BAIAblog

Event recap: Transplanting startups in Silicon Valley

A cross section of the Bay Area public gathered in Palo Alto for the recent BAIA Panel event on October 14th. With the generous support of SAP Labs we were able to use the global software company’s Silicon Valley headquarters as the setting for our panel discussion.

After mingling over great wines and food, offered by Cafè Renzo of Palo Alto, Italian and American entrepreneurs, professors, students, along with many expats joined in (check out some photos) to tackle this fascinating and controversial topic: Transplanting Start ups in Silicon Valley: does it work? Can Italian tech companies be successful at home? Must international entrepreneurs move their companies to Silicon Valley if they hope to compete on a global scale? What’s the evidence?

This was the starting point for the discussion, which, along with moderator Massimo Arrigoni, BAIA Board member and CEO of Early Impact, a California-based eCommerce software company, featured prestigious and lively panelists such as Vivek Wadhwa, the inspiring Berkeley professor and senior research associate at Harvard Law school. Sharing the stage with him, seasoned and new Italian entrepreneurs such as: Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, Marco Marinucci, Google Manager and founder of Mind the Bridge, Aldo Cocchiglia, CEO of M31 USA, and Augusto Marietti, 22 year old co-founder and CEO of Mashape.

When talking about success in Silicon Valley, the Italian business community questions itself. It looks as if transplanting start ups from Italy hasn’t been very successful so far: why do always the same names come up? Why so few success stories? Is it an Italian problem? Has it worked with companies transplanted from other countries?

The speakers addressed these questions from different perspectives. Vivek Wadhwa, who is also a regular contributor for the online blog Tech Crunch, pointed out the importance in changing the idea of exporting Silicon Valley around the world. “Why do you bother to come into the USA? Why don’t you build a new Silicon Valley in Europe?” was his provoking question. But how do you recreate the same vibe you feel here in Silicon Valley? Vivek gave us the example of Chile. The country is hoping to lure private companies by granting $40,000 grants and providing cheap office space and accommodation to budding entrepreneurs from around the world. “We should teach each other to build ecosystems to create new Silicon Valleys around the world”, emphasized the columnist for Business Week.

So what is the “Italian problem” then? Too many internal policy issues? Or do Italians lack the attitude to succeed in this environment? Marco Marinucci, founder and executive director of Mind the bridge (a non-profit organization that aims to link the most innovative Italian start ups with Silicon Valley resources) pointed out at some of the issues: lack of management skills and auto referential politicians are important limits, or more specifically, “barriers”, as Augusto Marietti mentioned; structural barriers which limit Italian company to go global.

On the other hand success is repeatable as Marinucci emphasizes: "We need to use success stories to mentor and encourage new entrepreneurs." In a country where there is little investment in research, where the public discourse and the media are often focused on old political and economic patterns, it is important to find new ways to package content in order to reach the public. “It can be done” is the positive attitude and thinking that can persuade Italian entrepreneurs to empower new ideas, building a diverse culture that encourages risk taking and openness.

“Italy is the best place to develop software” said Fabrizio Capobianco. Italian universities produce a continuous stream of fresh bright minds even though as Aldo Cocchiglia - who has over 30 years of extensive experience in the world of start ups and technology entrepreneurship - underlined: “Professors don’t stimulate entrepreneurs as they do here in Silicon Valley”. Italian Universities lack the connection with the real world of business.

The hybrid model looks like the best option so far: it is important to keep good creative and relatively inexpensive engineers in Italy while transplanting financial and marketing resources to Silicon Valley, opening office with sales, marketing and finance teams. But still Silicon Valley seems to be the place to go “to change the world and get what you want”.

We hope you will join us at our next events!

