The GYM @ Pier 38

Since the beginning of July, the MTB GYM has a new home: Pier 38, in San Francisco, right at the beginning of the Embarcadero promenade, past the Giant's AT&T Park.



The highly stimulating open space of Pier 38, hosts several incubators (the most famous are The Dogpatch and Opinno) for a total of ~ 60 startups. Among them, some famous success stories such as WordPress and a couple of others recently acquired by Google.



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Or the recently arrived GYM startups that have started populating Pier38.
Starting from Spreaker, Francesco Baschieri's creature, that is quickly gaining popularity in the Bay Area with its web radio broadcasting.

Pier38 is also home of Mashape, the web tool startup founded by Augusto Marietti, Marco Palladino and Michele Zonca and one of the TechCrunch's favorite.
Since the beginning of the month the Gym is also home for Danilo Cardascia and Marco Rizzone, our new entries in the MTB family. You'll hear about them soon...

-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.

Feedback from ESOF 2010 in Turin: video interviews

We were invited to present last week in Turin at ESOF 2010. We sit in a panel organized by JSTONE.
The goal was to discuss about new models of innovation and ways for effective networking knowledge, finance and entrepreneurship.
Among the speakers: Alberto Onetti (Chairman, Mind the Bridge Foundation , US), Ilana Gross (Program Director Matimop, Israeli Industry Center for R&D , Israel), Reshma Sohoni (CEO, seedcamp, United Kingdom) and Gianluca Dettori (Chair, Dpixel , Italy).
In this video (kindly provided by Top-ix) you can get some insights from the speakers. Enjoy!

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...

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!

Here are the startups selected for the Gym in Turin

This Thursday (June 10th) our Mind the Bridge Italy Tour stops in Turin, with the first of our Special Events.
It is a full day program. Startup School in the morning, a session of our MtB Gym in the afternoon.
In the afternoon we are going to reproduce here in Italy what we regularly do in Silicon Valley with the startpus admitted to our mentorship program: startups 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 improving the presentation.
For the event in Turin we have received a lot of applications and we are really excited about this.
Here are the 5 startups our selection committee admitted to the Gym session in Turin:
- Intervieweb
- Makoo
- URLi.st
- Visual Sport
- We-Sport
All the other plans we received do still sound interesting. Time contraints forced us to pick-up only 5 startups. Not being in the list above does not mean that there is no potential in your plan. Then we are looking forward to meeting all the startups (not only the selected ones) in Turin, 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 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 structuring your presentation). Presentation will be followed by 20/25 minute time of Q&A.
The key word of the Gym is open discussion. 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 there and stay tuned!

MTB Italy Tour: Special Events in Torino and Cagliari

We have two special dates this month: on Jun 10th we are in Torino (@I3P - Incubatore Imprese Innovative Politecnico Torino) and, on Jun 25th, in Cagliari (@Sardegna Ricerche, Pula). They are special dates of our MTB Italy Tour 2010: two full-day events that offer terrific opportunities of learning and networking.
Check our website for information about the format of these special events and details about the program. Partecipation is free, pre-reservation is required



Why these special events? We receive every day a lot of requests about how to prepare a business plan, how to talk with a venture capital, and so on. Many of you ask feedback about his/her business idea. The MTB Italy Tour is going to provide some concrete answers to these requests.
The morning session (MtB Start-up School) is aimed at providing education re: entrepreneurship, business planning, venture capital market and Silicon Valley eco-system. Business school style, with a pragmatic approach (we give you the "nuts and bolts"). The modules are provided by Alberto Onetti, Chairman of MTB Foundation, and other top notch experts.
In the afternoon we replicate a session of our MtB Gym, the mentorship program we run in Silicon Valley. A panel of investors and entrepreneurs provide comments and feedbacks to selected start-ups that present their ideas. If you want to be considered for the MTB Gym, please send your executive summary to the following email address: torino2010@mindthebridge.org (for Torino) and cagliari2010@mindthebridge.org (for Cagliari).
And, during lunch time and in the evening, plenty of time for Networking.
Don't miss the opportunity. We are looking for seeing you in Torino and/or Cagliari. Check the website for details and reserve your seat.

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!

MtB Italy Tour: this week we are in Milan and Bergamo

This week you can meet Mind the Bridge in Milan and Bergamo.
Tomorrow (May 18th), starting at 6:30pm we are at Università Cattolica. The venue is Aula Luzzati (Largo Gemelli 1).
On Wednesday (May 19th) our Italy Tour stops in Bergamo: we are hosted by the local university. The presentation starts at 10:30am (viale Marconi 5, Dalmine). Meet you there.
Menawhile, if you live in Turin, save the date: we will be there on Jun 10th, for a full day event. Stay tuned for more details.

MtB Italy Tour: next week (May 11th) in Novara

On May 11th, MtB Italy Tour lands in Piedmont, in Novara.
The event is organized jointly with Università del Piemonte Orientale and Incubatore d'Impresa del Polo di Innovazione di Novara.
The venue is the Faculty of Economics (Aula 204, Via Perrone 18, Novara). The event starts at 4pm.
We are looking forward to meeting students, Ph.Ds., reseachers and everyone is interested in understanding how to start-up a new business. See you in Novara!
Yesterday (May 3rd) over 150 students crowded Aula Manzoni (one of the most famous university places thanks to a well-known commercial)at Politecnico in Milan. 10 students stopped us at the door right after the conference for presenting their own ideas. This is the feedback we are looking for. Guys, we wait for you submitting your plans to our Business Plan Competion or Call for Ideas.
A special thank you to Professor Moramarco for the hospitality and for supporting us throghout the presentation.