BAIAblog

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

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

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

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

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

Lucia Panini

An Interview with Massimo Scognamiglio, CEO of D-Helix

Massimo Scognamiglio is the founder and CEO of D-Helix a new biotech company based in San Francisco with strong roots in Italy. Massimo is approaching business with an angle that is quite unusual in Italy: he is trying to combine the best academic resources with a solid business structure and plan. While Silicon Valley success is based on this kind of connection, in the Italian business landscape Massimo is still an exception. In order to learn more about Massimo's entrepreneurial adventure I invited him for an interview. Enjoy!

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

In my opinion the most important part of life is curiosity. When it doesn't kill the cat. It is an extraordinary source of knowledge that you first learn as a little kid. And if you can retain that curiosity, it can become the most important source of knowledge. Obviously that's not enough - you also need to study and have some luck. My curiosity led me to try to understand the mechanism that governs the world around us. I guess "curiosity" it's part of my DNA. However, what explains my actions best is the concept of multitasking: my life is multitasking. Everybody knows that you have only one life that has to be shared with your friends, your love, your society and your professional life... so for this reason you can't sleep too much and you have to live your life to the fullest. And the most important part of that life is to maintain your integrity.
Talking about my company, it's difficult to start a biotech company, but it's possible if you can see the business opportunity. I have this opportunity and I turned it into reality, much the same way as my first venture. In 1996 I founded a multimedia company in Italy at a time when the market was not quite ready even for the concept of the internet. However, I was successful in convincing the market. It also gave me the opportunity to grow as entrepreneur. I understood that you have to risk your own money, your stable job, the most precious years of your life, and all your passion. In 2000 I sold my first company (xmedia) to the most important media group in Italy. Years later, here I am in California. D-Helix, my company, was incorporated in San Francisco in April, 2006: It is the project that builds the bridge between academic discoveries and the industry. You don't realize how many great discoveries never see daylight because they are hiding in the university. Our main business is to fill this gap by sponsoring early stage research in many biotech areas. Even thought the risk is greater, so is the payoff. At the same time, we think that we are on an important mission for society: transforming these groundbreaking technologies for the real world.

With your company you are building a business bridge between Italy and California. Can you explain the reason behind this choice?

Italy is so beautiful, the perfect place to live but it's not the right place to be an entrepreneur. California is the perfect place to start up a global company based on a global network between universities and research labs all around the world, between United States, Spain and Japan.

San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area are becoming key places for the biotech industry. How favorable is the business environment in Italy for biotech startups?

As I said before, Italy, today, is not a simple place to work like entrepreneur, and the university research environment is even worst: we have some great university and great scientists but absolutely no entrepreneurial culture... for too many years (and probably also today) research has been considered a loss of money and not a gasoline for new companies and for the Country.

Starting up a company is a difficult job. Based on your experience what are the most common errors new entrepreneurs should avoid?

The one billion dollar question... the first answer that comes to mind is avoid arriving too soon: you risk being not understood, and you must have a "marketable idea." The second error is to choose bad associates: do not trust from the very beginning, build the trust day by day... You must remember that even the greatest idea needs a great team and great marketing to reach the market. For these reason I believe that D-Helix could be a winner: biotechnology is becoming mature, from the business and scientific side, and, at the same time, our associates are strongly committed to the company. When I present my company to an audience, I emphasize not only the business/scientific side but also my spirit, my vision, my very personal way of seeing the world, and my commitment.

You are a strong supporter of the connection between academia and business. How do you manage the bureaucracy of the Italian academia in a way that makes sense from the business point of view?

We are currently working in the United States. D-Helix is active in scouting, acquiring, developing, and commercializing groundbreaking intellectual property licensed from a number of universities and research institutes in particular areas of biotechnology (with current focus on environmental stress plant tolerance, biofuels, and antiviral treatment possibilities.) The company’s business model is represented by an independent innovative platform (made of a strong research world wide network of leading scientists with a deep pipeline of development), able to accelerate the research value creation time to market and reduce related direct costs. We will soon begin collaborating with some Italian universities, so wish us good luck! The bureaucracy is awful and it's still one of the most important difficulties when working with universities. You can't manage bureaucracy. If you are a very lucky boy, you can just survive bureaucracy!

