BAIAblog

Farewell Notes of Departing BAIA Executive Director Giorgio Ghersi

Tonight BAIA held its 15th event at the 631 O’Farrell Street in San Francisco. The topic of the event was a little bit outside BAIA tradition, but nevertheless very interesting: Italian Education as a Business: the Rise of Italian schools in the Bay Area.The event has been very successful and has shown one more time the key role BAIA is playing in creating contacts and networking opportunities for the Italian-American business community. Tonight is a special night also for a different reason: it is the last night for Giorgio Ghersi as Executive Director of the Association.

When the three founders (Giorgio, Michele and Matteo) started BAIA, they set up a few internal rules to ensure the association stays healthy, fresh, and open. One of the rules states that a new Executive Director has to be elected every two years by the Board. A few weeks ago, the Board has elected Matteo Fabiano as the new Executive Director to continue the great job done by Giorgio. While welcoming the new director, I believe it is important to give some additional visibility to the speech Giorgio gave tonight. Here are his words:

Giorgio Speech

Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to this BAIA event number 15 since our first in April 2006. Thank you for filling this room with such characteristic Italian warmth. With this event BAIA is completing its second year cycle of networking, presentations, and development of the Italian business community in the Bay Area.

BAIA, which stands for Business Association Italy America, was founded with the goal of becoming an open networking platform for businesses and professionals operating in the United States and in Italy. Through the means of an independent, nonprofit, member- and volunteer-based network, we aimed to create a professional forum through which information, knowledge and opportunities could openly, and effectively, be exchanged among entrepreneurs, managers and professionals in the United States and in Italy.

Tonight, thanks to our sponsors, Elliot & Mayock immigration law in San Francisco, C’era Una Volta restaurant in Alameda and Al Mare gelato italiano in Berkely, we are going to present the first panel related to “Italian Education as a business venture”.

From what I’m hearing, and as I can see myself tonight, this is a topic of great interest to our community, and this event may be only the first of a dedicated series.

BAIA tries to cover 360 degrees topics of interest to all of our membership and supporters, as it should be, given that it is the only independent Italian business association in the Bay Area, and we believe the community needs it.

Tonight I’m personally closing another cycle, which is two years of my Directorship of the Governance of this non-profit organization.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve BAIA in this role.

Many thanks to my Co-Founders, Matteo Daste and Michele Ursino, without whom BAIA would have never existed, and to all the other Directors and the whole Governance, with a word of particular sympathy for all the ones that started as volunteers or interns, as Sabrina, Alberto, Federico, or Flavio -in Italy- and stick at it, becoming active part of the Governance.

During these two years BAIA has risen to a role of great importance, with multiple chapters, international presence and relations, and institutional recognition.

I am confident that, under the new leadership of Matteo Fabiano, our next Executive Director, BAIA will continue to deliver, and grow further, thanks to its open governance structure, and to a common foundation of strong ethics and moral character among its founders and members.

Therefore, in the name of BAIA, I want to thank the entire community, and the institutional representatives present here tonight for their support, and wishes that such support and cooperation among all those who share the vision of a united, permanent, modern and transparent business association for Italians in the Bay Area will continue to grow and strengthen in 2008.

Thank you very much.

Giorgio Ghersi

I would like to express the gratitude of the Board and of all the BAIA members to Giorgio for the exceptional job he has done for the Association in the last two years and for the values he has been able to "inject" in the BAIA DNA: openness, honesty, and a sincere and profound sense of community.

Thank you Giorgio!

Franco Folini

An Interview with Gaetano Pellicano on Venture-Capital Reform in Italy

On February 19, 2008 I had the pleasure to be invited to speak at the Italian Parliament for an event on Venture Capital reform organized by Gaetano Pellicano, the President of BAIA Italy. Since the inception of BAIA Italy last year, Gaetano has been working on connecting the business communities gathered by BAIA in Italy and California, leveraging his experience to promote the exchange of knowledge, especially in the venture capital area.

Gaetano, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your professional activities?

Since 2001 I have been a political advisor of the U.S. State Department at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. I work with American companies and institutions in Italy and advise the U.S. government with respect to policies in Italy and the EU. I focus also on job creation policies and have taught public administration at the Scuola Superiore della Pubblica Amministrazione. After meeting BAIA founders Matteo Daste and Giorgio Ghersi in San Francisco and seeing what BAIA is doing, I espoused the idea and in 2007 I promoted the launch of a BAIA Rome Chapter, that I am currently presiding.

How relevant of a topic is promoting venture capital investment in Italy today?

Low level of investment by risk capitals hinders the capability of boosting an ecosystem which favors innovation. Either big corporations or the research sector call for a stronger network between different actors, including venture funds, in order to improve their competitiveness, to establish cooperation with international players, and to bring new ideas, products and service to the market.

How did BAIA Italy play a role in organizing the February 19 event?

BAIA had been working in close cooperation with the Partnership for Growth of the U.S. Embassy in Rome that promoted a network between serial entrepreneurs, business angels and venture capitals. We proposed to work with this group of players to strengthen the links with Californian counterparts and to consolidate a package of proposals of improvements of the legal system along with most interested policy makers. Decidere.net and Competere appreciated our initiative and decided to cosponsor it.

What possible benefits could come out of these activities for Italy?

Our aims are to improve the ecosystem, to increase its dynamism and to help Italian innovators willing to establish joint ventures and other forms of cooperation with American colleagues. We will submit the package to the new parliament and the new government by September.

What's the outlook for BAIA Italy?

We are structuring our organization concentrating our energies on few events which might allow us to involve new members. Volunteerism is less common in Italy than in the States, but with a strategic vision we hope to stimulate the participation of a significant group of innovators interested in our unique initiative.

I would like to thank again Gaetano for his contribution. It is hoped that initiatives like the one promoted by BAIA Italy will be a welcome addition to the Italian economic panorama and will not only contribute to promoting knowledge of California models in Italy, but will also give a fresh  perspective on venture capital to leaders and entrepreneurs in Italy.

Matteo Daste

A Call for Energetic Optimism

Today, and in the months ahead, we must think and act with keen optimism and determination.

While I was traveling back home during the holidays, in my native Torino – which is also the 2008 World Design Capital – I witnessed the usual warmth and cheerfulness of familiar faces in an atmosphere fueled by the holiday spirit.

At the same time, I had the chance to browse through some of that more casual and disparate holiday reading material, ranging from the history book found at home, to the arts catalogs in the bookstore of the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art to some mundane magazines which tend to materialize in your laps at the airport or at the hair dresser’s. Among tales of beauty, technology gadgets (I especially like the 500-shaped USB I received from my Dad), and daily happenings, a common theme was surfacing across the press:  the need for optimism.

Usually, when a state of mind is summoned by multiple parties, it means there has been a lack of it, or lackluster presence at least.  So I sniffed around for supporting data.

An article I came across in one of my “holiday magazines”, (A) by Giancarlo Bruno, manager of Banking and Capital Marketing for the World Economic Forum, was reporting data about Italy’s classification among the world economies, based on overall competitiveness (World Economic Forum competitiveness index). The current ranking: 46; down from 42 and 38 in the previous years.  By digging in a little deeper, it shows business competitiveness (ranking: 42) is more favorable in terms of “Sophistication of company operations and strategy”(32) rather than “Quality of the national business environment” (45) (link).

Given that Italy should be among the top five or six world economies, a 46th overall place sounds very much like the C series.  Or, with a different cultural metaphor, if you are an A student it is a shame to get anything less than a B, just because you can so easily do better. Two years ago, I attended a business breakfast where an economist from BNP Paribas stated: “Italy is dying” (he also mentioned oil prices were not going to rise ...). At the end of the presentation I raised my proud Italian hand and clarified that, thank you for the concern, but Italy was alive and well, despite aggressive competition in certain sectors, from high-growth emerging economies.  A few weeks later I flew to Torino to witness first-hand the sparkling beauty of the Olympic Torch and the rebirth on the world stage of the first capitol of Italy.  My country still looked very much alive.  Today we should not be in 46th place and, most important, we should be competitive, jostling for the top 5, top 10 positions.  Not for sake of the ranking per se, but because that’s a sign of the dreams, work and achievements that lie beneath the digits.  Hence my urge to blog on the topic.

