Third week at Mind the Bridge Gym - Highlights

The third week at Mind the Bridge Gym has been a very intense week for all the MTBers!

Events in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, meetings in Redwood City, Mountain View and Stanford...our startups are getting the chance to know the Silicon Valley and its vibrant network pretty well!

While working hard to get their pitch ready for the Gran Finale at the Italian Innovation Day at Stanford, this week our 10 startups were invited to participate to a few pitching events in the area and they participated to two seminars within Mind the Bridge Gym Edu program.

VISA issues: On Wednesday 16th, Jim Mayok, expert in immigration Visas, talked about the different typologies of Visas. Having a good law consultant facilitates the possibility to get a Visa tailored to the business you have rather than tailoring your business according to the Visa you can get. Getting a Visa requires a startegy that needs to be taken into account in your business plan if you are planning to move in the US.

Accounting system in the US: Elizabeth Shwiff, talked about some differences between the accounting system in Italy and in the US and she stressed the importance of relying on experts especially if you don't know pretty well the system yet.

VC Task Force: On Thursday 17th Minteos, Supercompare.it and Skipso presented their startups at VC Task Force. Marco Brini won the top score with Minteos while Supercompare.it and Skipso arrived in the first 5 positions among 11 startups. Good job guys!

Happy birthday Italy: Although in San Francisco, our startups didn't want to miss Italy's 150th anniversary celebration. What else better than a Italian flag - colored pasta? Milan, Turin, Sicily, Bologna, Florence, Brindisi.. no matter what city are you from, nobody can disagre with pasta!

Pitch @ Plug and Play: On Friday 18th, eRalos3, Glossom, Minteos, Mopapp and Supercompare.it were invited to present their ideas at Plug and Play in Sunnyvale.

Mind the Beer with Technogym: This week ended with a fantastic Mind the Beer event with Nerio Alessandri, founder and president of Technogym. He shared with us the inspiring story of his company, a story of passion, persistance, and hard work - three the key words that guided him in these years: passion, innovation and execution.

A great and inspiring example of a successful company based in Italy but internationally known, exporting its product everywhere.

Each entrepreneur and his/her own startup have particular conditions that may make more or less difficult or opportune to base or scale the startup in Italy, but examples like that gives some good hopes.

The debate is open..

Italian Innovation Day, March 31 - Stanford

In the day of its 150th anniversary, our Bel Paese finds itself facing some serious troubling times. Probably the most challenging since several generations.
To be able to see the light at the end of this long tunnel, Italy needs to focus firmly on nurturing its best talent, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
In one word, it should move Innovation at the top of its priorities.
Nurturing innovation domestically and packaging better its existing excellence to the eyes of rest of the world are the 2 main pillars around which we built the Italian Innovation Day concept.

It's the natural evolution of the "showcases of the best Italian innovation" (focused on our startup business plan competition) that we've been organizing for the last 3 years.

To be able to make a substantial imprint both internally and in international markets, we ought to widen the scope, including young companies as well as the most innovative small and medium companies that are notoriously the backbone of the Italian economy.

This is a very ambitious project that requires the support of multiple operators.
As such, the Italian Innovation Day was born as a joint effort between the Mind the Bridge foundation, Intesa Sanpaolo, sponsor of the Startup Initiative and Booz & Co main supporter of the Fulbright BEST program.

In addition, for every event (Stanford, New York, etc) further local co-organizers will join the organization committee.
Aligning the effort of such diverse entities, is already a clear sign that we are in the right direction (against all odds, one could suggest) adding rather than disaggregating.

Today, Italian Innovation Day is a nascent platform that will inaugurate its first event exactly in 2 weeks, on March 31 @ Stanford University (CA).

The half day event will consist of 3 tracks:

• a conference: in collaboration with the prestigious Harvard Business School, we'll present the macro economical prospective of what's happening in Italy today, challenges and opportunities. Does Italy still matter to the world? The session will be followed by a stellar panel titled "Does Silicon Valley still matter?". Moderated by Fabrizio Capobianco, we'll have Tim Draper (Skype, Hotmail, Baidu, Overture, etc) , Scott Sandell (Salesforce, WebEx, NetIQ, etc), Jeff Clavier (Mint, Eventbrite, Milo, Ustream, etc), 3 of the world best startup investors.

