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.

Memorable quotes from Venture Camp 2009.

The web has seen quite a few testimonials leaving – through blog posts, comments and even personal videos – their valuable opinion about the Venture Camp experience.

So, straight from the camp live experience, here we go:

Jari Ognibeni – blogpost:
The bridge is here and it is real!

Aurora Incardona – blogpost:
Thank you, because – even if we are (still) far from the creation of an Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem that favours investments in innovation and new young ideas… some sort of start, in building this bridge towards the “land of opportunity” (whichever it is), has been accomplished.

Marcello Orizi, Prossima Isola (email)
Mind the Bridge, with the due media coverage, can be an attempt to change and improve our culture, enriching it.

Matteo Pernisa, Echolight (email):
Mind the Bridge: bridge between... dream and reality (and back). Exciting!

Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (during the speech with Severgnini “The Italian Gold in Silicon Valley”):
The only reason I'm in USA is that my professor at Politecnico kicked me, and said "go there and learn!"

Francesco Inguscio (via mail)
I followed the whole event with the video streaming, I stayed up all night to watch it, but it really was worth it! Congratulations!

Beppe Severgnini, greeting the audience at the end of his talk:
My augurio personale (personal wish) is that that the serendipity in the room will travel very far.

UpStart Roma aims to bring together the italian startup scene

On Monday November 23rd, a small group of entrepreneurs, bloggers and web designers is organizing the first UpStart Roma event.
It will be a networking evening where entrepreneurs, developers, investors, bloggers and general startup geeks will be able to meet each other and create a new tech scene from scratch.

If you are in Rome and eager to meet the growing tech scene, please come along! You can register on UpStart Roma official website, where you can also get all the detailed information about the event.

With this event we aim to create a new network of people that can drive innovation and creative disruption of existing business models with the help of one another.
We would love for you to be part of this.

Disclaimer: I am one of the organizers of the event.

Finalists 2009/10

Adant
EchoLight
Fluidmesh Networks
Prossima Isola (Where is Now)
Thounds
TripShake.com
VRmedia

Venture Camp - Final numbers and videos

It's been just a week since our Venture Camp event. A week to decompress from the overdose of information and work.
However, rather than taking sometime off (the 3/4 years as we mentioned on stage) we

haven't broken our stride.
We have launched a new blog on Corriere.it (siliconvalley.corriere.it), we (in fact we=Gabriele) started loading the event videos on our YouTube channel.
Of all the positive outcome of the last week event, one really struck me:

- number people registered at the event : 475 (had to close the reservations a week prior to the event)
- number of online session, watching the real time video streaming (just Friday): 6398, of which 2566 in English!

To me, that alone gives us goose bumps.
It's a confirmation that what we are doing is relevant.

Remember: next Monday, we'll be announcing here the projects who have been selected.

Last but not least Alberto and me want (again) to pay tribute to everybody who helped in the organization, in particular:
- Gabriele Scoditti
- Massimo Carraro
- Tito Costa
- Jari Ognibeni

If there hasn't been a glitch in the whole event, we really owe it to them!

Two MTB Alumni pitch at CrESIT-Assobiotec Workshop 2009

With the support of MTB, an Elevator Pitch session has been introduced at CrESIT-Assobiotec Workshop 2009. The CrESIT-Assobiotec Workshop 2009 , that will be held on Nov 23 in Varese, is an international Conference on Life Science Industry, focused on business models and managerial issues.
This year we invited to pitch Echolight and Nano4Bio. Echolight is one of the 14 Venture Camp 2009 semi-finalists, while Nano4Bio is one of our first Alumni. Hope they will benefit from the chance of presenting their business model in front of investors specialized in life science and managers and CEOS from biotech and pharma industry. Click here for the full agenda.


The CrESIT-ASSOBIOTEC annual Workshop is the most important event of the year for the Italian Biotech Industry and attract hundreds of academic researchers, senior executives and practitioners in Biotech, Pharma, and Private Equity Industries from all around the world. This year will join the panel – among the others - Gary Pisano from Harvard University, Lisa Conte, CEO of Silicon Valley based Napo Pharma, Marina Del Bue, GM of Molmed. Together with them we will discuss how a life science company can design its own business model and global value architecture and raise funding.
The CrESIT-Assobiotec Workshop is jointly organized by CrESIT and CIBIE (the Centre for International Business and the International Economy of University of Pavia) in partnership with the Italian Biotech Business Association (ASSOBIOTEC) and Blossom&Company, advisory and consulting firm focused on biotech. The event is sponsored by Pricewaterhouse Cooper.
This is a free event, but pre-registration is required. For info www.cresit.it

My Venture Camp. by Jari Ognibeni

The Mind the Bridge Venture Camp just ended in Milan and after a lot of hand shakes, business card exchanges and hearing a lot of great projects and ideas I got some words in particular in my mind.
OPPORTUNITY.
This is the word that San Giovanni Vincentelli used to explain the economic and social moment we are living worlwide that other called "crisis".
It's amazing how things can be seen differently just thinking a bit different just turning our attention a little right or left in other words to simply believe in our ideas and their accomplishment, to belive we can do it and out there are people that can help you.

STARTUP.
Here there are the protagonist of the Venture Camp: people with ideas! I've been so happy to see and meet startup from all over Italy and different kind of background and industries. What emerged was that startup need a tool, need a direct contact with other people that can help theme to better understand their business, develop their business plan and increase their network.

THE BRIDGE
I like to describe the entire Venture Camp as a bridge from good ideas to their accomplishment; from Italy to Silicon Valley (and back). This bridge is made by people, professionals and off course ideas that strive to move in the same direction: create a new model to develop ideas and bring theme to the world. People out there need this bridge and now they can count on it. The bridge is here and it is real!

These words summarize the experience of beeing for two days with a lot of impressive people, professionals and young entrepreneurs that want to change the world with their ideas.
A big Arrivederci and Grazie to everybody which made this event possible and also a great In bocca al lupo to all the entrepreneurs and startup that have a great project in mind.