Rossella Florio

PS: Resource Links: 

• Official event photos
• SF Examiner article #1
• SF Examiner article #2
• SF Examiner video #1
• SF Examiner video #2
• Chile entrepreneurial stimulus case study

Interview with Paul, Ferrari, CEO of A.G. Ferrari

Italians living in the Bay Area are lucky. We can easily get all the ingredients for a real Italian dinner, or if we are lazy, we can get a real Italian dinner to take home. It's not the big supermarkets that support our culinary traditions, nor the canned food aligned on the shelves at the corner grocery stores. What allows us to feel close to Italy is Ferrari Foods, a group of high quality Italian food stores spread throughout the Bay Area. Enter any Ferrari Foods store and you quickly realize that the store is not a well kept secret of the Italian community. All ethnicities of the Bay Area are well represented among the excited customers browsing through delicious items offered by Ferrari. The person that continuously scouts Italy for the best food and the most original ideas to bring to the store is Paul Ferrari, the CEO of the company and grandchild of the founder. I asked Paul a few questions to get his qualified opinions about his business and the status of the Italian food industry here in USA.

Paul can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?

In 1916 my Grandfather, Annibale Giovanni Ferrari, was sent to live in the US from the Emilia-Romagna at the age 16, when my Great-Grandfather Rocco Ferrari worried that the war might claim the life of another one of his sons. He worked for a while in food establishments in San Francisco. A childhood spent in the family’s gastronomia in Italy led to him opening the Parisian Delicatessen in San Jose in 1919. He called it this because at the time French food was considered the best, not Italian, though the food was of course Italian! The business later moved to Berkeley the East Bay (he always wanted to be near well traveled university professors and students who would appreciate his food) and I grew up playing in the shop with my dad Harold running it. My taking over the business the 1980s was the next natural progression.

The Italian community in the US is always struggling between old stereotypes (both positive and negative) and the new Italian reality (both positive and negative). What can we do as Italians and American-Italians to improve and modernize the perception of our culture in this country?

I strongly believe that education is key. Hollywood has helped to create a lot of these stereotypes, and what many Americans consider to be “Italian” is mainly representative of the southern half of Italy. While the south is a rich and wonderful land, it is not the whole of Italy and regionally very different of course. Since food is my background, and food is culture, I enjoy taking on the challenge of educating Americans through the regional food specialties we carry in our stores. Some of the items we carry even surprise Italians who may not have tried Troffie pasta from Liguria or Taralli from Puglia if they are not themselves from these regions.

You frequently scout Italy looking for new delicious products to propose in your shops scattered throughout the Bay Area. How has the food offered from Italy changed in the last 15-20 years? What changes should we expect in the future?

A new generation is starting to take over in Italy. About 15 years ago I was worried that there might be an expiration date on some of the small businesses I was working with. Many were run by an older man or woman with their children and grandchildren off investigating other professions. Now I see many of these younger family members finding their niche within the family business and bringing new life to them. It’s very exciting. With them they are bringing in innovation to add to the tradition. We see this reflected in new and exciting food combinations, innovative design in packaging and expanding product lines. It is wonderful though that the focus on traditional production techniques is as strong as ever. Another changing area is that there is a huge focus in the US on organic products, local, green… many of which are ideas that are innate in Italian foods from small producers like those we work with. While previously non-existent, marketing to this is becoming more prevalent in Italy as consumers are looking for official certification.

The Italian food tradition is based on small producers and local traditions. This doesn't match very well with the American approach which is based more on big corporations and a large homogeneous market. Can Italian products thrive and succeed in US on a larger scale?

Yes, I believe so but I feel we are looking at two different markets. Italian foods offer simplicity and health, two key factors for Americans when they are doing their shopping. Many of the US consumers are looking for pasta, olive oils, vinegar and sauces imported from Italy, which thanks to big brand names are often cheaper than domestic brands yet offer authenticity. However there is also a separate, market for high end Italian specialty foods that include higher quality import cheeses, limited production olive oils, pastas created with bronze dies, more expensive regional specialty foods. These two different consumers will each help Italian products thrive but their buying patterns are different.

Ferrari Foods shops are concentrated in the Bay Area. Is there a cultural reason behind that (like a strong Italian presence), or is this a strategic decision of your company?

We are here because Annibale Ferrari came here. We are very fortunate to be in such a food & wine oriented part of the country and I still see room for growth here.

We see many times low quality non-Italian products sold under some supposedly Italian brand. Do you think in the long term this can affect the good name of real Italian products? How can Italy and Italians protect the reputation of their own brands and products against these cheap marketing tricks?

