BAIAblog

Marco Marinucci Presents "Mind The Bridge" Initiative

The BAIA blog hosts an interview with Marco Marinucci, an Italian executive at Google and a BAIA member, who is launching an interesting initiative called Mind the Bridge, a nonprofit program to support a business plan competition for aspiring Italian entrepreneurs wishing to reach Silicon Valley. Marco tells us about the Mind the Bridge initiative in greater detail below.

Marco, tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

I’m 39, earned a  degree in Engineering from Genova and an MBA from Instituto de Empresa (Spain). My professional experience is made up mostly of entrepreneurial ventures. After an improbable start as an Artificial Intelligence researcher, my career developed around a common theme: launching new technologies (including ticketing, Ecommerce, VoIP, new medias) in different countries (I lived and worked in Italy, Spain, UK, France and US).
In 2002 I landed in California (yes, right in the middle of the bursting bubble). That’s another common theme of my life. Arriving late.
I joined Google in 2005. Again, I was late!

What is Mind the Bridge?

In the nutshell, the idea is to provide a means for the most innovative new ideas coming from Italian entrepreneurs to have links with the Silicon Valley. This will be done with a Business Plan competition. The projects with the most growth potential  will be invited to participate in a road show in the Silicon Valley. There, they will have the chance to present their ideas directly to potential investors and corporations who expressed an interest in knowing more. The week will culminate with an event where the finalists will have the opportunity to present their “elevator pitch” to a large audience.
In preparation for the road show, each finalist project will be associated to a senior entrepreneur (for the most part coming from First Generation Network). The mentor will help focus the business idea and provide support to prepare effectively for the presentation in the Silicon Valley.

Why Mind the Bridge?

Mind the Bridge is a dream. It’s a response to a certain feeling that I found common amongst the Italians living abroad -- a frustration seeing that our country is abundant in talent and potentially good ideas, but an apparent lack of channels for developing such talent into something more tangible, such as … a successful new company, focused on growth.
Thus the idea: to build all the necessary bridges to close as many gaps as possible: training on business planning, having access to senior mentors, and having the possibility to tap directly into the resources of the most developed entrepreneurial eco-system in the world, the Silicon Valley.
In one simple metaphor: to have all the resources that people of my generation wished to have had when you thought you had a good idea but didn’t quite know what to do with it.

What do you want to accomplish with it?

The initiative has already had a great success: to have put under the same umbrella, a number of great initiatives that had been developed in the last few years (or months): the US Embassy led Partnership for Growth, SVIEC (the Silicon Valley Italian Executive Council), First Generation network (the network of Italian entrepreneurs of the first generation) and, of course, BAIA. All such associations are part of the organizing committee.
In addition, a stunning number of Italian senior managers/entrepreneurs (Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, Fabrizio Capobianco, Vittorio Viarengo just to name a few) have enthusiastically accepted to get involved with the initiative.
We are all united by one objective and one feeling. The objective is the hope that Italy could regain an edge in entrepreneurship. The feeling is that our help can really matter.

How is BAIA useful in this initiative?

BAIA provides important logistical and organizational support through the efforts of some of its key  members and its established infrastructure. It is represented in the Mind the Bridge organizing committee. But there is more (and I’m not saying that “solely” because you are interviewing me..).
With its transparency, its infrastructure of shared responsibility of volunteers with a common goal, its  strong “give back to the community” drive, BAIA has provided such a positive model that would be foolish not to try to replicate.

Many thanks to Marco Marinucci for answering our questions. Do you have some as well for Marco or BAIA? Please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Matteo Daste

An Interview with Cosimo Spera, Founder of Zipidy

Here in San Francisco, as in most major metropolitan areas, we are all too familiar with the pains associated with city parking: multiple loops of the block searching for a free spot, never enough change to feed the meter, having to rush out of a meeting when the time limit expires...
And if you ever had to negotiate car parking in Milan or Rome, where traffic and parking problems take on epic proportions, you will not be surprised to learn that one of the most interesting innovation in parking technology comes from a Silicon Valley company with Italian roots, Zipidy. The company was founded by Cosimo Spera, an Italian entrepreneur with a research background in operations research and advanced mathematics at Yale, MIT and Siena University and other major institutions.
For over just over three weeks, Zipidy has been running a public test of its iPark mobile-powered parking metering service in selected areas of San Francisco.
Well, how does it work? In a nutshell, when a user of the service finds an iPark-powered parking spot, she contacts the system with a phone call or via SMS, specifies the parking meter number and the parking time, for example "45 minutes" and leaves the car. The user account is debited the appropriate parking fee automatically.  If the customer is delayed and needs to extend the meter time, he/she simply adds "credit" remotely or, if he/she returns to her car early, another SMS is all she needs to get a refund for the time she did not use. Additional services include an SMS reminder function, electronic coupons from close-by businesses, parking finder and reservation.
As municipalities all over the country look for ways to increase their parking revenue, while at the same time reduce congestion and emissions, Zipidy's solution is a most welcome innovation with great potential. I have asked Cosimo a few questions.

