The GYM is open!

The Mind the Bridge Gymnasium is already at work. A few days ago we welcomed the first finalist startup of the 2010 edition, Prossima Isola. The two-year old IT company is run by the two founders Marcello Orizi and Daniele Idini. These two creative and talented Sardinian guys are supported by young and energetic people, most of which are still students.

Despite an almost epic travel, due to snowstorms all over Europe and flight delays everywhere, our two friends brought an unbelievable level of enthusiasm and positive energy. No doubts, this is the right approach guys! From Italy to California, from Sardinia to the Silicon Valley...Although it's too early to have a clear view of this new reality, we'd like to know what are your impressions so far?

Since the first moment in the USA we perceived a strong focus on customers.
We have had the opportunity to visit companies like Google, Facebook, VmWare, LinkedIN and this strong attention to customers is even more evident. We perceived the same attention by entering in shops like Starbucks, Trader's Joe, ect… The shop assistants use to welcome you so kindly, they call you by name and give you their business cards.

What struck you the most, both from a professional and a personal point of views?

Last week we went to the Android Developers Meetup and we were impressed by the incredible number of questions asked to the speaker after the short presentation. It was amazing!
We also realized the importance of networking in Silicon Valley; we already heard something about this and now we are experiencing it personally. It is extremely useful and interesting.
From a personal point view, we have to say that we are meeting a lot of kind people, always available to share their knowledge with us and to help us when we need some information. It seems to be a safe place to live too.

You are incubated at the Plug&PlayTechCenter, one of the most important startup incubator of the Silicon Valley. Plug&Play gathers hundreds of international entrepreneurs from all over the world and hundreds of investors and business professionals. What's the atmosphere like? What does being incubated in Silicon Valley mean for you? How would you like to exploit this opportunity?

Yes, here at PnP there are a lot of cubicles, almost like a labyrinth, and if you lose your way, you may enter the next Google startUp's office. By the way, the atmosphere is great, the competition is really high and we are meeting a lot of interesting people. It’s not difficult to meet new people during lunch-time or during some events organized here, even if we thought it was even more frequent along the working day. We made a presentation to the EiR event too. It was a short and informal presentation to the executives hosted in the PnP. Among attendances there were many people with great professional experiences and they can help you to take some strategic decision. We hope to meet a lot of interesting people, and receive their important feedbacks. Hopefully we’d like to find advisors for our company and, why not, an investor.

Can you give us a brief description of a typical day at the P&P? Did you already get in touch with other international entrepreneurs? Have you met any investor yet?

We usually start the day with many activities related to the Italian day by day operations, that means both conference calls and a bunch of emails. We spend the rest of the day working on the business plan and on other open issues. We didn’t meet any investor yet, because we are working on the Business Plan and on the presentation, in order to be ready to meet an American investor.

How useful do you think it will be, during this experience, to be supported by the mtb team and the personal mentor that mtb found for you? Why?

Our aim is to come back to Italy with many feedbacks about what Prossima Isola is doing. According to this, the MtB help is extremely useful, because they provide us a lot of strategic ideas, suggestion and interesting contacts. Supported by our mentor Matteo Fabiano, we are working hard to transform our technology into a successful service. We want to become the "de facto" standard for updating any kind of digital data. It’s a big challenge.

Once again, Marcello and Daniele welcome to the Silicon Valley! The MTB foundation and its friends wish you good luck and all the best in this new endeavor!
By the way, if you'd like to know more about Marcello and Daniele's adventure in California, please visit and enjoy their blog: www.prossimaimpronta.it !

MtB Italy Tour: this week in Pavia and Milan

This week Mind the Bridge will hit the road in Pavia and Milan, both dates on March 4th.
In Pavia we will be hosted by the Business School, while in Milan we will present during the event "Giovani talenti cercansi" organized by UNIMITT.

In Pavia the MtB presentation starts at 11am. The venue is the Faculty of Economics, via San Felice 7. The presentation is hosted by the Course of International Business held by Prof. Antonella Zucchella. Alberto Onetti introduces the post-graduate students into the start-up world (from business planning to fund raising),describing the unique characteristics the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial eco-system is based on. We provide you with insights re: the 2010 Business Plan Competition and the opportunities provided by the Cariplo Foundation. The event is open, at no charge.
The same day, in Milan, we are hosted by UNIMITT (the Centro per la Ricerca e il Trasferimento Tecnologico of University of Milan). During the event "Giovani talenti cercansi" we present the MtB programm. During the same event you have also the chance to hear from Gaetano Pellicano (Fulbright BEST, Embassy of US in Italy), Tommaso Minola (Fondazione Politecnico di Milano), Gianluca Dettori (D-Pixel) and Roberto Tiezzi (UNIMITT). The presentation starts at 2.30pm in Milan (Aula G12 - Settore didattico - Via Golgi 19). The event is open, registration is required. For more information: UNIMITT (emai: segreteria.unimitt@unimi.it, fax. 02.503.12861).