This is the main reason we opened an office in Italy. This was and still is big problem. This is the reason I am in Italy every 6-8 weeks visiting vendors, helping with production, making new contacts. It isn’t enough to find a producer, you must also maintain strong relationships in order to know exactly who, and what, you are working with.
It goes back to education as well. In our stores we spend a lot of time educating both our staff as well as customers on the key differences between true Italian food products and much of what you find out there. The DOP symbol is vital to this as well in protecting the products as well as the producers’ business in Italy. The law behind the symbol ensures that only products genuinely originating in a given region, and following traditional production techniques, are allowed to enter into commerce as such. The legislation came into force in 1992 to protect the reputation of the regional foods and eliminate the unfair competition and misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which may be of inferior quality or of different flavor. When you purchase an item with this symbol, you are supporting the highest standards for producers who are continuing centuries old traditions. Conzorzi play a fundamental role as well in that they place special focus on initiatives aimed at protecting the quality and unique original characteristics of their product. They are dedicated to safeguarding the flavors and the diffusion of historical, cultural and traditional knowledge related to the product itself.

While the American food industry is strongly based on the concept of brand, as something that belongs to a corporation, the Italian industry is more based on "brands" without any specific owner (e.g. Taleggio, Lardo di Colonnata, etc.). Within Europe this problem has been addressed by the EU. What is the situation in the US and what should be done to better protect these "brands"?

We in the United States still have a long way to go as we are just starting to scratch the surface on this issue. Farmers markets, a focus on producers and the like are helping to bring awareness to this. People should get to know their grocer, their local restaurant’s chef, and ask questions about where their food is coming from and who makes it. When you see a cheese you love on a menu, ask if it’s local or imported (depending on the cheese you’d prefer one or the other). Again, symbols like DOP that protect authenticity are important. Going even further, it’s important to educate consumers that even with authentic Italian products, there are varying degrees of quality and the price is affected by this. It’s important to know that when you purchase cheese for example from a small Italian artisan, rather than a large Italian corporation, you are most like going to pay more. Much like when choosing to buy organic, the choice to buy from smaller producers is your vote to protect the quality and traditions behind the product.

I would like to thank Paul Ferrari for taking time for this interview. If you have a question for Paul or for BAIA please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below. I would recommend to visit your local Ferrari Foods store to experience in person the quality and variety of their selection. If you don't live in the Bay Area you can find most of the Ferrari Foods products on Amazon!

Franco Folini

An Interview with Nora Archambeau, Intern Placement Specialist

Internship in the US is for many people a life-changing experience; usually a very positive one. When young European men and women return home after a few months spent working in an American company they are changed. It's a difference many of them carry with them for the rest of their lives that makes them special and more valuable on the professional level as well as individuals. Some might find their own country too small to fit in as before, and feel a strong desire to explore more of the world. They are no longer Italian or French anymore, nor are they Americans. They have simply become citizens of the world -- a special category of open-minded, free-spirited, multi-cultural people. On the other hand, US companies hosting interns from Europe get exposure to a pool of fresh, determined, brilliant young talents. They get new ideas, enthusiasm, and the opportunity to test-drive some of their best future employees. In order for the two halves of the internship to meet successfully, both sides may need some help. Nora Archambeau with Intern Abroad USA, is one of the few people able to make the magic happen. Here is her interview.

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

I’m a native San Franciscan, born into a big French-Irish Catholic family of four sisters and one brother (poor guy!).  Exposure to different cultures began early on living in the Mission District, where Mexican-Americans, Italian-Americans, and Irish-Americans all shared the same neighborhood.  The family eventually moved to the East Bay where I completed schooling, then attended Holy Names University.  It was here that my passion for internationals grew since there was a school for English as a Second Language (ESL) on campus.  Meeting people from Italy, France, Brazil, Venezuela, Germany, Japan, etc. made my “little world” so much bigger and exciting!  Having a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor in French, I decided my 1st real career would be in International Education.  I also wanted to fulfill a dream and experience living in France.  It’s been a blessing that I’ve lived in both Paris and Dijon, have spent time in South India, and have traveled to several Eastern and Western countries. I have an M.A. in East-West Psychology and think it’s fun to be called an Indophile and a Francophile.  In this highly changeable world, many of us are pushed to and often have a thirst to fulfill many gifts.  One of these gifts is using the combination of business, education, and internationalism to find clients interns from Europe, and hopefully, later the world, through Intern Abroad USA!

