Let’s Boot Camp!

Terrific speakers, awesome venue, promising startups! We are talking about the MtB Boot Camp that kicked off last Thursday in Milan (hosted by the Social Media Week) to continue for the 29 semifinalists at OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin.
More than 300 people attended the MtB Boot Camp Open Forum. Alberto Onetti (MtB Chairman) anticipated some data from the Mind the Bridge Survey 2011 “Startups in Italy. Facts and Trends” that will be presented in November at the Venture Camp. Then a group of terrific speakers animated the stage: James C. Roberts III (Lawyer & Managing Partner at Global Capital Law Group), Marco Magnocavallo (Co-Founder at Blogo and Wikli), Stefano Maruzzi (Country Director at Google Italy), Pietro Bezza (Managing Partner at Connect digital media ventures), Massimo Ciociola (Founder & CEO of MusiXMatch) and Piero Bassetti (President of the Giannino Bassetti Foundation).

Central theme for the day was the ability to embrace a culture of risk in Italy, magisterially captured by the “pony allegory” narrated by Charles Versaggi (President of Versaggi Biocommunications®), the MtB Boot Camp Director.
September 23 and September 24, different venue (Turin), but same enthusiasm: the 29 MtB semifinalists went boot-camping @OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni (Stazione Futuro the tag for our place, quite evocative), together with a stellar group of mentors.

Learning sessions in the morning and GYM pitching session in the afternoon. Hosted and sponsored by TOP-IX Consortium, this two days program represented both a great opportunity for startups to learn and get inspired by our Boot Camp instructors and an invaluable occasion to test themselves and improve their communication skills. Among the mentors, led by Charles Versaggi: Ivan Farneti (Partner at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures), Marco Magnocavallo (Co-Founder at Blogo and Wikli), Elisabetta Ghisini (Founder at Verba - International Communications) and Stefano Bernardi (Dave McClure’s Shadow at 500 startups).
Moreover, as already specified in our previous posts, this event represented a further selection step in the process that will bring 15 startups to the MtB Venture Camp in Milan at Corriere della Sera and later on to Silicon Valley.
Curious to know about the top 15's names???

Just stay tuned!

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!