Fundraising is one of the most critical steps for new entrepreneurs. Any recommendations?

A very good Business Plan, a short Time to Market, and a clear competitive advantage. Then great imagination and luck.

BAIA has plans to promote on Italian land the Silicon Valley open approach to business network. What will Italians have to change in order to fully benefit from those types of social relationships?

The network is the most important issue, more than the money. In Italy the network is always a closed network, you can't talk directly to anybody. The Californian way is the opposite: it's not a matter of friendship, it's just business.

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

Franco Folini

An Interview with Gino Ferretti, President of the University of Parma

Gino Ferretti is the President (Rettore) of the University of Parma (Università degli Studi di Parma) in Italy. Parma is a very interesting  city, not only for its incredible cultural and historical heritage, but also its gastronomic tradition which brought us such products as Parmigiano-Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma. Thanks to a flourishing and technologically advanced food industry, it has become known as the Food Valley, an obvious reference to the Silicon Valley. By many Italians the city is considered a live laboratory experimenting different combinations of tradition and innovation. From his position at the University of Parma, Gino Ferretti is the person that can marry the incredibly rich food traditions of Parma with the business opportunities and challenges created by the global market and economy. Having known Gino Ferretti for more than 15 years, I asked him to share his ideas on how to bridge the Silicon Valley business models with the Food Valley food traditions.

Professor Ferretti, can you tell us a bit about yourself and the University of Parma?

The origins of the University of Parma go back more than one thousand years. While the original constitutive document has been lost, we still have an ordinance of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I dating back to 964 AD authorizing the Bishop of Parma to institute a Law School. We have records of scholars active in the city in the following centuries, but it was only in 1406 that a document was drafted stating a "re-foundation" of the University as an institution independent from the local bishop.
Today 1,100 teachers and a total of 1,100 technicians and administrative employees work for the University of Parma. We have about 30,000 students spread over 12 Faculties: Law, Literature, Economy, Political Sciences, Psychology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Science, Architecture, and Engineering.
According to our data, 48% of out students come from outside of the Emilia-Romagna region, while only 33% come from the city and province of Parma.
Answering the question about myself: I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna. In my career I taught at several universities including Bologna, Padova, Trento, and, for the last 20 years, Parma. I have been in charge of the Reggio-Emilia public transportation company as President for about 2 years. After holding the title of Director of the Department of Industrial Engineering for six years, I have been elected Dean of the Engineering Faculty for 2 years. I've been the President (Rettore) of the University of Parma since the 2000 and thanks to the favorable results of the recent elections, I will be in charge until 2011.

According to Ignazio Marino, President of the Italian Senate's Health Commission, Italy is second only to India in the phenomenon known as fuga di cervelli or “brain drain”. This suggests that while Italian universities produce competitive young researchers and engineers, the Italian business and economic environment does not attract them. What’s your opinion?

The quoted statement is absolutely correct. This is mostly the result of a political crisis that dates back to the seventies. The social and economic differences between the diverse parts of Italy and the enduring political and ideological conflicts make governing our country a very difficult task. The instability of the government creates a difficult situation for enterprises and entrepreneurs with the result of slowing down economic development. Despite these problems Italy's scientific production, when considering the funding and the resources available to researchers, is at a very high level. What has been missing is a strong and consistent commitment of the central administration that has instead favored other sectors pursuing an easier and faster popular consensus.

The region of Parma is known as the “Food Valley” (an obvious reference to the Silicon Valley). Which parts of the economic model of the Food Valley could be adopted here in the US, and which aspects of the Silicon Valley economic model would be beneficial in the Food Valley?

The province of Parma and its region have historically been among the wealthiest and more productive agricultural areas in Europe. This richness brought us high quality products, stimulated a flourishing local food industry, and therefore supports a network of companies producing machines and plants for food processing. We are talking about small and medium companies making high quality products, and structurally unable to compete at the price level. Their products, coming from the rich local tradition, have specific features that were intended for a market and consumers that don't exist anymore. The current effort is to evolve those products that were not designed for large distribution or for a global market, in order to adapt them to the new markets and to make them more competitive. We are working on technologies, packaging, logistics, and branding. For these reasons our local business model is significantly different from the one used in Silicon Valley. We share the need for continuous innovation in order to sustain our economic growth.