MtB Italy Tour: 150 people attended the first date in Varese

Yesterday, in Varese, over 150 people (students, Ph.ds, research fellows, entrepreneurs, local incubators, …) crowded the Aula 12 at CrESIT -Insubria University for the first date of the Mind The Bridge Italy Tour 2010. A promising start for our Tour!


I drove them into start-up world, presenting the Silicon Valley eco-system and the 2010 MtB Business Plan Competition. Roberto Accolla and Massimo Caccia, respectively Pro-Rector for Research and Director of Technology Transfer Unit at Insubria University, discussed about the issues and opportunities for academic spin-offs. Roberta Profeta, Intesa Sanpaolo, announced the upcoming partnership between their Startup Initiative and Mind the Bridge Foundation.
A really good debate followed the presentation. Great way for beginning our 2010 Tour!
In the next days we will make available for download the slides deck and the video of the speeches. Stay tuned.

Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2010: first date is Varese

Varese is the first date of the Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2010, a series of roadshows hosted by universities and incubators across Italy where Mind the Bridge Foundation presents its 2010 MtB Business Plan Competition.

On February 24th, Mind the Bridge will touch base in Varese, at CrESIT, the Centre for Innovation and Life Science Management (CrESIT) of Insubria University (Faculty of Economics, via Monte Generoso 71). The roadshow starts at 2.15pm. During this first event it will be discussed how scientists can turn into entrepreneurs and spin-off business from university labs. The workshop will be introduced by Roberto Accolla, Prorector for Research of Insubria University. During the workshop, Alberto Onetti, CrESIT Director and Chairman of Mind the Bridge Foundation, will dialogue with Ph.ds, researchers, proto-entrepreneurs, students. He will introduce them to the start-up world (for business planning to fund raising) and describe the unique characteristics of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial eco-system. At the end are scheduled snapshots from Massimo Caccia, Director of SiSRIT, the technology transfer center of Insubria University, and Roberta Profeta, Intesa Sanpaolo Startup Initiative. Local incubators and clusters, such as ComoNext and Asse del Ticino, confirmed their participation. Click here to see the complete agenda.
Next date is February 25, in Milan, starting at 10.30am. The roadshow will be hosted by Luciano Pilotti, Professor of Management at University of Milan. Stay tuned for learning about the next dates of Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2010.

Welcoming Prossima Isola

Oh yes, that time of the year has finally come.
It's startup season here at Mind the Bridge San Francisco.
Not without a few hiccups, our first startup, Prossima Isola has finally made it to what will be their home for the next month or so.

If you want to follow the daily adventures of our Sardinian friends, here's their diary.

As you can tell they've been already pretty ... entertained, so to speak...and entertaining to read! Here they are, during their first lunch @ Google..

We also posted the agenda for the rest of the month.
Expect to get some updates, here, on this very channel!

MtB Italy Tour is about to start

On Feb 24 the MtB Italy Tour 2010 hits the road. We organize roadshows hosted by universities and incubators for presenting the MtB Business Plan Competition across Italy.

We aim at opening a dialogue with Ph.ds, researchers, proto-entrepreneurs, students. During the roadshow we present to them the start-up world (from business planning to fund raising) and describe the unique characteristics of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial eco-system.
The MtB Italy Tour 2010 starts in Varese on February 24th (at 2.15pm). The location is the Faculty of Economics in Varese (via Monte Generoso 71). The host is CrESIT, the Centre for Innovation and Life Science Management (CrESIT) of Insubria University (Varese).


During this first event we will discuss how scientists can turn into entrepreneurs and spin-off business from a university lab. We got a enthusiastic response from Insubria University (3 pro-rectors on the stage) and local incubators and clusters (ComoNext and Asse del Ticino confirmed their partecipation).
We invite you to join us in Varese for a lively discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs and innovators. The participation to this event is free of charge. For more deatails about the Varese evernt please refer to www.cresit.it.
Stay tuned for knowing the next dates and locations of the MtB Italy Tour 2010.
Feel free to contact us if you are interested to host a Mind The Bridge roadshow information@mindthebridge.org).