Internships can be a great opportunity not only for young students but also for companies.  What are your recommendations for small companies looking to hire a few interns?

Here are a few of my recommendations: (a) Clarify your reasons for hiring an intern; (b) What are the primary goals you’d like to see fulfilled in 4, 6, or 9 months? (c) Which country would you be interested in hosting an intern for your business? (d) How can you best support bringing out the talents and gifts of a young professional? (e) What is there to learn from hiring and working with an intern? (f) Which service company can you trust and could offer the smoothest hiring process?

In a few words, can you tell a young European student why s/he should leave the comfort and beauty of a European city for an internship in Florida or California?

For the sheer adventure of doing it! The word ad-ven-ture is defined as: (1) an exciting or extraordinary event or series of events; (2) the participation or willingness to participate in things that involve uncertainty and risk; (3) to dare to go somewhere new or engage in something dodgy!
Adventure, newness, and risking all provide the ingredients that shape and mold us into strong, more capable, and creative individuals. Opening up to new experiences, new cultures and people, and exposure to different beauties expand and stretch our thinking, beliefs, and approaches to problem-solving.  If I hadn’t adventured out at night on the streets of Venezia and trusted I’d find my way back, well, I’d probably still be wondering around, living in basilicas here and there, having never again found my pensione in Dorsodoro!

Many interns come from Europe mainly to improve their English.  Which other, less evident, benefits can they receive working in a foreign country and a unique environment such as the San Francisco Bay area?

Some of the benefits they can receive are: (a) Learn to trust more in themselves and in others; (b) Hone their intuitive and intellectual abilities; (c) Build on adaptive and flexibility skills; (d) Increase culture-to-culture communication proficiency; (e) Add new conduits in the brain; (f) Willingness to accept a larger variety of ethnicities! (g) Know that there are differences working in SF and Silicon Valley.  SF offers warmth, friendliness, cultural variety, intuitive thinking, city excitement with a hometown feeling; Silicon Valley presents self-sufficiency, methodical thinking, high energy environments, and a constant production of innovative ideas.

Based on your experience, what are the most common realistic and unrealistic assumptions interns have about the San Francisco Bay area?

Realistic
(a) working in America can sometimes lead to a permanent job; (b) having a U.S. company listed on one’s  resume or CV may open more doors once having returned home; (c) their English will most definitely improve; (d) most Americans are sincerely friendly and helpful whenever possible.
Unrealistic
(e) working in America guarantees permanent employment; (f) the opportunities to advance economically are unlimited; (g) Americans have ALL the answers!
Last, You just may fall in love… with the City, with technology, with Noah’s Bagels… or maybe even with the love of your life!

As Europeans, we look to Silicon Valley as a reference model for business and technology.  When looking at Europe at large, what do you see that could be successfully imported to help Americans perform even better in the SF Bay area?

(a) To take a longer time to work on the product before it is launched to the market so that less recalls occur; (b) To cultivate the social side of a business relationship more before launching into potential business deals; (c) Communicating more from a cross-cultural perspective can lessen conflicts and allow for smoother decisions to be made, e.g., the EU; (d) To encourage Americans to increase their attention span from nano-seconds to minutes!
Franco, thank you for inviting me to be interviewed!

I would like to thank the Nora Archambeau for taking the time for this interview and for the important work she does every day with Intern Abroad USA promoting and supporting Euro-American internships. If you have a question for Nora or for BAIA please feel free to contact us or leave a comment below. Nora is also an active member of our online community BAIA Link where she can also be reached.

Franco Folini

An interview with Andrea Gumina, Italian Economist and Entrepreneur

On April 18, 2008 Andrea Gumina led a delegation of Italian angel investors and professionals to Silicon Valley. BAIA had the pleasure to meet with Andrea and the other visitors and exchange some ideas. I asked Andrea a few questions after he returned to Italy. Here is the complete interview.