Market globalization is a huge opportunity for Parma to expand its economy on a planetary scale. What is the role of the University of Parma in this new scenario?

I believe that global competition forces the scientific research, the scientific institutions, and our "capability to innovate" into a central and strategic position. Therefore the University has an important role to play, both indirectly preparing people and directly collaborating with enterprises. For this reason we are currently working on a new scientific park to host spin-offs from the academia and research labs shared with outside business enterprises.

In 2004 Parma was appointed the seat of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). What is the University's relationship with the EFSA?

EFSA is an institution that works in the same way as a scientific institution. We have a contact group and together we organize conferences and seminars. Several of our labs at the University have been accredited to provide consultancies and support for the EFSA. We are creating with them a Media Center for scientific communication. We have also to consider that EFSA hasn't yet fully deployed all of its activities in Parma.

In recent years the University of Parma started programs to foster spin-offs and new businesses. What has been your experience so far, and what are your expectations for the future?

The Italian academic world is not yet used to mapping its knowledge into business opportunities, though the situation is quickly changing. Some of our most recent spin-offs are achieving great results as businesses and we are determined, as a University, to further develop this approach in the coming years.

Thanks to the Internet, several Italian entrepreneurs in California are starting to look at Italy as a viable source of a highly qualified and relatively inexpensive work force. How can an association like BAIA be more effective in establishing these kinds of reciprocally beneficial connections?

I don't know your association and the way you work well enough to give you a specific answer. The best way to start a collaboration could be to jointly approach a specific problem from the legal and technical point of view. For example, I see opportunities to work together on topics such as the legal aspects of the import/export of food products in Italy and California. The reference person for those topics is Barbara Panciroli (barbara.panciroli1@unipr.it), from our Technology Transfer Center.

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

Franco Folini

The New FIAT 500 is Here!

Torino and Italy will be celebrating a festive, special 4th of July this year, in a unique coincidence with the American celebration of Independence.

Torino – capital of Italy when the country was unified in 1861, and home of the 2006 Winter Olympics – is known around the world mostly for its automobile tradition, heralded by FIAT.

This 4th of July, the new FIAT 500 will debut, on the 50th anniversary of the launch of its first predecessor.

Torino and several other cities around the country will make their historically-charged piazzas  center stage for the FIAT 500, while supporting a very important charitable initiative:  “Un nido per Pollicino, aiutiamo i piu’ piccoli a diventare grandi”, a fund raising campaign in support of premature babies.

The highlight of the event is expected to be a show by the PO river, on the night of July 4th in Torino, presented by K-events/FilmMaster Group, directed by Marco Balich, the most famous Italian Creative Producer, whose works include the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2006 Olympics.

Starting at 10 PM Italian time (1PM PST), the show will be available in streaming video at:  www.fiat500.com

Lucia Panini

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.

Costa Crociere the Best of “Both Worlds”?

Two days ago, Costa Crociere made an important announcement through an official press release. When the Costa Serena is inaugurated in Marseille on May 19, the 114,000-ton ship will be simultaneously inaugurated in a virtual setting via Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual community. This reproduction of the inaugural ceremonies for Costa's twelfth ship aims to offer all Second Life 'residents' a virtual experience of the Costa Serena inaugural fête. The virtual ceremony, complete with entertainment, a treasure hunt, and fireworks display will be held at 1 p.m. EDT.

"Costa is the first company in the world to host a virtual inaugural in 'Second Life' simultaneously with the ship's actual inaugural ceremony," said Daniele Mancini, Director of E-Business for Costa Crociere. "This project represents the beginning of a series of new projects in which the user is the center of all communication. Web 2.0 will now allow Costa's satisfied cruise customers to reach beyond friends and family to the entire Internet."

After creating your Avatar, you will be able to log in SecondLife and be teleported directly to the event location (I know a lot of business networkers would like that in RealLife!) If you are interested in the event, you can get more information online reading the Daniele Mancini interview (in Italian) at Il Sole 24 Ore.

As a BAIA SecondLife representative I will attend the virtual ceremony and report on the whereabouts and experience next week!