• a showcase: a set of selected most innovative SMEs will be showcased throughout the event in the exhibition area. A Scientific Committee, composed of all Italian superstars that made a significant imprint in the Silicon Valley innovation history, will evaluate the projects, interact with them and select the most innovative

• a pitch session: a dozen startups, after 4 weeks of incubation at the MTB GYM, will have the opportunity to present their elevator pitch to the world best startup investors, chaired by: T. Draper, S. Sandell, J.Clavier and F.Capobianco

We expect to live an epical night, that, hopefully, will get us one step closer to the lofty objectives we posed ourselves.

Your admission can be booked here.
We see you guys all there!

Second week at Mind the Bridge Gym - Highlights

The second week at Mind the Bridge Gym has gone!

Although our 10 startups are sleeping just a few hours every day - they're trying to be aligned both with the Italian and with the Silicon Valley time zones to manage their business operations in the two areas - they seem to have an endless energy!

After a first week of "orientation", their second week was pretty intense and full of meetings with potential partners and customers, networking events and seminars from Mind the Bridge Gym Education program - Presentation skills, Business Development and Corporate Operations in Silicon Valley.

Here the main highlights!

Presentation skills. On Wednesday 9th Elisabetta Ghisini gave our startups useful suggestions on how to make an effective pitch. It's probably true that experience and practice help you a lot, but there are yet some key points that everybody should keep in mind for a good presentation. Share your energy and your passion with the audience is one of those.

Business development. On Thursday 10th Matteo Fabiano shared interesting thoughts on how to develop the business model. Talking about partnerships, when you realize which would be your best partner, even if it's a big company, don't be afraid to negotiate with them deciding to go to the second choice partner instead - there are two reasons: first, the time you will spend to negotiate the partnership it's more or less the same, second, if you go to the second choice your competitor will go the best choice using you as case study!

Corporate operations in SV. On Friday 11th Matteo Daste talked about technology transfer models, exit strategies, cap tables, term sheets and valuation. An important aspect that came out of the discussion is that in Italy the valuation relies mostly on the past and expected revenues probably because having customers is one of the few ways to assure revenues to the investors due to the limited numbers of exits, M&A and IPOs, that occur in Italy.

In SV instead the valuation is determined by several other factors as portfolio of IPs, background and track record of the team, other investors involved etc. - if you have an interesting patent a company may be extremely interested in the acquisition of your startup and investors know that!

MopApp presenting to SFBeta. On Wednesday 9th Alessandro Rizzoli presented his startup at SFBeta, San Francisco's largest and longest running sturtup mixer, at the session Maximize Mobile Apps receiving very good feedbacks.

First session startups presentation. On Friday 11th we had the first session of startups presentations. Risparmiosuper, Xapio and Smania presented their business in front of their mentors and other people within MTB network receiving useful feedbacks to improve their final presentation.

Mind the Golden Gate Bridge! Saturday some of the startups decided to ride on their bike till the Golden Gate Bridge, that was quite an adventure for them - it took five hours to arrive there with a few technical stops during the journey! But they made it and after arriving to the bridge, well the view was breathless!

Stay tuned because the third week seems is going to be even more exciting!

Introducing Giusy Cannone

Americans find her name impossible to pronounce.
The ones that kind of get it, are too embarrassed to say it ("juicy, really??")

It's kind of true. Giusy is part of the new juice @ Mind the Bridge!
Since January, she's been working tirelessly to make sure everything is running smoothly at the Gym, where she's the coordinator.
Giusy's professional experience spans from programs and activities to foster entrepreneurship, research on innovation policies and financing, intellectual property rights and technology management.

Born in Puglia, Giusy is currently doing a Ph.D at Polytechnic University of Turin on Economics and Management of Innovation. Among Giusy's prior professional experience, she spent six months at the Kauffman Foundation working with Kauffman's VP Lesa Mitchell on innovation policies research and on the organizations of programs to advance entrepreneurship in Europe.
In fact, I met her the first time in Kansas City, while visiting The Kauffman Foundation...

Giusy holds a master in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin, a master in Management Engineering from Polytechnic University of Milan and a diploma from the school of excellence Alta Scuola Politecnica.

Since she moved to California, after a couple of days of assessment she had to make the hardest decision. No more high heals, just flip-flops.
In that cove of hackers as Pier38 is, what else was she supposed to do??

Giusy, welcome to the MTB family!

First week at Mind the Bridge Gym – Highlights

It seems unbelievable but the first week at MtB Gym has gone!

The 10 startups arrived 7 days ago are giving their first bites to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem. Here the most remarkable activities our startups were involved in this past first week! (full calendar here)

Introduction to the Silicon Valley ecosystem. On Thursday 3rd the 10 startups met Marco Marinucci at Google offices to talk about the main differences between Italy and Silicon Valley. Marco gave them the “first aid kit” for an Italian entrepreneur coming to SV.