Two weeks ago a business delegation with the Partnership for Growth program, accompanied by US Ambassador Ronald Spogli, visited the Bay Area.  There was much enthusiasm and no shortness of energy among the Italian visitors, eager to absorb information and to interact constructively, to build on their ideas.  Matteo Fabiano of BAIA opened his introductory note on BAIA, during a lunch session at Stanford (sponsored by YourTrumanShow), exactly on the topic of optimism, and on how it pervades the business climate of Silicon Valley. It was nice to see the light shining in the eyes of the audience, they grasped the message!

So, let’s capitalize on our talent, passion for quality, business acumen and scientific skills, to invigorate our country’s competitiveness and to keep our ability to dream alive. Dreams become reality when you believe in them and work hard toward their achievement. Optimism is not just a word, but the positive attitude and energetic drive required to move forward in spite of temporary obstacles and challenging circumstances.

Lucia Panini

A Silicon Mind

Following an extensive trip in California and other parts of the country, LA7, a major Italian television broadcaster, has produced a reportage that is now available online. A sweeping view of the opportunities, challenges and motivations of Italian entrepreneurs and professionals in Silicon Valley, including startups, BAIA, SVIEC, Google, Stanford, Tim Draper, John Hennessy,… Interviews and reportage by Frediano Finucci and Damiano Ficoneri, LA7 News.

Matteo Fabiano

An Interview with Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, Professor and Entrepreneur

Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli teaches at the prestigious University of California in Berkeley and is also a successful entrepreneur having cofounded the two largest EDA companies: Cadence and Synopsis. A proper introduction of Alberto would require long lists of companies, professional accomplishments, and academic positions. I recommend viewing his resume which is available on the Berkeley website. Last week, on October 17, I had the pleasure of participating in a BAIA event featuring a talk by Alberto. Despite living in the Bay Area for more than 7 years, it was the first time I heard a convincing and honest explanation of the Silicon Valley system, or ecosystem, as Alberto likes to call it. Aware of the impossibility of synthesizing an hour and a half into a short interview, I chose to ask Alberto a few questions about some of the most intriguing topics raised during his speech.

Alberto, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your several academic and entrepreneurial activities?

I graduated in 1971 from the Politecnico di Milano in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I spent 6 months as a researcher in Berkeley in 1975 when Politecnico sent me here to learn how to do good research. Then I became an Assistant Professor at the Department of EECS, UC Berkeley, in 1976. Since then, I have been on the faculty of this Institution. I left Italy at the beginning with very mixed feelings: I was quite happy in Milan. Now I am happy I took that controversial decision. I scaled rapidly the academic ladder and became full Professor (Professore Ordinario) in 1982. I hold an endowed chair, The Edgar L. and Harold H. Buttner Chair of EECS. An endowed chair carries additional funds for doing research and it is a very prestigious position that is given only to few people in academia. I also spent one year at IBM Watson Research Center in New York and one semester as Visiting Professor at MIT. During this 32 year period I was active in setting up companies based on my research work. In particular, I helped founding Cadence and Synopsys which are the two most prominent companies in EDA. I also consulted for many important companies including AT&T, IBM, Intel, Honeywell, Mercedes Benz, BMW, GM, HP, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Kawasaki, Pirelli, and Telecom Italia. I sit on 6 boards of directors of public and private companies.

You fully captured the essence of the Silicon Valley with one word -- ecosystem. Is it possible to foster the development of equivalent ecosystems (e.g., in Italy) or would such a combination of multiple factors only occur naturally?

An ecosystem is very difficult to replicate. It is as if one would  ask what it takes to transplant the Amazons to Europe... I would say it is impossible. An ecosystem is the result of particular local and global evolutions and it may take decades to manifest itself in its full strength. My position is that an ecosystem can be safeguarded and helped to maintain its unique characteristics but it cannot be created from ground zero.

In your recent presentation for the BAIA event in Berkeley, you mention the human network as a key factor of the Silicon Valley. How does the concept of networking in Silicon Valley differ from that of the one in Italy?

Human network in silicon valley is an amazing canopy. It grows and spreads like a vine in the Amazons to keep the analogy with the rain forest! It is the vital lymph of the ecosystem. People exchange continuously ideas and information in the most free format one can think of. Causal meetings at restaurants, jogging encounters, soccer games for the kids at school, everything gives a chance to the people active in the ecosystem to chat and brainstorm. The best ideas come out from this random interaction. The network is informal, there is no sense of hierarchy and of elitism. A young graduate student can bump into the founders of Yahoo or Google and exchange a few ideas in the streets of Palo Alto when sipping a coffee. It is really amazing to see this in action. In Italy there are of course important social networks but my view is these networks are stratified and being a member of a network of importance takes time and requires a sort of induction mechanism that stifles this free format that I believe it is vital for innovation at 360 degrees paraphrasing a concept by Pasquale Pistorio.

You are one of the few entrepreneurs who are not afraid to recognize the important role of luck in the creation and destruction of wealth. Why is it important to correctly understand the contribution of good luck to our successes and bad luck to our failures?

Luck has played an important role in all my life. I do not think that all that happened to the successful people in the Silicon Valley is due to superior intelligence and business sense. In fact, it is easy to trace the most successful formations of new companies to casual events. Even Yahoo and Google. For my part, I learned that luck is important by seeing how a positive turn of events, a delay or an acceleration in the market place can make or break a company. It is important to recognize the role of luck in our own lives to make sure that we do not consider ourselves as infallible. It is exactly when we think so that we make the most horrible mistakes that may cost too much to us and to others. By the same token, unsuccess is not necessarily due to us being bad or incompetent persons. Recognizing this gives a new perspective on life where one can build success out of failures. The important lesson to learn is to identify the root causes of our success and failures and make them a pillar of what we do next.

The success of the Open Source movement is changing the nature of the software business. As a Open Source pioneer, what is your opinion on this?

Open source for a University is a must. I believe that part of my success was due to this model. Everything we did at the University was open domain: any company could use our software and algorithms freely. In this way, our ideas spread world-wide very fast and demonstrated that what we did was important. The companies that were formed based on our results never sold the software made at the University, they adapted and changed. They built new tools, they leveraged what was done at the University. The free software distribution pioneered at Berkeley was seen by the community as a good model where many people can contribute and make the final product better and more powerful. The step towards making also operating systems, middleware, tools widely available to the community has been taken. The issue is now how to build solid business models and companies based on this idea.

You are trying to prove that large companies, such as Cadence, can be successful in doing in-house innovation. Can you tell us bit about how you are approaching this problem and the results you are getting?

Innovating in a public company is always a challenge. The pressure on quarter by quarter results is so strong that any investment in new technology that is bound to be negative for years and is going to bear fruits on a potentially long time-span, reflects negatively on the P/L (Profit and Loss) of the company and as a consequence on its stock market valuation. To come out of this quandary, most companies turn to mergers and acquisitions that in general are not reflected in the P/L. However, when trying to build long-lasting value in a company, this is NOT the most appealing strategy, albeit it looks like the best on a short time horizon. We at Cadence tried to build an incubation model that favors the formation of new groups that are innovation driven. They are managed almost as external entities with their own Board of Directors and their own financing model. We had preliminary indications of success in at least two cases. The jury is still out.

You enjoy making jokes about the rivalry between Berkeley and Stanford. Seriously speaking, how is the entrepreneurial attitude of people graduating from those two glorious universities different?

The differences are evident. Berkeley students IN GENERAL are more motivated by technical work and accomplishments. They tend to be more "faithful" to the companies they work with if their environment is conducive to their ideals. Stanford graduates are more inclined to build a new company as the major goal of their career. Economics tends to be more rewarding for them than pure technical work. I said in general since there are examples to the contrary. However, in my career, I have noted this as a major difference among the two groups. It is clear that Berkeley students also founded companies that are successful and lead other companies with great visibility: a case in point is Eric Schmidt, a Berkeley alumnus, who took Google public and who perfected their business model. However, Eric for MANY years had been working in deep  technical issues at SUN where he was Chief Technology Officer.

