My presentation to Milan Startup Weekend on Oct 16 2010

1. Make Italian Internet Startups
succeed... for real
October 16, 2010
Massimo Sgrelli

2. Who am I
• Developer & Entrepreneur
• Investor
• Working on the Internet since ʼ91
• Advisor of startups (“give back”)
• 10 years ago I founded my one:
Wave Group (+1,000 people in 2010)

3. Startup take off
$
Idea
F&F Design & Get the
+
vs Angel Build business
Team
$ $
Feedbacks Investors
Mockup Seeds, VCs, Funds

4. How to succeed (for Italians)
• (you must) Leverage on Italian
excellence
• Sell your product personally
• Which are your customers
• What problems do you solve with it
but the most important thing is...

5. ... S P E E D !!!
• You must be a fast learner
• Do the right thing in the right place
• The more feedback loops you close
the better
• Startups often fail because they run
out of money before they had
enough “iterations”
Lessons learned: http://WhoDo.es business case (redemption > 4% , > 6,000
people no real-time metrics, out of cash

6. ... so ask yourself, what we do best in Italy
$
Idea
F&F Design & Get the
+
vs Angel Build business
Team
$ $
Feedbacks Investors
Mockup Seeds, VCs, Funds

7. Where is your Wall Street?
Look for and follow the center of your
universe
• If your startup is about soccer, Italy could
be the right place to start your business
(i.e. Fubles)
• If you compete on the API marketplace
your business is in SV (i.e. Mashape)

8. I believe...
you must get the best of the two worlds
BUSINESS
R&D B&M
& MKTG
3-6 months
Italy Silicon Valley
Business idea Business & marketing
Product design Feedback from peers
Software development Feedback from the market
Road show
Alliances
$ Venture investments $ $ $

9. • A Facebook group to share ideas
and needs
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_155966211109684&ap=1

10. massimo.sgrelli@wavegroup.it
Twitter: @massimosgrelli
http://www.wavegroup.it
http://factory.wavegroup.it