Andrea, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

Well, basically I am an Economist of Innovation. After a degree in Economics at Luiss Guido Carli, I started working on e-Government: in the beginning at the Italian Cabinet Office, then at my Department. After a MA in Ethics, in 2006 I earned a Ph.D. in History of Economic Development and then started working at several projects in the area of Angel and Start-Up Capital. Among them, Start-Up Meetings, a joint-program setup with the Roman Committee of the Italian Young Entrepreneurs and Luiss Alumni Association, gave life to renewed focus on investments on knowledge-based enterprise. Besides this, after having funded (and left) two companies, actually I’m also CEO at NexttLab, an academic spin-off working as a consultancy and as a developer of cutting-edge ICT-enabled organizational tools.

What prompted your recent April 2008 trip to Silicon Valley?

Since I met Richard Boly of the US Embassy in Rome, in March 2007, and he introduced me – and my colleagues – Ambassador Spogli’s P4G, we tried to setup several common initiatives. In September, I worked with Richard to promote a trip at Kauffman and Marquette, in order to understand how angel investing worked in US: coming back, some of the participants promoted Italian Angels for Growth. Then, it came January study tour in Silicon Valley – that I missed, due to my Honey Moon. After several months, April 2008 trip in Silicon Valley (and then in New York and Boston), was aimed at making some qualified Italian investors meet potential US partners, in order to start co-investment in Italian-US based companies. We think it’s not just a matter of business: it’s also our way to help our Country to change instead of wasting talent and competitiveness.

What did you find most interesting during your trip in relation to your early stage investing objectives?

Silicon Valley opened our mind with several brand new ideas: first of all, we fully understood what Ambassador Spogli means with “ecosystem”, and we found out that it is so unique, that it will be very difficult to replicate it abroad. Besides this, one the greatest success of our mission has been to successfully test our co-investment model. We find out how interesting is for US investors to foster qualified linkages with Italian ones, and we also confirmed our idea about how much room is there for global start-ups, operating in hi-tech context. Definitely, having understood that “we can do that” represent the most amazing follow-up of our trip.

What future plans do you have now?

As I told you, now we are ready to start our Seed / Venture Fund operating for high-potential Italian companies who wish to be co-invested by Italian and US operators. Furthermore, as we deeply think that “global entrepreneurship” represents an important challenge for our Country, we are going to promote, together with other key people and institutions, a not-for-profit Foundation which will act as a hub for the innovation process’ stakeholders. We started a negotiation with some Italian- and US-based lobbying, educational, entrepreneurial and institutional groups, and I very optimistic about this operation. Finally, I’m setting up my next company, which will be thought to be based in Italy and Silicon Valley.

Tell us how/if BAIA helped and how the BAIA Network could be of greater value to Italian entrepreneurs and investors.

BAIA represents an interesting and very valuable Network of qualified people: I guess there is a significant chance for us to collaborate in order to foster linkages among professionals, investors and “global-born” start-ups. We surely look for having you joining the Board of our Foundation, because we believe it will add greater value to the projects we are designing. Helping us in understanding how US businesses go and move will certainly be of some help for fostering our new ventures’ perspectives.

I would like to thank Andrea Gumina for the taking the time to share this information. May others follow his example and lead! If any reader wishes to open a dialog on these issues, you are encouraged to also visit the BAIA Link and open a forum there.

Matteo Daste

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 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 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 Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold

Diego Ventura is the CEO of noHold, a company that provides services based on Artificial Intelligence. Diego is a well-known and highly respected member of the Italian community in Silicon Valley. I thought that it would be of interest to our readers to have Diego share his experiences as an Italian entrepreneur in the US. Here is the interview:

Diego, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company, noHold?
I was born in Trento, Italy, but I consider my hometown to be Pordenone where my parents a brother and a sister still live.  Pordenone is about one hour away from Venice. I attended high school there at the Liceo Scientifico and then got a degree in Computer Science with the University of Maryland. I met my wife, Tammy who is from California, in Aviano where she was stationed with the U.S. Air Force. We have a son, Francesco (20) and a daughter, Stephany (18).  I founded noHold in 2000, raised about $15M and created an expert system, we call InstantSupport™ that helps big companies reduce support cost, by providing technical support automatically without human intervention. The solution manages millions of sessions per year for customers like Microsoft, Cisco, Acer, etc.

