Startup in the spotlight: Echolight.

For our interviews with 2009 semi-finalist, we have had a chat with Echolight's Matteo Pernisa.

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

A.
Echolight is a bio-medical start up company pioneering breakthrough solutions for osteoporosis diagnosis and related bone diseases.
"World Healing" is our vision statement and we aim to lead the Compact Revolution in the healthcare scenario, developing non-invasive technologies for widespread clinical use.

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

A.
It's pretty funny. Several months ago I was on my way to the office and i heard Fabrizio Capobianco talking on the radio.
At the end he left his personal e-mail (so american!!) ... and... it all started.

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



A.
MtB gives you the belief and confidence that you can make it!!
This is the main message along with all the practical and educational activities.

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

A.
If you are a young dreaming-big entrepreneur you must visit Silicon Valley one day.
Hope to have a very practical agenda with investor's and entrepreneur's meetings in order to get connections and feedback.

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

A.
Something is changing and there are more and more opportunities and inititatives to support young entrepreneurs... so keep looking and don't settle !!!


Best of luck for the competition, then, see you soon!

How to present your idea to a venture capitalist. The seminar in Milano, Italy, Oct. 20-21.

It's your chance to learn all techniques, tips and tricks. Don't miss it, apply now!



See you in Milano!

Startup in the spotlight: Prossima Isola

Today we start a round of interviews with this year's semi-finalists.

The first entrepreneur we've spoken to, through Facebook first and then in person in our Milan office, is Daniele Idini, co-founder of Prossima Isola.

Their "Whereisnow" project is one of the Mtb 2009 semi-finalists.

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

A.
WhereIsNow is an innovative Internet service which allows every kind of information to become"self-updatable": it applies to documents, addressbook or web links.
WhereIsNow allows any user, in a quick and easy way, to have the
contacts (email phone number, fax, etc. ..) of friends or colleagues
always updated, to check for the latest version of a price list or a
technical document and to be sure that an article on the web is always
reachable even if the address has been changed.

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

A.
Thanks to my associate Marcello Orizi, he is much closer than me
finding these opportunities (ah ah ah!)
In fact the first time we heard from "Sardegna Ricerche" during the
entrepreneurial training course shortly before the final of MtB 2008.
Then we had the opportunity to learn more about this project through
the community startupbusiness.it, through BAIA (Business Association
Italy America) and some other channel on the Internet as Twitter.

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

A.
We believe that MtB can give greater emphasis in our project
against a Venture capital and that a Venture Capital can bring his
experience in our company so as to take off our ambitious project in
the global market

Q.
What are your expectations regarding the time you could eventually
spend in Silicon Valley?

A.
First we are ambitious to know and compare with the world elite in
our sector. This will let us know if we are going in the right
direction and will allow us to expand our knowledge and thus to grow
professionally. Then if we could also find an investment from a
venture capital of the Silicon Valley...it would be the top :-)

Q.
What are your personal view of the Italian startup scene?

A.
I think that in Italy there are many good ideas but many of these
remain in drawers for various reasons. First of all, many young people lack the culture
of risk. For example, my associate and I have
given up a safe and a well-paid job to pursue our vision and our
dream. It is true that developing new ideas and create a startup
requires also, in addition to a great business capacity, the help of
someone who has had similar experiences, a good amount of money and a
bit of luck. In Italy is not always easy to find these ingredients

Q.
Best of luck, Daniele, and thank you for your time!

A.
Thank you for your interest in our company and... see you in Milan in November!

Reserve your seat for Venture Camp, Milano nov. 6th - 7th

November 6th - 7th are Venture Camp days.
In the beautiful premises of our host and partner Corriere della Sera, we will listen to an amazing line of speakers, and will be able to hear from the 14 semi-finalists of the competition their elevator pitches to the members of the international venture capital community who will attend.

We have limited capacity, so, reservations are mandatory.
Please do reserve your seat in advance here, and...


...don't forget the Gala Reception on Friday night!
This is your opportunity to get to know all the speakers, investors and to get the best out of your networking skills... while becoming a donor of the Mind the Bridge foundation.
The best part?
We have rented the entire Pinacoteca Brera for this special occasion.
We'll have a truly memorable, intimate guided tour of one of the best museums in the world...while networking!
A pretty good deal.

Why Italy? See Fabrizio Capobianco's convincing answers.

During the Gym presentation in Milano a couple of weeks ago, Fabrizio Capobianco - Funambol's ceo and Mind the Bridge board member - gave the audience a convincing presentation on the venture capitalists' mostly frequent asked question: Why Italy?

Enjoy!

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 in Milano. The Italian start-up scene is moving!

Thursday, September the 17th in Milano, The Gym presentation in Milano have gathered a full auditorium of entrapreneurs, students, journalists.


We have listened to the foreword of Carol Perez, consul general general of the Us government in Italy, we have enjoyed the brilliant visual show of Roberto Bonzio and his fascinating study on the Italians who have made history, and - in the second part of the conference - we've had to chance to learn quite a bit from the presentations of Fabrizio Capobianco (Funambol), Marco Palombi (founder Tipi Inc - Splinder), Leandro Agrò (Wide Tag), Fabio Venturi (Neptuny) and professor Serrazzi of Politecnico di Milano.