Giorgio Ghersi

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

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 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

Great Webcast Opens Face2Face Program

Today I had the pleasure to listen to the first webcast of the Face2Face initiative promoted by the US Embassy in Rome and by Partnership for Growth.
The event was hosted by Marco Palombi and Michele Appendino. Marco Palombi is the founder of Splinder, a successful blog startup. Michele Appendino is a pioneer in venture capital in Italy and a founder of Net Partners Ventures and Solar Ventures.
It was very refreshing to see this webcast. The two speakers spoke very clearly and competently about venture capital and angel investing. Many of us here in the Bay Area take it for granted that these topics are well understood. However, in Italy they aren’t. Yet, Marco and Michele leveraged their experience to answer many questions with much competence and clarity.

As a professional in the field, I was quite pleased to see this. I was even able to post a comment asking about the need of having large companies in Italy for an exit for venture funded startups. Michele answered very well, explaining how this is currently a problem and a limitation in Italy. It was definitely a great start for Face2 Face and I look forward to other equally interesting future events. I encourage young entrepreneurs in Italy not to miss the next one!

Matteo Daste

“Talk their Talk and Walk their walk”, a Comment on Cultural Differences

I’ve been working in the international business field, mainly in export of goods and services from EU countries, for about 10 years before relocating to the US and trying to play the game the opposite way around.

In the meantime the world became a global economy, effortlessly going from telex and fax, to e-mail and e-commerce. The operators of this economy are still humans; as such, they were not ‘upgraded’, they simply grew up, as you and I, in very distinct environments.

Besides the nuts and bolts of whatever business I have been in, I was primarily attracted to, and fascinated by, an aspect that goes everywhere in between being taken for granted, and completely ignored in every size business I know: social and business culture differences.

CommunicAid is an Anglo-French “leader in the field of bespoke language, cultural awareness and communication skills, training to the world’s leading corporate and public organizations“. Note that such company is successfully based out of two countries that really need it. Their very respectful opinion on Italian business culture starts saying that “Italian culture permeates every aspect of life and as a result, for those wishing to integrate effectively into Italian society or perhaps hoping to successfully break the Italian business market, an understanding of this culture is a vital tool.”

I knew immediately that it was worth sharing it when I noticed that they had a paragraph on Beppe Severgnini “Bella Figura”, described as the “ability to present oneself well and behave with an air of demure and formality [which] is a key element in Italian business culture“.

Now, BAIA, the business networking association for Italians and Americans interested in each other, is a US based organization as any else (only not-for-profit), that when addressing the international community, in this case Italian, shouldn’t, and really can’t forget those principles either. Having many of us Italian backgrounds, it may be easier, but we neither should take them for granted or completely ignore it.

Thus, when it comes to talk to our Italian counterparts, being them members, enthusiasts, or simply prospective networkers, we have to adapt our language, our ways, our presentation and partly, our message; always in an effort to remaining loyal to it and to ourselves.

So, maybe we can assume to be a little more versed for the game, but we too, as everybody else, have still to play it, and will probably be reminded that nothing worthy comes easy.

Giorgio Ghersi

BAIA Turns One - Five Reflections of a Founder

As BAIA turns one year old, here are five reflections of a founder:

1. This week another important milestone has been reached by obtaining the official endorsement of the Italian Consulate in San Francisco. This was quite welcome since at BAIA, we are working on a daily basis to enhance and expand the existing BAIA network of affiliations and endorsements of BAIA. For BAIA, affiliations are not just a matter of credibility for the organization, but a core element of its mission: create and expand an open business network that can function as the premiere channel to innovate and connect entrepreneurs, companies and institutions between Italy and the San Francisco Bay Area.
2. In the past twelve months, we have done important events and projects with the U.S. Embassy in Rome, Stanford University, Microsoft, Adobe Systems. We have addressed cutting edge topics such as corporate blogs, wikis, open source wireless to promote innovation in Italy. We have attracted highly qualified speakers, such as Ambassador Ronald Spogli, Arturo Artom, and Mauro Lupi.
3. As a result of these activities, today, BAIA is a catalyst for educated managers, entrepreneurs and professionals in the 30-45 year range who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and look for a professional forum where to share with others how to innovate and connect in California and in Italy. Web traffic stats show that we have thousands of visitors on the site each month. These are important achievements.
4. In certain ways, BAIA is very similar to, and took inspiration from GABA (German American Business Association). GABA today is an international reality and the channel through which German business brings California’s innovation to Germany. Like GABA, BAIA’s strength lies in its dynamic membership and knowledge of the territory.
5. In addition, BAIA has pioneered an “open source” governance model, in order to give participants the right set of incentives to join BAIA and yet maintain a system of checks and balances, so that BAIA remains independent and is not an instrument of interest.