Mind the Bridge Welcome party. On Friday 4th more than 70 people landed at Pier38 to welcome our startups. It was a great event that further demonstrated how much the community of Italian entrepreneurs, investors and managers based in the Silicon Valley sharethe objectives and the mission Mind the Bridge is carrying on.

Lunch&Learn about good and bad past decisions. On Monday 7th the startups had a roundtable lunch to share their good and their bad decisions on their businesses. This was a really useful moment to concretely learn from each other.

Meet your mentor. The startups got an introduction to their own mentor. The mentor will guide them through the Gym adventure helping the startup focus on ambitious but yet reachable goals during this month first few weeks in Silicon Valley.

Mind the city! As people say here - work hard, play hard! – Our guys here are very much enjoying the city. Walking all along the Embarcadero? Yes, it’s possible! Get lost in the middle of nowhere with a bike just bought and biking for 5 hours trying to find the way back? Yes, that’s also possible. But our guys love relaxing as well. Just today someone discovered there’s a SPA center at our residence. Do you want to know how many startups we will see at the office starting from tomorrow?

I have a guess but let’s wait for the second week highlights report to know it!

10 more startups flying to San Francisco

The time has come!
10+ more reasons to add a direct flight Italy-San Francisco...
Today, 10 Italian startups are in the midst of their trip that will take them to the Silicon Valley.
From March 1st through the end of the month (or more), you'll find them @ Pier 38, guests of the MTB GYM.
7 finalists of the MTB Business Plan Competition (Xapio, Minteos, Smania, Risparmio Super, Eralos3, Mopapp, Porco Vino)

this year will be joined by 3 startups coming from the Intesa SanPaolo Startup Initiative (Agroils, Glossom, Skipso).

You can find the full description of the startups activity here.

The startups will go through a pretty intense 4 weeks of activities, filled with training modules, meetings with 1:1 mentor, group presentations and networking events.

If you are in the area, come and say hi to the founders on Friday, March 4th, we are hosting a welcome party for them (=drinks @ MTB GYM).

Since you are there, pencil down another date: March 31st.

They will present in front of a large audience @ Stanford University during the so called

Italian Innovation Day event (more to come on this one :-) )

The Italian flag is flying higher in Silicon Valley these days... let's keep it up!!

The GYM is open!

Ladies and gentlemen... you can come in!

It all started as the natural extension of what Fabrizio Capobianco was pitching a couple of years ago: let's create the conditions to accelerate the development of hundreds of Funambol...and learn from experience!

A dedicated 1:1 mentor, a set of training modules that help the entrepreneur go straight to core of the practical issues he is facing every day. Particularly in a competitive environment as the Silicon Valley, timing is at the essence.
People don't have time to fool around: more often than not, you have one chance to impress your potential investor, one chance to set up your company with the right legal framework, one chance to mess around with your Visas to come and work in the US.
From every misstep you make, you can be 100% sure that some other similar startup in Silicon Valley has gained more momentum than you.

This is the idea behind the Gymnasium: do not waste energy, focus on what really matters develop the right product!
Take advantage of the knowledge that a network of mentors can provide you (they did learn from the same mistakes!), and use a friendly environment to build your (business) muscles.

You present the key component of your project regularly to a changing group of "experts", that is, people with relevant experience in your area that is willing to give you some constructive feedback.

Hey, better being "killed by friends" multiple times if that means being able to survive in the real world!
That's what the GYM is all about.


We tested it in a condensed version with some of the finalists of the 2008 and 2009 business plan competitions. Passpack had Fabrizio Capobianco as a mentor, Prossima Isola had Matteo Fabiano, and so forth.

Condensed (just a few weeks), but yet impactful (according to the startups!).

We decided to open the incubator to "affiliates" that could sponsor a few months of a limited number of startups. Since 2010 we hosted 4 startups (all from the Politecnico Milano).

The results in their 3 month incubation are remarkable:
- Neptuny: acquired by EMC (large US based corporation)
- Spreaker: additional round of funding
- Genefinity: hired their mentor as their US CEO
- Hyperfair: still incubated, significant commercial breakthroughs


Experiment successful, no doubts. In fact in the last year we have experienced a flourish of this very similar models across the US (500 startups program is the last one the bunch...)