The other day, Silicon Valley made us dream, and the testimonials in the room showed us that... the dream may come true!

Don’t miss the MTB Gym presentation in Milan

On Thursday, September 17^th, we will present the MTB Gymnasium. The Gym , in short, is our startup school, where we will help Italian entrepreneurs with global dreams to make them real. Now that we have a team in Italy, we have definitively more bandwidth for supporting people to “mind the bridge”.
The project will be presented at the Auditorium of Politecnico di Milano, starting at 10.30am.


After the introduction, our Fabrizio Capobianco will be explaining what are the rules to participating and what are our medium term expectations on the project.During the Workshop we will announce the affiliation of the Foundation of Politecnico to the MTB Gym. It is an honor for us to partner with the Accelerator of Politecnico, one of the most important incubators in Italy.
Based on this affiliation agreement, Neptuny (the most promising startup coming out from the Poli Accelerator) will be incubated in the MTB GYM and start to benefit from our mentoring and training program. On Thursday morning we will have the chance to hear from Fabio Violante, founder and CEO of Neptuny, about how he is going to exploit this opportunity.
This is the full agenda of the event:

UN PONTE FRA DUE MONDI: MILANO - SILICON VALLEY. IL MIND THE BRIDGE GYMNASIUM E LE AZIENDE DELL'ACCELERATORE D'IMPRESA
Politecnico di Milano, Auditorium - Via Pascoli 53, Milano

Programma:

Ore 10:15: Registrazione dei partecipanti

Ore 10:30: Saluti di benvenuto e cenni introduttivi sull’accordo fra la Fondazione Politecnico di Milano - Acceleratore d’Impresa e la Mind the Bridge Foundation, Giampio Bracchi (Presidente, Fondazione Politecnico di Milano)

Ore 10:45: Il ruolo delle istituzioni americane nel sostegno all’imprenditorialità tecnologica in Italia Carol Z. Perez (Console Generale degli Stati Uniti d’America a Milano)

Ore 11:00: Storie di italiani nella Silicon Valley dalle origini a oggi (filmato)Roberto Bonzio (Reuters, Italiani di Frontiera)

-----
L’ESPERIENZA SILICON VALLEY
Modera: Emil Abirascid (Innov’azione, Il Sole 24Ore)
Il Mind the Bridge Gymnasium e il modello di sviluppo di Funambol, Fabrizio Capobianco (Mind the Bridge Foundation, Fondatore e A.D. Funambol)

Ore 11:40 Il network fra l’Italia e la Silicon Valley: come e perché è nato
Marco Palombi (Fondatore Tipi Inc. -Splinder, First Generation Network)

Ore 11:55 Neptuny e la Silicon Valley: globalizzare il successo
Fabio Violante (Fondatore e A.D., Neptuny)

Ore 12:10 California: miti da sfatare Leandro Agrò (Fondatore e A.D., Wide Tag Inc.)

Ore 12:25 Il progetto dell’Acceleratore e le opportunità per gli incubatori universitari italiani. Lancio della “call” per altre 3 start-up tecnologiche
Giuseppe Serazzi (Delegato del Rettore per l’Acceleratore d’Impresa del Politecnico di Milano e Consigliere PNICube)

Domande del pubblico e dibattito

Ore 13:00 Networking cocktail

Milan's (and Italy's) first Startup Night

Yesterday night, Mikamai hosted the first ever Startup Night in its Milan offices.
More than 100 people showed up and it turned out to be a really great event.

We drove from Rome just to attend and meet the best and brightest of the newly-built italian tech scene. There where a lot of different participants: students, founders, consultants, investors, journalists, pr and general tech enthusiasts. It definitely was a good mix.

I must say, something is moving in Italy.

We are trying to build a community of passionate and innovative people, one step at a time. This is possible thanks to a lot of great people who see the potential of italian talent, creativity and general business knowledge to succeed in such a new, global, social and all-round strange market.

In october we are going to start with a series of monthly networking events in Rome. We want to bring the vibe, passion and drive that you can feel in London and Silicon Valley. We don't wanna mimic it, we'll do it our way.

And it's gonna rock.

Meanwhile you can check out yesterday night's videos and pictures.

Winners of the first selection for 2009

After spending a few weeks working on it, our selection committee has finally completed its effort. Selecting the best business plans has been a challenge, because the quality of the companies is quite high, better than any other previous Mind the Bridge (which is a great sign).

Below, you find the list of the startup admitted to the Venture Camp in November (in Milan). Congratulations to the winners and also to those that did not make it: tune your business plan and do not give up!


WINNERS OF MTB 2009 FIRST SELECTION

• Adant
• EchoLight
• Ergo2000
• Fluidmesh Networks
• GetConnected (Postino)
• KAEL
• MoVoLo
• Pervactive
• Prossima Isola (Where is Now)
• Targetbet
• Thounds
• TripShake.com
• VRmedia
• WiTech

See you in November!