After one year, all seems to be working well. Mission accomplished? No way, the challenge now is to take BAIA to the next level and make it a better resource for our friends in Italy!

Matteo Daste

Italy, According to The Economist

A few weeks ago I received a little book with my subscription renewal for The Economist magazine. This Pocket World in Figures -2007 Edition is a collection of numbers and indexes measuring the major economic and social indicators for 182 countries in the world. It contains rankings on more than 200 topics in subject areas as wide-ranging as geography, population, business, the economy, trade, transportation, finance, industry, demographics, the environment, society, culture, and crime.
I spent some time checking the Italy ranking for all of the indexes. Here is my personal, non-exhaustive selection of rankings sorted from the highest to the lowest.

Index	Rank	Value	Notes
Highest Population over 60	2nd	25.6%	Japan is #1
Wine Drinkers	3rd	29.1	Litres per head
Mobile Phone Subscribers	4th	108.2	Subscriptions per 100 people
Highest Car Ownership	5th	547	Cars per 1K people
Most Tourist Arrival, '000	5th	37,071	Spain is #2 with 53,000
Largest Deficit, $m	6th	-15.56	-
Largest Industrial Output, $bn	6th	417	-
Biggest Exporters	8th	3.85%	% of world exports
Largest Donors, $m	9th	2,464	US is #1 with 19,705 $m
Highest Life Expectancy	10th	80.6	US is #40
Biggest Economies (GDP, $bn)	10th	1,677	-
Most Crowded Roads	14th	73.3	US is #33
Human Development Index	18th	93.4	A Quality of Life Index
Highest Environmental Performance	21st	79.8	US is #28
Highest Population, millions	22th	57.3	Was 10th in 1950
Highest GDP per Head	24th	$29,280	US is #9
E-readiness	25th	7.14	Internet economy readiness
Computers per 100 people	31st	31.3	Computers

Personally I feel proud about some of these numbers and ashamed about others. I would like to know your honest opinion. Please feel free to share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment.

Franco Folini

BAIA and BEST: Both Working in the Same Direction to Foster Entrepreneurship

In January I had the pleasure to meet with a visiting delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Rome in connection with the BEST Program. The BEST Program is a very interesting initiative launched by the Hon. Ronald Spogli, U.S. Ambassador to Italy, to promote the exchange of entrepreneurial experience between Italy and the U.S. The BEST delegation has just arrived in the Bay Area and its members will be interning at local companies for a few months (see their blog). It is very reassuring and positive to see that this initiative was launched so quickly and so well. BAIA is trying to follow a similar track with its internship program. Young talented Italians need international exposure to grasp strength and weaknesses of the systems and bring back to Italy the strengths of American entrepreneurship. Unlike the “school trip” mentality of many traditional delegations from Italy, BEST seems to be a novel, practical approach to this issue. Let’s give our BAIA compliments and “best wishes” to BEST!

Matteo Daste

The US Embassy BEST program lands in San Francisco

It's definitely a refreshing feeling, a sympathizing, refreshing feeling when you meet people, who has just been handed a lifetime opportunity. Last week I have been so fortunate to be introduced, as member of a BAIA delegation, to the five Italian grantees landed in the Bay Area thanks to the US Embassy in Rome and their new BEST program, launched within the Italy-US “Partnership for Growth” initiative promoted by Ambassador Ronald Spogli, and fully supported by the US Department of State, the Fulbright Program and the Italian Confindustria.

A lot of people involved, numerous decisions taken in a limited span of time, many hopes. Hopes that the research projects will materialize in business endeavors, funded from Italy or from the US, thanks to the visibility, the added value, the new academic and professional connections that the program and the extended permanence will facilitate. And of course, that the program will become a periodic occurrence nurturing even more opportunities and ventures. For the time being, us all -BAIA people- heartily welcome this additional Italian presence in the Bay Area, and invite you to learn more about Valentina, Elisabetta, Micol, Abramo and Emanuele directly from them, maybe following their mission for the coming six months.