Artificial Intelligence has been promising exceptional results for many years. Only now, when it’s not anymore the coolest area of Computer science, AI is starting to deliver interesting results. Why now and not before?
I agree with your comment, but just to be specific, I will limit my answer to the area of AI we work with, Expert Systems. A solution like ours needs several ingredients to work well:  Smart algorithms, easy connectivity and fast execution.  The smart algorithms may have also been available in the 80s, although things improve all the time, but ease of connectivity and fast execution were definitely lacking back then.  There was no Internet, so creating a scenario where millions of people could easily connect to a single computer system was unthinkable.  Processor speeds were order of magnitude slower than what we have today, so even if the main algorithms to mimic inference did exist, they could not be executed fast enough from the machine of that time. In my opinion AI is still cool, but with the added bonus of being practical.

In competitive environments, it is becoming more important that companies communicate effectively with their customers by not only providing the right answers to their inquiries but also by recognizing and empathizing with their emotions. How well can software applications handle the emotional level of communication?
We found that it is absolutely key to be straightforward with end users to create a constructive experience.  We refrain from using avatars or smiley faces for our user interface, because it is important to set the proper expectations for the customer.  We tell them that we are an automatic tool and that we will try to get them as fast as possible to the right solution for them. If we are not successful, we will promptly escalate them to an agent via live chat, email or phone.  One way to think about it is to consider what happened with Banking.  Banks have trained us in using ATMs and now for certain operations, like just getting cash, people prefer ATMs, they don’t want to walk into a branch and spend some time in line. I think the same can be achieved with solutions like ours. However, the key is to choose the right battles, situations were the emotional component is predominant should be handled by humans.

The interaction between a service and its users is quickly spreading over several media: phone, IM, webpage, etc. How is your company addressing this proliferation of channels?
The name of the game here is “Interconnectivity”. noHold is and wants to continue to be a point solution that is best of breed in its space, but we recognize the importance of other communication channels. Therefore, our strategy is to connect and integrate with applications that take advantage of other communication channels. We can currently connect with the most popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. We can escalate our virtual agent sessions to live chat systems or email and we are considering partnerships with companies that provide voice recognition functionality, so that the whole solution can be used over the phone.

The dot-com collapse ended up destroying not only poorly conceived startups but also several companies based on solid business models. How did your company manage not only to survive but also to grow during those times?
We got our first round of financing in the summer of 2000, right after the burst of the “Bubble”. A really bad time because investors expectations were still pretty high, but the market had crashed.  We were lucky enough to recognize the change and adjust for it; we knew we were in for a marathon, not a sprint.  I think a lot of companies ignored the signs and kept spending like there was no tomorrow. I actually believe that the Italian background here helped quite a bit.  Let’s not forget that my generation was raised by wonderful people who saw the Second World War and knew the meaning of saving and being resourceful, so thank you mamma e babbo! The other element that helped us was the character of the people my team is made of. I am talking about resilient, battle-tested professionals who never gave up even in the toughest situations.

Would it be possible for a business like noHold to be based in Italy?
Yes! We are a software company, so all you need are smart dedicated people to make things happen. I have to say that however, there is nothing like the fertile grounds of the Silicon Valley for a young startup. Ultimately the ideal scenario is a company with a presence both in Italy and the U.S.

The Silicon Valley and the Bay Area continue to attract young entrepreneurs from Italy. Based on your experience do you have any recommendations for them?
Here is what worked for me:

• Work hard and smart
• Try to get to know as many people as possible and be nice to all of them.  It really is a small world
• Stay true to your roots.  At first I was concerned about my accent when making a presentation for example. Now I see it has an advantage, all the ladies say it is cute and the guys remember it!

I would like to thank Diego Ventura for taking the time to speak with me today. If you have any questions for Diego 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