My Bel Paese

A Present for you all. The Bel Paese needs Begli Italiani!

My Bel Paese - ENG

From 2009 to 2010: looking back and forward

It's been a memorable year, here, at the Mind the Bridge Foundation.
For an organization that is in 3rd year of activity, the developments we had in a year like 2009 really matter.

Here are just some of the highlights:

Jan - a new Board of Directors starts
Feb - we launch the MTB Gym, Eris4 and Gli Affidabili join it
Mar - we host the 2008 finalists
Apr - roadshow and Gran Finale event at the Plug&Play
May - we are recognized as a California public charity corporation
Jun - we launch the 2009/10 business plan competition
Jul - we introduce our Italy based team
Sep - the Acceleratore of Politecnico di Milano becomes an affiliate of the MTB Gym (3 startup/year in Silicon Valley)
- We host our first intern in Silicon Valley
Oct - Telecom Italia Working Capital becomes an affiliate of the MTB Gym: a MTB-WC prize is instituted for one startup
- We host the first Presentation Skill training session in Milan
Nov - MTB Venture Camp event hosted in collaboration with Il Corriere della Sera. The event gets sold out in 2 weeks: 475 participants and over 7000 viewers of the live streaming
Dec - We become the main recipient of a major grant from Fondazione Cariplo


Looking back, we ought to feel really proud of what we have accomplished.
4000 of people became part of our network, 500 in Facebook, 300 in LinkedIn, our You Tube channel has been one of the most viewed among the non-profit sector worldwide. It's all a testament that what we are trying to achieve is really relevant.

However, we still feel we are at the very beginning of our adventure.
We want to help forge a global vision of entrepreneurship among Italians, we want to create a positive attitude among Italian innovators, we want to make an impact to the bottom line of our country.

2010 is shaping up as another formidable step along those lines.
We have plenty of new activities already in the pipeline.

I've set 2 main objectives for ourselves in 2010:
1) To become the primary, capillary collector of new business ideas in Italy
2) to establish the MTB Gym as the #1 startup school for Italian startups in Silicon Valley

That is, we will be focusing on strengthening the 2 extremes of the value chain we are in.

You'll hear more in the next few days.

However, if there's something we must be very proud of is the spirit of the community we are building.
The positiveness that we are sharing is evident.
In particular the abnegation, camaraderie, professional respect and friendship among our team is what really makes this whole adventure so special to me.

Thank you guys, you rock!

Happy 201o.

Mind The Bridge awarded grant from Cariplo Foundation

A great news for celebrating Christmas!

The Centre for Innovation and Life Science Management (CrESIT) of Insubria University (Varese) has successfully received over half a million dollar in funding from Cariplo Foundation. The money is for promoting international entrepreneurship in Italy. The Project actively involves Mind The Bridge as main partner.


The goal of the grant is to provide the most promising start-ups and young tecno- and bio-entrepreneurs from Lombardy and West Piedmont areas with in-depth training and mentoring.
For the 2 most promising start-ups (selected through the 2010 Mind The Bridge Business Plan Competition) the Project will sponsor the participation to the Mind The Bridge Gym in Silicon Valley, while the 2 university and Ph.D. students with the most innovative business ideas will be admitted to an intensive internship program organized by a top university in Silicon Valley.
Roadshows for presenting the Project and the Mind The Bridge Business Plan Competition will be organized in the first quarter of 2010. We target to present in all universities (both scientific and business faculties) and incubators. The target area (for the purpose of the grant) is Lombardy and West Piedmont, but we are obviously open to organize presentations all over Italy.
Please contact us if you are interested to host a Mind The Bridge roadshow (information@mindthebridge.org).
For this Project CrESIT and Mind the Bridge partner with the Foundation of Politecnico of Milan and CIBIE (the Centre for International Business and the International Economy of University of Pavia).

Green Technologies Investment Forum in Milan

IBAN (Italian Business Angels Network), in partnership with the Swedish Business Region Goteborg AB, organizes the first Green Technologies Investment Forum. The Forum takes place on February 11st, in Milan.
The Forum is focused on Clean and Green Technologies.
6 Italian and 6 Swedish startups will have the chance to present their business plans to investors.



To apply for the Elevator Pitch session and to get more information please refer to Iban Web Site.