What's the news today? We decided to open the doors to a more significant flow of companies to our space in the one-of-the-kind creative space @ Pier 38, in the (startup) heart of San Francisco.

All you have to do to participate is to sign up here.

We start a new cycle every 3 months (4 intakes per year).
We have a group of 10 startups that will be there until the end of March.
We still have some availability for the sessions of April-June and July-September.

And we'll also have some interesting plans in mind for the second semester...
Once more... stay tuned!

$50K for best graduate to join us

Have ever dreamed of landing in Silicon Valley for the opportunity of your life time? If yes, read on...

The Mind the Bridge Foundation, with the support of CRT Bank, is offering to sponsor the best graduate from Piemonte+Val D'Aosta universities.

The winner of the selection will have the opportunity to spend 12 months in San Francisco as an associate of our GYM incubator, on Pier 38.

Prerequisites: 24-27 years old, you need to have graduated in the last year and you need to be the best at what you do. In particular: you need to be hungry and fool (ring a bell??)!

If that's you, hurry up! Deadline is Feb 28.

Full info here (we are at pag 69)

Good luck, this feels just like winning the jackpot to me...

MtB Italy Tour 2011: we hit the road again

The Mind the Bridge Italy Tour 2011 is about to start.
We have not yet defined all the dates and venues of the tour, but we know where and when we start: Rome, February 11th, at 10am.


During the Social Media Week (SMW)in Rome, Mind the Bridge organizes(in partnership with Augmendy)the Startup Lab, to be hosted in a really special venue: the Ministero della Gioventù (L.go Chigi 19).
An amazing line of speakers (including Alexis Ohanian, Reddit cofounder, Euardo Carlos Espinal, Seedcamp Partner, Alberto Onetti, Mind the Bridge Chairman) will discuss how to create successful web startups and provide hints to launch great companies. Giorgia Meloni, Minister of Youth, will join the discussion moderated by Marco Montemagno.
At the end a Gym sessions, with 5 startups lining up and presenting their business idea and plan.
See you there and stay tuned for more information about the next dates!

Genefinity graduates from the GYM

[written by Stefano Maggiolino]

I am Stefano Maggiolino Managing Director of Genefinity Srl of Trieste, a company that, as we say here in the U.S., is defined as "Applied Research Company".
In other words we develop technologies to prototype, pilot plant and then we analyse if it better to enter in the market directly, sell patent, license the technology or create a spin off to develop the business. These opportunities depend on the technology, the market or the investment needed to start the projects.
We have already created a spin off to developed a new technology for photovoltaic panels and we are in the market directly with a fashion product: 2D jewels.

I arrived in San Francisco with the prestigious victory of "the Start Up of the Year" awarded in May 2010 in Naples.
The prize was a small amount of money and the chance to reach San Francisco and Silicon Valley with the help of the Mind The Bridge foundation. We are a company that operates in thin films with different fields of application as you can see from the first few lines, one in particular is a novel technology to deposit the circuit sensors for glucose analysis, biotech / medical devices field.
My first time here in the U.S., honestly, was kind of hard!
I thought and acted too often with the mentality of doing business with "the Italian style".
Eventually I realized that, if we wanted to "play" here, we have to do it with the rules of the game of the "far west".
So I started to envestigate, analyze and try to understand how the US the business world really works and learn the rules of the game. Here Mind The Bridge help was crucial.

As a first rule that I feel I communicate to others is to "Americanize" the company you want to build here because the different cultures, the way we do business and approaches with other Americans are rather simple and linear between indigenous and between foreign and indigenous.
For this, the the mentor assigned to us by MTB, Charles Versaggi, was crucial. Our mentor is an experienced communications and marketing professional in the biotech sector with decades of experience.
Although he could easily be my father (sorry Charles!) there was a harmony and complicity in a collaboration that would probably be very difficult to obtain in Italy with mentors or other consultants.
The thing that gives us confidence to continue this experience (although now I'm about to leave US), is that Charles himself believes so much in investing in us.
My second humble advice is to analyze well throughout patterns of investors and present the project in a way that is, at the same time, simple but compliant with their schemes.
In our case, we are now looking for seed funding to continue our pilot.
Soon, we'll have to switch to mass production, and there, we'll need to raise real money (a few millions).
In addition to the technology, we have developed strategic plans to approach the market and we have a couple of customers in China and Korea that are at the validation stage of our process for their sensors.
Our vision is more ambitious than ever. But didn't someone said "you have to dream make big dreams"?
That's what we are doing.

Thanks Mind the Bridge!

See you soon guys!

- Stefano