high growth potential.
A dozen of the semifinalists will be invited to present during the Venture Camp event on November 5-6th @ Corriere della Sera in Milan. The selected projects will go through several months of mentoring, including a two days Bootcamp (on September 24-25th in Varese) and Coaching (on October 15-16th in Pavia)
Some of the selected projects will be offered to join the MtB Gym, where our proto-entrepreneurs will be able to build their muscles in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
The business plans have to be submitted through our website where you can find the required formats to be used for the application



Starting this year, also thanks to the support of Cariplo Foundation, we launched a new initiative, "Call for Ideas" (CfI), targeted for students, researchers, scientists, Ph.Ds, who have a brilliant business idea, but not yet a structured and articulate business plan. The finalists of this competition will have the chance to present their ideas at Venture Camp 2010. The format for drafting your executive summary is available on the website.
If you have a business idea, even if at the early stage and not yet fully finalized, the MtB Call for Ideas is the competition designed for you. Don’t miss this opportunity!