Cosimo, tell us a bit about yourself and your company?

I started as an academic and morphed into an entrepreneur. Zipidy is my third start-up. It has been in stealth mode for two years while we were developing the software. The company is headquartered in San Francisco but our development has been done mainly in Europe. We address a significant business problem that touches consumers (drivers), municipalities and local merchants and we are proud to have developed a simple solution through a sophisticated technology.

Launching a consumer service can be a challenge without established distribution networks on a massive scale and with the limited financial resources of a startup. How would you suggest a company like your meet those challenges?

You are right it is a challenge, but the power of “word of mouth” in the era of communication is unbelievable. With very little marketing budget we are doubling customers every week simple because “happy customers” talk about how our service “iPark” is cool and encourage them to give a try.

Working with municipalities and government bureaucracies can be challenging anywhere in the world. What can you tell us specifically about your experience in San Francisco?

San Francisco is the frontier of technology. We have dealt within DPT (Department of Parking and Traffic) with people with a vision on how to address the parking challenges. And our service is piloted for FREE. The value proposition for the city is so high that it is a no brainer to prove its benefits.

The US mobile communications market dynamics are quite different than they are in Europe or Asia. What do you think are the most interesting opportunities in mobile services in the North American market today?

My honest answer is services like iPark. US has great unexplored potential for mobile service, Zipidy is very well position to lead the innovation in info-mobility wireless services and I forecast that more and more service will be available in the next coming years.

European businesses and consumers have shown incredible appetite for mobile technology and services over the last 15 years. Less so our American friends, some would argue. Any lessons learned in Europe that can be readily applied in the US market?

You are looking at two different business wireless models: pre-paid vs post-paid, so we need two different strategies to penetrate the market. Good news is iPark is the same solution worldwide and therefore fully scalable.

BAIA promotes the open exchange of know-how between Italy and the Silicon Valley ecosystem. What can a business association like BAIA do to help that exchange, in general as well as specifically in your industry?

BAIA is doing a great job in bridging the gap between Italy and Silicon Valley, more bi-lateral initiatives are need to bring SV culture to Italy and Italian creativity to SV. Specifically around my industry: “Spread the word about iPark”. “Who needs Parking Karma with iPark?”

Many thanks to Cosimo Spera for answering our questions. Do you have some as well for Cosimo or BAIA? Please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Matteo Fabiano

Middle school creativity wins as education and sports team up in preparation for the Rome 2009 13th FINA World Championships

The creative, Italian-style, design of a middle school student was chosen for the Mascotte of FINA World 2009, a major world swim competition to be held in Roma in 2009, July 18 through August 1st.
What’s especially inspiring about this winning outcome is the fact that the school, Riccardo Quartararo, whose student won the creative contest, received a prize of 5000 Euros in support of structural improvements. The prize was consigned by Olympic Champion Domenico Fioravanti.
Top Italian swimmers, among which Alessia Filippi, Federica Pellegrini (latest testimonial of the FIAT 500!), Filippo Magnini and Massimiliano Rosolino, greeted DIVA, the new Mascotte, along with champions from the other water disciplines (synchronized swimming, diving, open water/distance swimming and water polo).
Official partners of Roma 2009 are, at present time:  ENEL, Intesa Sanpaolo and Omega.  Official sponsors currently include:  Aurora Assicurazioni and AVIS.
An Aquatic Festival of cultural events and performances developed around the water theme will take place during the 2009 competitions.
In numbers, Roma 2009 will present:

• 16 Days of Competition
• 5 Disciplines: swimming, open water swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming
• 170 Nations
• 2.500 Athletes
• 2.500 Volunteers
• 1.500 Officials
• 1.500 Journalists & Technicians

As an enthusiastic master swimmer and water lover I cheer at the idea of having the FINA 13th World Championships hosted on Italian soil.
As usual, with well-designed international sports events, there is a unique opportunity to open our borders to champions and representative of other nations and to celebrate records, achievements, discipline and perseverance, which go well beyond the confines of the pool, in a spirit of open friendship and fair play.

Lucia Panini