BAIAblog

An Interview with the Fulbright-BEST Team in Silicon Valley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Franco Folini

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

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

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

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

Federico Brocero

19 aprile, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ronald P. Spogli,
Ambasciatore degli Stati Uniti in Italia

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

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

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