Mind the Bridge Tour is going to the Alps

This week Mind the Bridge is going to the Alps. We attend to the ICT Days of Trento University that takes place on March 11th and 12th (from 10AM to 6PM) at Computer Science building, via Sommarive 18 – 38123 Povo, Trento.
The event is hosted by the Computer Science Department of Trento University and focused on Information and Communication Technologies. This event aims at gathering students, graduates and Ph.ds from the ICT fields. The goal is sharing experience and opportunities with companies and partners.


On March 11th, Jari Ognibeni, our local area manager, will introduce the start-up world of the Silicon Valley and its entrepreneurial eco-system. He will also present Mind the Bridge foundation activities for 2010 (Business Plaan Competition, Call for Ideas and Venture Camp).
For more information: http://ictdays.disi.unitn.it/pages/1-home
The partecipation to the event is free of charge.
See you in Trento!

Mtb Italy Tour: feedbacks from the yesterday date in Pavia

Yesterday, Mind The Bridge Italy Tour 2010 stopped in Pavia, hosted at the School of Economics. We presented at the Course of International Business, held by Prof. Antonella Zucchella. 80 post- graduate students attended to the presentation.

We drove them into the start-up world, talking about business plans, business angels and venture capital. A lot of students were excited about the opportunities provided by the 2010 MtB Business Plan Competition and the MtB Call for Ideas we started this year thanks to Cariplo Foundation.
Hope to get some innovative proposals from these guys!

New York, New York, March 25

The reach of the foundation is getting wider and wider.
While in Italy we are in the midst of our Italy-tour-2010, here in the land of the stars and stripes we are adding a new destination to our Silicon Valley tour.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you guessed it: our startups are heading to Nuova York.

Thanks to the fundamental support of ICE New York and the Italian Consulate, our 2009/10 finalists will have the opportunity to explore further opportunities during their Silicon Valley (now, US...) tour.
A day of meetings will culminate with ... yet another elevator pitch session for our champions.
The event is also supported by the incredibly active New York Tech Meetup.

You can register here. Limited availability...

Gran Finale, Stanford University, March 18th

We are approaching the final countdown for the MTB Gran Finale event, to be held on March 18th, 5PM.
This year we are joining forces with an exceptional partner: Stanford University, in particular with the Stanford Center for Professional Development.
SCPD is home of the prestigious university's lifelong learning classes for managers and entrepreneurs.
We foresee great potential in our partnership with SCPD, in particular providing joint courses on entrepreneurship in the future.
In an effort to learn from other country's successful bridges to Silicon Valley, we'll open the Gran Finale with a keynote entitled:

"Israel: how to replicate a successful model"
The panel will be moderated by Shuly Galili (Executive Director of The California Israel Chamber of Commerce) with some surprise guests.

The Consulate General of Italy will offer its precious support and endorsement.
The whole mix will be topped off by delicious Italian food and wine.

Overall, an event not to be missed!

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).