Several Italian companies are trying to establishing some sort of connection with the Silicon Valley in order to learn from such a successful model and to place their sensors at the core of the software business. Do you have any recommendations for them?

Do not try to copy Silicon Valley, it would be a major mistake. Learn from it and see how to distill the principles so that they could be remapped in Italian environment. Understanding the Silicon Valley implies that one has to be part of the community, not sitting on the sideline. Coming here as a visitor for six months is not a good approach. Come here and work in a company, or a VC firm and live fully the experience.

I would like to thank Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli for taking the time to speak with me today. The Italian community in California must be honored and proud to have Alberto among its members. If you have any questions for Alberto or for BAIA, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

An Interview with Mauro Lupi, CEO of Ad Maiora

Mauro Lupi is the president and CEO of Ad Maiora, an Italian Internet marketing agency. His blog is one of the top 20 Italian blogs. Mauro doesn't need any additional introduction to BAIA members; he was a panelist for a BAIA event held here in San Francisco last February about Blogs and Marketing (check the videos). In my daily excursions to Mauro's blog I always find it to be a place where people can exchange opinions in a respectful yet profound way. I asked Mauro for this interview with the hidden agenda of capturing his secret for a successful blog. Read the interview to find out what I was able to discover.

Mauro, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
My last 12 years are devoted to internet business, mostly of them through Ad Maiora, an agency based in Rome with offices on Milan and San Francisco, that I founded in 1997. My past experiences was in marketing and advertising in financial sector, then computer and telco industries. Ad Maiora is specialized in online marketing services, search marketing and business blogging services and consulting.

You are one of the most popular bloggers in Italy . You managed to get there without screaming or attacking anybody. I can see a bit of your style in your blogʼs comments. Which other features of your personality do you recognize in your readers?
I think that the blog owners is the first influencer on comments quality. It's like when you invite someone in your house: if your guest find an ordered environment, probably he will asks where hang his coat; instead, if he sees confusion everywhere, he will leave his coat in any place. If you scream, everyone will do the same.
Other important element it's the relation with other companies in the same marketplace, expecially with competitors. A fair approach, talking about them when it's opportune with links to their sites, receive trust and normally it's reciprocal.

You wrote more than once about the importance of managing your own time. A blog, if not well managed, can absorb quite a lot of personal time. Do you have any specific advice for bloggers?
First, look to any of current content material you produce now: sometimes there are many stuffs that should be used as blog content, and it means less time to produce them.
In any case, consider blogs like one of other communication channels where the time and budget reserved to them should based on ROI evaluation.

Many SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts claims that what is good for your website Google ranking is always good for your visitors. Is this statement always valid? How can technologies such as Ajax and search-engines interact effectively?
I'm not fully in line with this assumption. Some technologies like Flash or Ajax, could be coherent with the website strategies and so used even if they create problems on search engines ranking. My point of view it's that there isn't a single "best way" to create a website, because the users preferences are different too. Some likes emotional communication, others need concise information; some use to visit home pages, others prefers to subscribe RSS or email newsletter.
Search engines are a kind of "special user": they like many text, focused on specific topics, well inter-linked on the web site and updated incrementally frequently. Then they like incoming links. So, there isn't a secret recipe: it's opportune to start with users in mind and then see if the contents produced match the search engines principles. If not, should be necessary to produce other optimized contents.

As the CEO of an Italian company, Ad Maiora, do you perceive the language barrier (English-Italian) more as a protection for your domestic market or as an obstacle for global growth?
Both. But considering that the globalization is an on-going process in every business sector, I think that the language barriers will be continuously reduced year after year. At the same time, I feel that together with language it's the culture the real key point that creates distances through markets. "Culture" both in the way to conduct business and also regarding the experience in international relations. What I see it's that for countries like Italy, the difficult it's to scale a project when it was thinked for local market originally. I believed that you could deliver a project to a global market only if you start it with a global approach from the beginning.

Your blog seems to be shy in promoting your company: there is no logo, no prominent links. How separate are the two entities: the blog and the company? Can you also tell us about the exchange of ideas, connections, experiences between Mauro the CEO and Mauro the blogger?
I write about what I have in mind and what I do regarding my work, so I write about my job and my company continuously even if it's not specified directly. For example, when I write about a conference where I talk, the non-written words are that my company and myself have gained the authority to participate to the event. And when I share my visions, in fact I talked about the vision of my company and the knowledge inside it. Call that "information marketing" if you want; the fact it's that companies likes to find some expert that demonstrate time after time their knowledge, their visions, outside the standard marketing (read "advertising") ways. The blog it's a simple ways to demonstrate it; of course you must have some interesting to say!

I would like to thank Mauro Lupi for taking the time to speak with me today. If you have any questions for Mauro or for BAIA, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

An Interview with Marco Palombi, Italian Entrepreneur

Marco Palombi is a special Italian entrepreneur and blogger. After starting a very successful company (Tipic, Inc.), he wants to share his experience helping Italy and Italians to be more competitive and to develop a stronger entrepreneurial attitude. To me this sounds like a perfect match with the BAIA mission. Even if the Silicon Valley business model can't be implemented in Italy, as Marco made clear, he still looks at California as a reference and inspirational model. It's time to get Marco's first hand opinion on these topics. Here is the interview.

Marco, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
I consider myself a serial entrepreneur. I sold the latest company I founded 6 months ago and now I am helping with its integration; meanwhile I am trying to figure out what the next big thing is.
When I sold it, Tipic Inc. had developed Splinder.com into the largest community and blogging site in Italy with 5.5 Million unique users per month. I sold it to Dada SpA, which is part of the Rizzoli Corriere della Sera Media Group.
Tipic Inc. is a very advanced technology company too; we developed the first Jabber Instant Messaging Server for Windows in 2002, the first mobile Jabber client for J2ME, etc. I was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Jabber Software Foundation in 2002/2003. I have a blog, and you can find more info about me there.

There is a lot talk in Italy about importing the Silicon Valley business model to foster the growth of new companies. What is missing in Italy that could prevent the successful replication of this model there?
Importing the Silicon Valley business model as a whole is not possible because there are too many things that are missing, not only in Italy, but in Europe in general. The most important missing piece of the puzzle is a market for products and services offered by start-up companies.
Let me explain this in detail because I have been through this for the past 10 years and have developed a good understanding of the situation. When you start a technology company -- once you assemble the team, create the product, and finance the company -- you must start selling the product or offering the service. That's where Italy and Europe have a lot of catch-up to do with Silicon Valley; large and medium Italian companies do not invest in products or services created by start-ups, because they are not in a competitive market and are not forced to experiment with new technology. An Italian start-up with the best product would probably start selling it in its home market 3 to 5 years after a US start-up with an equivalent product.
Finding money and bright people is possible in Italy; finding a market for a technology company is very hard on the other hand. Our hope is to do what Swedish or Israeli companies do: develop the product at home and sell it in the US first. That's what we did with the Instant Messaging products we developed in Naples, Italy. Our first customers were NASA, the US Army, and many other medium and large US companies. The first Italian company to buy our wares was Tiscali, 3 years after we had sold the first server to a US company.

Business social networking, both online and in person, seems to be one of the key components of Silicon Valley success.  Regarding the building and maintaining of business relationships, what is better to handle online and what in person?
Nowadays I do not see any difference between online and offline any more. I have a blog, and use it instead of a business card, or together with it. You meet someone in person, chat a bit and then refer him to your blog. On the Internet you can search for people, starting from what they do, something which was impossible before. Some of the people that worked for Tipic Inc. had never met in person, although they actually worked online together everyday.
That being said, you still need to meet in person for casual conversations. That's when unexpected opportunities arise!