Benvenuti e Buon Lavoro!

Giorgio Ghersi

San Francisco Interns’ Tale

In the last few months at BAIA we had the pleasure to host two interns from Rome, Italy. We had been very lucky: in just few months Flavio and Ilaria made an important contribution to the success of our association. They had been involved in almost every activity, from the daily office routine to the public events. A sincere thank you to Flavio and Ilaria from all of us at BAIA. Franco Folini

It seems yesterday the day we entered for the first time in the Leland, Parachini, Steinberg, Matzger & Melnick’s firm: even now I can feel my hand becoming wet, and my tongue every moment dryer! I was a little bit scared, and the outstanding lobby of the firm did not make any effort to calm me down. When we were introduced to Mr. Parachini, I remember it was really amazing entering his office full of piles of documents and with an incredible and breathless view of the bay from the 27th floor! Notwithstanding the two wood chairs where we were sited squeaked at each single movement rising our embarrassment, Mr. Parachini, as a real gentleman, immediately let us be at ease. When the office manager showed us our office we were so happy, we were astounded: the dream was beginning!

Starting working with BAIA has been another plunge into a movie. I can remember that each member of the Gov was so serious and professional during the first meeting. It has surely been very interesting, sometimes even funny, being involved on various projects relating to BAIA’s activities and corporate event planning, but the best to remember of this experience is the way we have been kindly behaved from all the persons we have been put in touch!

Parachini firm’s staff on one hand and BAIA’s Gov on the other, made the difference from a common work experience and an experience that is able to be kept in our mind for the rest of our lives. For a reader it can sound like a pep rally, but I am honest, it is out of the ordinary find so incredible persons all together. Now that we are back to Italy, and we are telling parents and friends about the two months we spent in San Francisco, the common reaction we get from them is: “Oh my God, you lived in a dream!”. And it is just like that: what we started like an adventure has been, in point of fact, a dream.

Apart from the things learned during these two months, the real achievement of this experience has been opening our minds, and urge us to see the world from a different point of view. It is so hard to step back from ours believes and try to look at the problems from an high, but I guess this is one of the best goals we have learned.

I have no doubt, if anybody will ever ask us again to do this inter in San Francisco, we will not let it drop!

Flavio and Ilaria

Guidelines for growth: BRIC, Turkey and innovation

Last week I received a copy of the recently published "Promotional Activity Guidelines 2007". The brief, which is released yearly by the Italian Ministry for International Trade, sets broad, strategic priorities for international trade promotion programs, funding and new initiatives supported by the Italian government.

I could not find a copy of the document in English, so I will summarize here its key elements. The original publications are available from the Ministry's website.
The government overall 2007 policy objectives center around 4 key priorities:

• Maintenance of the "Made in Italy " brand
• Reduction of Italy 's gap in those markets where the country's share is lower than the world average
• Incentives for the internationalization of firms operating in high value-add sectors
• Continued support to international IP protection programs and treaties

More interestingly, the Ministry is focusing (and therefore concentrating its activities) in specific geographies that are of particular interest to Italian business, whether because of the sheer size of their export markets, the relative importance in terms of share of trade, or their growth rate. Not surprisingly, BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) lead the pack. While China (and its unstoppable growth) among the ranks of Italy's trading partners has been the focus of special program in 2006, India will take the lion's share in 2007.
"Program India" will focus on six opportunity areas that leverage key Italian industrial strengths: Infrastructure and Transportation, Defense, Automotive, Food Processing, Movie industry, Luxury Goods "Made in Italy".
The European Union, now enlarged to 25 countries and potentially to include a fast-growing Turkish economy, accounts for 59% of Italy's exports, and is therefore a key area of focus. Within the EU and neighboring areas, special programs and funding will be address at Nordic countries, Turkey, the Balkans and the South Mediterranean rim.

Finally, USA and Japan continue to be countries in which the government plans to invest to push international expansion of Italian firms in high tech sectors. And indeed there seems to be renewed interest in high tech and innovation in Rome. The government has earmarked 20% of its promotional budget for "events, projects, initiatives that further international expansion of innovation-driven firms in sectors such as electronic equipment, agrochemicals, IT, telecom, nanotech, biotech.

Minister Bonino, just give us a call!

Matteo Fabiano