Can you describe a little about your First Generation Network initiative you’re setting up with Michele Appendino? What are the current and long term goals for this program?
Italy's economy has not grown much in the past 20 years. We think that that is due, among other things, to the lack of innovative first generation entrepreneurs.
The current goal of the First Generation Network is to show that Italy has some valid first generation entrepreneurs; these entrepreneurs can be role models for a new wave of young entrepreneurs. We started by interviewing some first generation entrepreneurs, and posting the video online.
The most common misconception in Italy is that for you to be an entrepreneur your dad must be one. This feeling is so ingrained that *real* entrepreneurs seem to be only the second generation ones.
The long term goal is to create a Network of Entrepreneurs and Friends of the Network that can spark an ecosystem where it is easier than it is now to start and grow your own company.

Young entrepreneurs can be concerned about sharing their ideas and experiences with others. How can we motivate them to share their experiences and benefit from others’ experiences?
We must create a win-win situation where young entrepreneurs participate because that gives them access to knowledge, resources, visibility and people (Friends of the Network); we ask them to contribute to the Network by sharing some of their knowledge.

You are a popular blogger and Splinder, your previous company, is about blogs. In a world where almost everybody connected to the Internet seems to have a blog, having great content is not enough to be noticed anymore. How can an individual or a business attract readers to their blog in such a crowded environment?
I would say that the rules have not changed. Having great content is still very important. What has changed is the fact that we hear many more voices today, now that anyone can have a blog.
Thanks to the Internet, we do not live into a broadcast world anymore; now you can interact and communicate directly with your friends and partners; and you must nurture and build your own networks everyday.

A few years ago, when I moved to California, I noticed and learned to appreciate one great feature of the local business environment: professional roles are well-defined and each person is responsible for his part. For example, an investor is responsible for choosing the manager but after that should not interfere with the management of the company. My Italian experience was quite different.  Do you see this situation changing in Italy with the appearance of a new generation of entrepreneurs?
Yes, I see a change mostly when you interact with people that have studied or had a significant work experience in the UK or the US. Changing the culture is the most difficult thing to do.  We think that a good way to start is showing positive role models.
The problem and opportunity in Italy (and Europe) is that ideologies are waning and there are no clear role models anymore. We think that ethical, responsible, innovative, first generation entrepreneurs can be a model for the new generations in a fast evolving society.

What can a business association like BAIA do to help young Italian entrepreneurs succeed?
Well it can do very much. When I founded my latest company, I had no idea how to start a company in the US, how to contact possible buyers of the technology; had to work hard to find partners who could help me with communicating what I was doing (from Italy) in Silicon Valley.
An association like BAIA can provide all the above and much more. It is important for Italian entrepreneurs to know that they can talk to someone who understands them, yet someone who is fully integrated in the Valley.
Thanks to the Internet, there are a lot of new opportunities for entrepreneurs (and a lot of competition too). BAIA can provide competitive advantages to Italian companies wanting to expand into the Valley.

I would like to thank Marco Palombi for taking the time to speak with me today. If you have any questions for Marco or for BAIA, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

The picture is a Photoshop elaboration based on an original by Shel Israel.

An Interview with the Fulbright-BEST Team in Silicon Valley

The Fulbright-BEST: Silicon Valley Immersion Program has been promoted by the US ambassador in Italy Ronald Spogli and is aimed to stimulate a new enterpreneurial spirit among young Italian PhD students. With the support of business organizations such as BAIA, the first team of five lucky Italians arrived in Silicon Valley a few months ago (see their blog.) The famous and promising pioneers of the BEST (Business Exchange and Student Training) program are Abramo Barbaresi, Elisabetta Capezio, Valentina Coccoli, Micol Macellari, and Emanuele Orgiu. In Italy they are quite popular and are getting a lot of of media coverage: l'Espresso, TG5, TG3, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, Il Giornale, etc. After meeting the BEST team on a few occasions, I asked them for a collective interview to share their American experience with us. Here is that interview.

Abramo, Elisabetta, Valentina, Micol, and Emanuele: thanks to the BEST program, you are the pioneers of a stream of young Italian researchers and aspiring entrepreneurs coming to California to be trained and to bring back to Italy a little bit of the Silicon Valley success. Having been through this program, do you have any suggestions for the ones that will follow you?
Do your “BEST” in taking advantage of every single experience in the Silicon Valley.
Life here never stops! Don’t loose any chance to build your network among the important local entrepreneurs and VCs. Join as many events as possible, such as seminars, conferences and networking meetings hosted by universities (Santa Clara, Stanford, and Berkeley) and US-Italy business associations such as BAIA. Last but not the least: enjoys yourself in California!

Abramo, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
My name is Abramo Barbaresi; I received a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano University in 2000 with a thesis focused in measurement without contacts based on vision systems. After working briefly, I continued my research in the field of 3D measurement without contact at the Politecnico di Milano University, obtaining my Ph D in 2004.
Afterwards I decided to continue my research privately, sponsoring it through obtaining private grants. In this period I invented a new methodology that I patented. This technique allows the making of measures of the surface of 3D moving objects.
At the end of 2006 I applied to the BEST-Fulbright Silicon Valley Immersion program with the aim to acquire entrepreneurial skills and also with the expectation to find a partnership and/or alliance with other companies here in US.
Actually I am currently studying at Santa Clara University and working at Digital Persona, a company involved with the security field. I am also involved with an intense networking activity.

Abramo, what differences between the entrepreneurial environment in California and that of Italy impressed you the most?
For sure, the several possibilities that an entrepreneur has to access funding once he has a good idea. In Italy, if you have a good idea you are considered a poor dreamer. In the United States you are simply an entrepreneur who needs money to realize his dream. In other words you are a benefit for the society. There’s a big difference!
Another fundamental difference is the possibility to fail. This is something that impressed me most. In Italy if an entrepreneur fails he will never have a second chance. No bank or any other institution will trust him for rest of his professional life. Here it is different no one want to fail; however, if it happens, it’s seen like experience. It is part of his background, and it’s seen positively because obviously no one wants to make an error twice. For a VC that entrepreneur is preferable to who has never failed since he has more experience and more probability of success in the next venture.
This is a very important lesson for me to learn. I obviously don’t want to fail, but working with in this state of mind helps a lot because it gives you more freedom from worrying about the risks I may take and this allow you to concentrate in trying to mitigate them, facing and overcoming all the problems that your business present every day.

Elisabetta, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
Hello everybody! My name's Elisabetta Capezio and I come from a small town in the South of Italy, Venosa, but before coming here I had been living in Milan, where I attended University. Last November I got my Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at University Vita-Salute San Raffaele. There I performed my Master Thesis working in the research department of BioXell, a biotech company born as a Roche spin-off. In October I applied for the Fulbright-BEST program, presenting an innovative treatment for cancer therapy developed at San Raffaele Science Park by Professor Blasi.
So far, I have really appreciated this experience because if you wanna enjoy the business side of biotech context, here in Silicon Valley you are in the right place!
[Elisabetta is currently working at Comentis, a biotech company in South San Francisco, CA.]

You are working in an area that requires large capital, skilled management, and top notch researchers. Elisabetta, how do you plan to combine everything together into a new company?
Italian researchers are well known all over the world for their skills and their excellent activities, so I think it will be proportionally easy to get the right scientific support in my project. Moreover I come from a scientific institute, the San Raffaele Science Park which is one of the largest scientific park in Europe with a definitively top notch scientists team. Italy, in addition, has a strong tradition in pharmaceutical industry and this has provided a skilled management class, which can be possibly involved into the creation of new start up companies. For sure, the most challenging issue will be capital raising, but the increasing number of european VCs investing in US companies demonstrates that innovative and competitive projects are just what they are looking for!

Emanuele, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I received the M.S. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Cagliari in 2004 and immediately afterwards I enrolled on the PhD program of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, as Ph.D. student. Currently, my research is focused on innovative electronic devices, in particular Organic semiconductors based devices. From January to May 2006, I worked as a researcher in Konarka Austria (Forschungs und Entwicklungs) GmbH (based in Linz, Austria)  a company leader in the world for research on organic solar cells. Its chief scientist and co-founder is Dr. Alan J. Heeger, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000. I'm defending my PhD dissertation on February 2008. I work on a new generation of sensoristic systems in the field of Biotechnologies, Biomedicine and environmental monitoring using organic materials (polymers and plastic) because they are low cost and permit to achieve better performances (if compared to those ones of the silicon). I applied for the BEST-Fulbright Silicon Valley Immersion program, sponsored by the Italy-US Embassy, a program focused on the acquiring of entrepreneurial skills and principles to create a spin-off company along with my research team. The spin-off will be focused on the development of  organic sensors.
[Emanuele is currently working at BioIdent, a biotech company in Menlopark, CA.]

Before coming to California we all have our own image of the Silicon Valley. Emanuele, what favorable or disappointing impressions did you have after living here a few months?
Well, I guess in a few months I could not have gone deep into American culture but anyway I think that everything and everybody rushes! This point have either positive and negative implications. First of all everything works: at work everything works well, at the supermarket everything is very efficient, everybody is kind, everybody helps you. This is what you see at the top whereas at the bottom... it's difficult to create friendship with people, everybody is continuously competing with you... Nobody seems to be interested in you as you are.. but if you are interesting because you're a good manager, a brilliant researcher or whatever then they are. After asking you your name then the second question is “what you do”? A short story: I invited a classmate to go for a drink and his reply was... “well, I'll be booked over the next weeks but...if you have a myspace.com account, add me”.

Micol, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I come from Voghera, a small town in the countryside near Milan and I took my Master Degree in Medical and Molecular Biotechnology at the San Raffaele Univesity in Milan. I applied for the Fulbright-BEST program because my professional objective is to integrate my scientific skills with experiences that allow me to effort my entrepreneurial spirit. What’s a better place than the Silicon Valley for achieving my goal! This is not my first time in the US, because I came here before for study tour but is my first time away from home for such a long time! Arrive here with the other Italian guys, make everything easier! Moreover thanks to the US Embassy and the Fulbright Association we got in touch with a lot of people living here and that helped us so much in familiarizing with one’s surrounding!
[Micol is currently working at Panomics, a biotech company in Fremont, CA.]

After enjoying the exciting business environment of the Silicon Valley you will be headed back to Italy. Micol, have you considered the possibility of coming back after you are done with your PhD? Does Italy still provide opportunities for people like you?
The final aim of this Fulbright-BEST program is to give the chance to young people to try to discover the secret of the Silicon Valley business environment for bringing back home as much as possible of this powerful know-how. We cannot deny that the Italian reality is very different from here, as many countries in the world are, but I think that even if we cannot think to chance the world, once in Italy we can try to share with other people and students the insightful experience we are having in this unique reality. This could be a first step in trying to change people mindset and way of thinking!

Valentina, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
I received my Master Degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Naples "Federico II" in July 2004. In November 2004 I won a PhD Program scholarship in Materials and Structural Engineering, focused on Biomaterials at the Department of Materials and Production Engineering of the University of Naples "Federico II". I am scheduled to finish my PhD Program in November 2007. For my doctoral studies I was mainly interested on the development and manufacture of tissue regeneration scaffolds. The main goal of my project is to obtain products that provide surgeons with a practical, reproducible and adaptable means of improving the outcome of existing surgical procedures for the regenerative repair of tissues and organs. I applied for the BEST-Fulbright Silicon Valley Immersion Program to acquire entrepreneurial skills and principles to create a spin-off company from my university research group. My challenge is to find funds to create a tissue and organ substitutes company in Italy. This company would be a leading global provider of TE scaffolds that allow patients to continue living healthy and active lifestyles.
[Valentina is currently working at FivePrime, a biotech company in San Francisco, CA.]

In Silicon Valley the social and business network is a crucial factor for success. Valentina, how do you compare the Italian and Silicon Valley attitudes toward social networking? How do you think your experience here in the US will impact your approach to networking?
When I arrived in the Silicon Valley, I didn’t have any idea of the social and business networking value and influence. Since the beginning of this experience, we have been involved in a lot of networking events sponsored by US-Italy associations such as BAIA, SVIEC, Urania, etc. During this kind of events, people have the opportunity to meet and share opinions with very important businessmen. In the Silicon Valley, networking has become almost as natural as breathing, probably because it’s simply an extension of being friendly, outgoing, and active in the communities and professional groups. In Italy, I don’t think there are a lot of professional networking events, or at least, they are not common and mainly not opened to young people!
However, to me networking is all about building relationships and it’s absolutely a two-way street: “You might know someone who can help someone else”. This is the right way to build a good network that can help you for everything such as finding the right job, the best physician as well as a good deal. When I go back to Italy, I don’t want to loose the networking skills I am learning here and, absolutely, I will go on to build and strengthen my network.

I would like to thank Abramo, Elisabetta, Valentina, Micol, and Emanuele for taking the time to speak with me today. I also wish all of them the best for their new professional future once they will be back to Italy. If you have any questions for them or for BAIA, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

An Interview with Daniele Girardi, an Italian Artist

Daniele Girardi is one of the most interesting young artists of the contemporary Italian art scene (website). In his works Daniele explores the fusion of different techniques, repeatedly converting manual work into digital form and vice versa, resulting in a highly sophisticated mosaic of images that contain all the precepts of paintings and have no spatial references. Daniele's works can be seen at the MM Galleries in San Francisco from April 19 to May 26 in an exhibition of mixed-media works entitled Extension of the Inner Landscape. Thanks to Silvia Girardi, BAIA members and friends will have the opportunity to meet Daniele in person on May 24 at the BAIA Investing in Art: the Italian Contemporary Renaissance event. I took advantage of Daniele's recent visit to San Francisco for the opening of the exhibition to ask him a few questions about his artistic activities. Here is the interview.

Daniele, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your artistic activities?
My path as an artist is a fairly common one; I first attended the art institute in my hometown, Verona, then later the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan, which was almost a pretext to leave my small town. In Milan I found inspiration and great connections to pursue my career as a painter, as well as a rich dialogue with many artists, who later became companions along the journey. Anyway, in relation to my artistic education, I feel more as a student of life than of academic studies.

I read that artists “feel the pain of the world while seeing the beauty of the world.” In this world do you feel more pain or see more beauty?
It is known that suffering is a necessary step towards wisdom… a similar kind of labored gestation leads to the birth of art. However the feeling of suffering and the vision of beauty are not the unique prerogative leading to creation. I try to ‘survive’ the continuous stream between reality and vision to build my ‘chromocosmo’ (cosmos of colors) and transform… in color the inquietude of living.

In 2006 you were selected to be part of the ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program) program in New York. How has this experience changed you and your relationship with America?
My recent time in New York has been an inspiring and significant experience. I had the chance to discover new realities, to meet artists from all over the world, and expand my creative horizon diving every day into the megalopolis. It has been a strong impact without compromises… such is the city itself! I looked and observed a lot, I have filled myself with images and sensations of the American culture, so that now only after a few months, I'm transforming those influences into a more fresh and global vision.

You combine digital and traditional techniques in a very interesting way. Can you tell us the reasons for this powerful hybrid combination?
Let's say I have never really worked with a single technique; I have always looked after the union of elements. I have always been intrigued by the alchemy resulting from the combination of different languages and materials. There is always a surprise when opposite elements react and lead you to a discovery of new paths. The nature of painting is at the root of digital image. I try to let these two languages live together in a single territory where both lose their own identities to create a shared one…  like apolide, an identity without a homeland. The hybrid form is continuously changing, as my works are, moving from one phase to the other to fix themselves on the canvas in a continuous ‘come-into-being’.

Your art pieces are fully enjoyable even to people that have never been exposed to art. It’s common for artists to put meaning, shock value, or a message before aesthetic appeal. Can art just be beautiful?
Art, as well as the world, needs positive images available to anyone. In order to create an open dialogue with the viewer, I try to have experimentation and therefore a message coexist with a poetic style and an aesthetic ideal. In a sense I would define my work as ‘pop’ because I transform everyday objects into a new dimension, and give them back to the fantasy world of the painting. My works that are apparently easy to absorb contain under the skin an imaginative world to be discovered and that often remains secret.

What is your relationship with your paintings? Do you try “stay in touch” with them after the sale, or do you let them go?
The relationship with my works reminds me of the relationship between a parent and a son; at a certain stage of his life the son will have to leave the family nest and find his own path to grow and explore the world. This is the way I see my works when I finish them and they are ready to leave -- I wish them to find a good place in other's eyes also.

I would like to thank Daniele Girardi for taking the time to speak with me today, and Silvia Girardi for helping me with coordinating the interview. If you have any questions for Daniele or for BAIA, please leave a comment below and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

Nanochallenge 2007: an Answer to the Challenge of Retaining Innovation in Italy?

From time to time at BAIA we hear about interesting initiatives to retain and promote innovation in Italy. It is undisputed that Italy has a lot of talent in research and engineering. Based on my personal experience of working with companies with U.S. corporate heads and R&D subsidiaries in Italy, I don’t think that Italian engineers have anything to envy to their counterparts in San Jose or Bangalore from a formative and technical skills point of view. The key remains how to unlock this great human capital and turn it into innovation that stays in Italy.

I have learned from the Italian Trade Commission about an interesting initiative called Nanochallenge 2007 that purports to stimulate nanotechnology innovation in Italy. Veneto Nanotech, the Italian Cluster for Nanotechnologies, and IMAST, the Italian technological district on engineering of polymeric and composite materials and structures, are jointly launching the third edition of Nanochallenge, the first international business plan competition on nanotechnologies with two Grand Prizes of €300,000 each.
Details are below:

Matteo Daste

Nanochallenge 2007 doubles its stakes with Polymerchallenge!

Veneto Nanotech, the Italian Cluster for Nanotechnologies, and IMAST, the Italian technological district on Engineering of polymeric and composite materials and structures, are jointly launching the third edition of Nanochallenge, the first international business plan competition on nanotechnologies with a Grand Prize of €300,000. This year, for the first time, the competition doubles its stakes with Polymerchallenge, an additional Grand Prize of €300,000 which will be offered by IMAST to the best project on advanced polymer-based materials.
The business plan competition aims to pinpoint and finance tomorrow’s leading firms in nanotechnologies and polymeric and composite materials and to fund new high-tech ventures in Italy. The winner of the nanotechnologies Grand Prize will receive €300,000 from Veneto Nanotech in order to start its operations within the national nanotechnologies cluster in the Veneto Region (north-east Italy). At the same time the winner of the polymer-based materials Grand Prize will receive from IMAST €300,000 in order to fund a start-up in the technological district on polymeric and composite materials of the Campania Region (south-west Italy).
The main objectives of the two organizers, Veneto Nanotech and IMAST, are to foster research in nanotechnologies and polymer-based materials in Italy and support the creation of new high-tech start-ups by attracting the best talents in the research, industrial and financial areas.
All innovative and feasible ideas regarding nanotechnologies or polymer-based materials are welcome and can participate in the competition. Entry teams will have the opportunity to present their project to international financers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, business angels and top scientists.
A highly-qualified international jury will select the best project during the Final Event on November 29-30.

Partners of Nanochallenge past editions included: Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo, Benet Group, CEI – Central European Initiative, Intel Capital, Lux Capital, 3i Investments, Innogest, NanoDimension AG, Quantica Sgr, PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

Entry Teams can now register on-line.

For further information contact:
Elisabetta Talarico
info@nanochallenge.com
www.nanochallenge.com

USA Ambassador in Rome Ronald Spogli Worries About USA Investments in Italy

On April 19th Italy's main newspaper Corriere della Sera published a letter from the US Ambassador Ronald Spogli. In his epistle, the Ambassador makes a few critical comments about the difficulties US companies could possibly face when investing in Italy.

BAIA is a partner in the Partnership for Growth program started and promoted by the US Embassy in Rome. Also, as business association, we are actively and continuously promoting the dialogue between Italian and Californian entrepreneurs and companies. Ambassador Spogli’s letter provides an authoritative opinion and is an important contribution to the dialogue on this crucial topic.

For our readers convenience, we include a copy of the letter. The original version is available on the Corriere della Sera website.

Federico Brocero

19 aprile, 2007

Caro direttore,
la decisione di At&t, una delle più grandi aziende statunitensi e leader mondiale nel settore delle telecomunicazioni, di ritirare la sua proposta d'investimento in Italia, ha suscitato tanti commenti e molte discussioni. L'Italia ha perso l'interesse da parte di un'impresa di altissimo livello, capace di migliorare i servizi di telecomunicazione, ridurre i costi per gli utenti italiani e aumentare il valore di un'azienda nazionale.

Allo stesso tempo, ciò che è accaduto è stato utile ad attirare l'attenzione sul possibile ruolo degli investitori esteri per la crescita economica dell' Italia. L'episodio Telecom Italia-At&t permette infatti un'analisi più ampia. Da oltre un anno sto promuovendo un'iniziativa dell'ambasciata degli Stati Uniti in Italia chiamata Partnership for Growth. L'obiettivo è quello di stimolare le grandi potenzialità dell'economia italiana, che spesso non vengono pienamente sfruttate.

L'iniziativa si è concentrata soprattutto sull'imprenditoria e sull'innovazione come forze trainanti della crescita. Tra le varie attività, abbiamo analizzato con diversi interlocutori italiani la necessità di ampliare il mercato dei capitali e di promuovere strumenti finanziari che possano aiutare gli imprenditori a creare nuove imprese e a far crescere e rendere più competitive quelle già esistenti. Senza accesso ai capitali, ovvero agli investimenti, l'imprenditoria rimane solo un'idea. Come noto, gli investimenti in aziende nuove o già esistenti in Italia sono scarsi.

Si preferisce investire nelle proprietà immobiliari, o nella casa per il figlio, piuttosto che scommettere su una nuova azienda promettente. Spesso, inoltre, vengono innalzate barriere nei confronti delle imprese straniere che intendono investire in Italia. Sia che si tratti di investimenti in infrastrutture (autostrade o aziende di telecomunicazione), in servizi finanziari (una grande banca) o nei trasporti (una compagnia aerea), una delle prime reazioni all'interessamento da parte di un'azienda straniera è la sottolineatura che deve prevalere l'interesse nazionale.

Qual è il risultato di questo approccio poco aperto nei confronti dei capitali stranieri? Un rapido confronto con gli altri Paesi europei può essere molto illuminante. Secondo i dati dell'Unctad, la Conferenza delle Nazioni Unite per il Commercio e lo Sviluppo, nel 2005 l'Italia ha attirato circa 20 miliardi di dollari di nuovi investimenti stranieri. La Francia oltre 60 miliardi. La Gran Bretagna, leader tra i Paesi più industrializzati, 165 miliardi.

In qualità di ambasciatore degli Stati Uniti, mi interesso maggiormente degli investimenti del mio Paese, e anche in questo caso la situazione non è confortante. Fino al 2005 il totale degli investimenti americani in Italia ammontava a poco meno di 26 miliardi di dollari, ben al di sotto dei 324 miliardi in Gran Bretagna, degli 86 miliardi in Germania, dei 61 miliardi in Francia e perfino dei 43 miliardi in Spagna. Questi dati dovrebbero far riflettere. Gli investimenti non arrivano dove non sono ben accolti, dove le regole del mercato vengono cambiate continuamente.

Modificare le regole aumenta il livello di rischio e rende molto difficile programmare le azioni future di un'impresa o di un singolo cittadino. Non conosco i dettagli della trattativa per Telecom, ma la lettera di rinuncia di At&t esprime chiaramente il timore di investire in un mercato dove le regole sono imprevedibili. Credo che sia un timore comprensibile, che la maggioranza degli italiani condividerebbe.

Bisognerebbe concentrarsi meno su chi vuole investire e maggiormente sul fatto che l'Italia è agli ultimi posti tra i Paesi europei in termini di crescita del Pil e aumento dei salari e della produttività. Esiste un chiaro legame tra questi dati e lo scarso livello degli investimenti. Per assicurare la giusta priorità alla crescita e alla produttività, occorre valutare attentamente e senza pregiudizi le proposte di investimento.

Le aziende otterranno maggiori fondi e diverranno più competitive? Il cambiamento aggiungerà valore? I servizi miglioreranno? I consumatori, a Roma, Milano o Lecce, avranno benefici? Queste sono le domande da porsi, ricordando sempre che tutto ciò che stimola gli investimenti esteri ha un impatto positivo anche sugli investimenti interni. Per questo motivo, c'è bisogno di una visione più positiva.

L'Italia deve crescere e competere con successo nel mercato globale per sostenere il suo modello sociale e per offrire nuove opportunità ai giovani. Un atteggiamento più aperto nei confronti degli investimenti può senza dubbio aiutare a raggiungere questi importanti obiettivi.

Ronald P. Spogli,
Ambasciatore degli Stati Uniti in Italia

A Message from Torino: Come to Study Engineering in Italy!

Francesco Profumo, Dean of the Politecnico di Torino, recently sent a message inviting the best aspiring engineering students outside Italy to join his renowned University. At BAIA we are glad to help Francesco spread and promote his message through our blog. If you are a student and you would like to study engineering then you should seriously consider this option. Not only will you have the opportunity to attend classes at the Politecnico di Torino, one of the best Italian universities, you will have also a chance to live in Torino, a very charming European city.

Franco Folini

Come to study engineering in Italy!
Let me talk about future. You probably don't know that the Torino 's Politecnico have today 1,600 foreign students (about 6% of the total), but our dream is to reach the 10% (al least!).
Since Monday March 19, 2007 we opened the new section of our website for the on line applications of new foreign students for the academic year 2007/08.
Please check it and send the information to your friends in USA to promote the Politecnico di Torino. I really hope to have more and more "excellent foreign students" studying in our School, reaching from here the top of high tech companies like Cisco and GE.
The call is for Bachelor, Master of Science, Ph.D and Executive Masters students and we offer a good school, student residences, financial support, courses in English, a good environment, a "warm and beautiful city" and many friends coming from 89 different countries! We have to work for this Project.
Please, let me know if you need any further information.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon, all the best.

Francesco Profumo
Dean
Politecnico di Torino

An Interview with Ian Wright, Founder and CEO of Wrightspeed

Ian Wright is CEO of Wrightspeed, the Californian company working to bring high performance electric cars to the market. Before founding Wrightspeed in January 2005, Ian was vice-president of vehicle development at Tesla Motors. Last week at an electric sportscars event in San Francisco organized by BAIA, Ian presented the X1 prototype to a group of car enthusiasts and business people. I invited him to participate in the following interview to delve deeper into some of the interesting topics that were brought up during his presentation.

Ian, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
Sure. I have an engineering background, mostly in data communications equipment. But I used to build and race cars as a hobby, when I lived in Australia. I’ve always been interested in performance cars, and also in electric cars. I guess the engineer in me likes the unbeatable efficiency, and the nice match of the torque curve to the demand. But in the past, I didn’t think it was worth building electric cars, because the batteries just weren’t good enough to make an interesting car.
Now they are… if you wanted to, you could build an electric car with 500 mile range. Or more than a thousand horsepower. Or one in which the batteries would last 15 years, and 250,000 miles. But you can’t do all of that in the same car, and you can’t make a cheap electric car. So trade-offs are necessary.
But one trade-off suffered by internal combustion (IC) cars does not apply to electric cars. In an IC car, if you design for performance, the car will be thirsty even if driven carefully. If you design for efficiency, the car will be slow. This is not true for electric cars. You can design for very high performance, without any loss of efficiency (compared with low performance electric car). Possibly even at some efficiency gain.
In 2005 I founded Wrightspeed to build extreme performance electric cars, which would make use of this very interesting property of electric drive-systems. The first thing I did was build a high performance prototype, to test the concept, and to gauge customer reaction.

The X1 prototype seems to be showcase to attract investorsʼ attention and to display your skills in building high-performance electric cars. What did you learn from that prototype and from people's reactions to it?
It’s been very educational. I expected that the X1 prototype would appeal only to a very narrow slice of humanity: some subset of racing drivers. And part of the objective was to get a sense of the size of that slice – would it support a startup company?
Also, I didn’t really expect any media attention, and I did expect that the prototype would be something that anyone could drive.
I was wrong on all counts. (I did predict the actual performance numbers, and the car actually meets the predictions. So the engineering was OK…)
Firstly, the styling, concept, performance, and the fact that it’s electric, appeal to an amazing wide spectrum of people. Not just racing drivers. From little kids (I’ve done show-and-tell at a couple of schools) to strong silent types driving pickup trucks, to grandmothers, homeless people up in SF, professional racing drivers, and even most of the law enforcement people I’ve met…
I’m collecting some great stories. Perhaps my favorite so far is about the very elderly lady I met outside Bucks in Woodside one day. (There was the usual crowd around the car.) She was walking very slowly by, using a cane, and stopped to ask all the usual questions. She asked very good questions, and was obviously fascinated. Her last question was “And how much will the production version cost?” I said “Oh, about $120k.” She thought about this for a moment – clearly weighing the cost/value – then said “Well! That’s less than the Rolls!” And off she went.
And the car has had some awesome media exposure: Business 2.0, Autoweek, Discovery Channel, PBS, KRON4, IEEE Spectrum, Wired, Die Zeit, Radio NZ, Robb Report (March feature article)… without any requests from us. Before that first test, the drag race against the Carrera GT, November 2005, I did call a few journalists, to suggest that there might be a story about to happen. Not one called me back, and I thought “I guess they are not interested in electric cars. They’ve been there…”
The next TV piece is Discovery Channel, end of May.
And the hardest lesson was foreshadowed by the friend I took for the first demo ride. He said, as we parked after the ride, “You know Ian, this is too much car for most people.” A couple of weeks later, I met a mutual friend, and let him drive. He normally drives a Porsche Turbo, and I coached him on the fact that there is so much torque, that if you are not going exactly straight, using full “throttle” will cause the car to spin. Immediately. It’s catchable, but everything happens fast, so you have to be in a heightened state of adrenalin… It was Highway 9, out of Saratoga. There were very slightly damp patches… he did the first corner fine, right at the point that I thought was the upper end of safe. The next corner, he wasn’t going too fast, at all. But before he straightened the wheel, he nailed the accelerator. The rear tires can only do so much, so… around we go. He lifted his foot immediately, but forgot the opposite lock. Sadly there was a power pole there… No injuries, just the feeling of being a helpless passenger. I hate that.
It took a while to absorb that lesson. We plan for the production car to have stability control, preventing this kind of accident. There’s quite a bit of development involved.

In order to build your prototype you had many options. Why did you choose the Ariel among the several "rolling chassis" available (e.g., Ultima, Noble)?
Well, I’d driven one, with 190hp Rover engine, a few years before. And fallen in love. It’s the lightest thing out there that you can drive on the street. And Simon Saunders, the designer and founder of Ariel, is a really interesting guy. I’ve learned a lot from him. I’ve met Lee Noble, the designer of the Ultima and the Noble (but haven’t driven his cars). He’s a really interesting guy too (England seems to be the place for this sort of thing.) But in the end, I was looking for the lightest weight. 1500 lbs for the complete car was the target. I missed by 36 lbs.

The electric car is a hot topic with new companies and products (Tesla, Zap, etc.) popping up every other day. How do you plan to compete with them?
I don’t. I plan to compete with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and to some extent Mercedes. The electric car companies intend to compete ultimately with Toyota. They are selling efficiency; I’m selling performance. Extreme performance. I do think it’s great to have several startup companies in California attacking different parts of the market.

According to your CBO (Chief Business Officer) Marv Bush (source), your plan is to build a car with electric motors on each wheel. Some expert believes that this is not a viable solution for high-performance cars. What is your opinion on that?
Hmmm, sounds like a cocktail party misapprehension. It’s certainly true that motors in the wheels increase the unsprung mass to a very large degree. And in performance cars, ultimately, it’s all about getting the most grip from the tires at all times. And that requires keeping them in contact with the road, which is much easier if the weight that moves up and down with the tire is very low compared with the weight of the rest of the car. There are also subtleties to do with feedback to the driver through the steering wheel (self aligning torque, confused by driving the front wheels), and the fact that the way electric motors scale, it’s lighter to make one big one than 4 smaller ones, for the same peak power.
It’s also true that we have no intention of using motors in the wheels. We are building extreme performance cars, not buses.

Switching from gasoline to electricity could have a strong impact on many aspects of a car, from the shape to the weight distribution. What differences can we expect to see in the next electric car?
Good observation. There is certainly more freedom about mass distribution, and possibly less cooling air required. Stay tuned, the next version will be quite different from the prototype. Sorry I can’t say more right now.

You're showing your ideas and skills in order to raise the first round of funding. Based on this experience, do you have any recommendations to share with other new entrepreneurs?
This is the first time I’ve actually built a working prototype before looking for funding. I recommend it, if it’s at all possible. It keeps you talking to customers, anchored in the real world, and it proves a lot to potential investors.

We can say that the recent BAIA (Business Association Italy America) event held at the ClubSportiva in San Francisco has been very successful. What has your experience been like with BAIA?
Great! I didn’t know what to expect, but I had a great time. Good people, great questions, good food! I’ve met some interesting people.

I would like to thank Ian Wright for taking the time to speak with me today, and Cristiano Sacchi for his invaluable guidance in helping me understand technical aspects of high performance cars. If you have any questions for Ian or for BAIA, please leave a comment below, and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

Wrightspeed Makes Electric Cars Even More Exciting

Yesterday BAIA members and BAIA friends had the pleasure to hear Ian Wright talking about his invention: the Wrightspeed X1. The event was hosted by ClubSportiva, a car membership club in San Francisco and made possible by our sponsors: COORitalia, FluidFilm, Birra Moretti, Mana Productions, Andretti Winery, and Caffè del Doge.

Mary Trigiani talks about the event on her blog. I will report with more detail about the event and about this fabulous car. Now I just want to share with you a couple of very interesting videos.

Wrightspeed X1 Electric Car beats Ferrari and Porsche

Wrightspeed X1 vs Lamborghini and NASCAR

More Videos
Two more very interesting videos are available on PBS Science Investigators website:

• Bahareh's Wild Ride
• Not Your Father's Golf Cart

Latest Updates (added April 4, 2007)
Don't forget to take a look at the event pictures on Flickr. This event has been featured by Wired magazine with an interesting article by Chaddus Bruce: Wrightspeed's X1 Electric Supercar Sparks Hybrid Dreams.

Franco Folini

An Interview with Nazzareno Gorni, Business Development of NWEB

Nazzareno Gorni is the co-founder and Business Development of NWEB, the Italian company offering MailUp, a popular e-mail marketing service. Nazzareno is a friend of BAIA and I invited him to participate in the following interview:

Nazzareno, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
I'm 34, I have a PhD in Management Engineering, and I'm recently married. I worked for 5 years as a consultant in marketing and communications technologies, and then I founded NWeb -- a web engineering company -- in 2002 with 4 friends.
NWeb has developed an ESP (email service provider) named MailUp.  MailUp is a .NET application for sending newsletters and email marketing campaigns, up to millions of recipients. We are market leaders in Italy thanks to our unique features and innovative pricing model (truly flat fee). We were ahead of our US competitors so we decided to export MailUp in the US, and later we arrived in San Francisco.

Can you tell us how MailUp is approaching the global market, and what are the plans for the future?
MailUp is currently available in three languages: Italian, English, and French. In Italy we have important customers like IULM College University, the Alfa Romeo Racing Team, Venice City Hall, MyAir.com, La Perla Group, Fiera Milano International, Coin, and EURO RSCG.  Also, IBM, Oracle, Symantec, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and many others now use our services, through MailUp resellers, to send newsletters.  In the US MailUp is used by Laplink (Washington), IACCW (Los Angeles), BAIA, BrasilSF, and Novedge (San Francisco).
MailUp is investing in R&D and we will release the new MailUp release 6.0 in a few weeks. We believe that email will be the real killer application in the mobile phones market. If we look at the global picture in 2006, about 34% of the world population has a mobile phone (source), while only 13% of the world population has a PC with an internet connection (source). For several years to come the mobile phone will be the primary way for most people to exchange data and information. And we have several ideas on how to develop MailUp in that direction. When the network PC and the IP connection become widely available, I think email will maintain its role as a keystone in communication.
We are quite a little company (our revenues are about $700,000) and we are growing, in Italy alone about 40% per year. This explains how hard it is for us to invest outside Italy as needed, even if we have a very good service, with nice margins and a good outlook (like many SaaS services). The war against other worldwide competitors is very challenging due to marketing investments which need to be measured very carefully.

As an Italian company, do you perceive the (English-Italian) language barrier as a protection for your domestic market or as an obstacle for a global growth?
I don't think Italian is a big barrier to protect our domestic market from foreign companies.  It's more of an obstacle for an Italian company's global growth for two reasons: the first is that many managers in Italy do not speak or even understand English, and the second reason is that Italy is famous for food, fashion, culture, and mobile phones, but not for IT solutions. There are no US competitors in Italy; I think mainly because our market is too small for those companies.

E-mail is quickly becoming just one of the many options to communicate with customers. How is MailUp dealing with this always changing landscape?
I see that email is still the preferred option for communication. It's easy, universally used, fast, available on many devices, and with low or no cost. I'm sure that once mobile push-email is affordable not only at a business level but also to the larger number of consumers, email use will increase even more. Just think of the possibility of easily sending a picture, video, or broadcasting an application.  It could be the real revolution, after the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) failure.

Do you have any suggestions for a successful e-mail newsletter?
If we are talking about a B2B newsletter, I suggest:

a) Send a newsletter only when you have something really interesting to say to your contacts.

b) Pay attention to compatibility. Your message needs to communicate effectively in the preview panel, even before image downloading. So be careful while defining your sender name, your subject, and the first part of your message.

c) Track your activity. Don't say everything inside the message, be short! If interested, the receiver will click and continue reading on the web site, and you will learn which topics are the most important ones to your recipients.

What is your connection with BAIA? Did MailUp benefit from that connection?
BAIA is very important for us. After just one BAIA meeting I had one customer and one partner! I remember the first BAIA meeting I attended last year. I met a lot of interesting people, thanks also to Matteo Fabiano. I was so excited that the day after I opened my personal Blog (sorry but it's in Italian), in order to let my friends and colleagues know about my experience in San Francisco. I also met Massimo Arrigoni, founder of Early Impact.  A successful partnership was born from that meeting, which is still growing and creating new business opportunities. Thanks BAIA!

I would like to thank Nazzareno Gorni for taking the time to speak with me today. If you have any questions for Nazzareno or for BAIA, please leave a comment below, and we will be glad to answer.

Franco Folini

Of Roaring Hearts and Technology

As BAIA gears up to deliver a “can’t miss” event in the auto world, I feel compelled to report on the flattering comments of Rick Wagoner, head of GM, toward the rebirth of Italian FIAT, as highlighted at the Genève auto show.

Quoting Wagoner “Italy must be proud of the rebirth of FIAT”. In fact, much of the most exciting new models on stage in Genève are “Made in Torino”. Among them: the FIAT “Bravo”, debuting in these days in Europe, the “GranTurismo” Maserati, (Modena brand of Lingotto), the return of the Abarth icon, and of course scintillating Ferrari showing off not just roaring “cavallini” but also record results.

For more on Genève’s auto show check this link, and for a snapshot on that unique blend of art, emotion and technology which characterizes the Italian auto tradition, here’s a sneak peak on Bertone’s “Barchetta” concept car.

See you at BAIA’s event on March 29th. Warm up your engines and get ready to be amazed!

Lucia Panini