
The Italian entrepreneur who moved his team and got funded in 19 days - davidw
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/01/12/the-italian-entrepreneur-who-moved-his-team-and-got-funded-in-19-days/
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antirez
There are for sure strong cultural problems in Italy that are blocking
innovation, but unfortunately it's not just a matter of getting money. Most of
the time the real problem is in the founders. People usually don't like the
idea of working very hard for something with a big amount of uncertainty about
what the outcome will be, many are still very focused in getting a 'stable'
position somewhere.

Another problem is that in general there is no trust in the idea that you can
create business in the Internet. In part this is due to the fact that the
online advertising market in Italy is smallish at best, that users are rarely
willing to pay for services, and other stuff like that.

But... I think italians too often overlook what is good about Italy, and if
there was not this cultural brake we could do much more interesting things.
For instance there is a model where it is normal for a son to stay in the home
of the parents up to 30 years old or more, without the need of earning at all.
This means that you can use a few years to develop your startup without any
required money.

Also in my opinion Italy is a place with many talents. It's not hard to find
good people, there are many programmers as in the 80s home computing and
electronic was a real boom here as an hobby, and schools are still in decent
shape.

So what should Italian entrepreneur do? It's hard to focus on the italian
internet market as it's small, but it is either not very easy to penetrate the
US market from Italy. It's a very hard question. I would say that probably it
makes sense to still beat on the US market for a technological company, but
perhaps not just with finished products for the end user, but also with
business to business technology, or electronics (things like Arduino).

Unfortunately some fields where we could be very successful require money that
is hard to find, otherwise Italy could be the "Apple" of all the things apple
is not doing, mixing good design and technology. From alarm clocks to other
kind of appliances that are usually poorly designed and ugly to see.

Well just a number of random ideas...

~~~
crocowhile
Living with parents at 30 is not just a cultural inertia, neither a mere
economic read out. It is a symptom of lazyness. I am Italian, I fled the
country when I was 24 (10 years ago) and I cannot even think how one could be
productive while living with mamma. Founding something requires a lot of
responsability and many of those who live with their parents they do so
because they are not ready to take any.

As for targeting the US market I agree, partly. In fact I think it's even
easier than that. Simply, whatever you do, do it in english. You will attract
not just the US market, but potentially everyone. edit: spelling

~~~
mino
I'm Italian and I'm living abroad since 7 years, but I'd be careful with:

> Living with parents at 30 [...] is a symptom of lazyness.

Years ago, the finance ministry Padoa-Schioppa said that in Italy there's a
generation of lazy and spoiled children ("bamboccioni") and was strongly
attacked.

I can honestly think of many situations of guys/girls (expecially in the
South) that cannot afford living on their own in their late 20s/30s... and not
because they don't want to.

All this is really sad.

~~~
crocowhile
I used to think the same. Then I lived 4 years in the US and I found a
generation of 20 years old kids who live by themselves - well, with flatmates
- while studying and working shifts at McDonald.

Kids do share apartments in SF or NYC and those cities are not less expensive
than Milan or Rome. If one REALLY wants to leave their parents' nest, one CAN
do it. Most people who live with their parents do so because they believe that
paying a rent is a waste of money and you oughta buy your own place, rather.

~~~
eru
> Most people who live with their parents do so because they believe that
> paying a rent is a waste of money and you oughta buy your own place, rather.

I never understood that argument. What about opportunity costs?

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crocowhile
The main problem with Italy is that the country is led by people who have
absolutely no clue: and I don't mean just politicians. Big names in finance,
industry, entrepreneurship, banks. Most of them are there just because of
their connections and they are sinking the country.

Nobody invested in Marco because there's nobody there good enough to recognize
what is worth and what is not. They would not be able to invest in google,
either.

This is not just a problem for tech startup, it is a problem for anyone who
needs money or encouragement to fund anything slightly innovative. Someone
told me they tried to convince big companies to open an embedded childcare
department, something that is absolutely normal abroad because it increases
dependents time at work and even make money to the company. They went all the
way around and could not find anyone interested.

Just nuke that country already.

~~~
loewenskind
Sounds like a lot of opportunity for success to me (all your competitors have
clueless management). What stops someone from disrupting all these clueless
people? Just money?

~~~
crocowhile
The problem is that the clueless people are literally leading the country and
that makes everything difficult. When I say that I wish a nuke I am obviously
exhagerating, but I am not when I say that I wish a civil revolution.

The job market is a mess because the job market regulation is a mess. Finances
are a mess because tax regulations is a mess: 50% for some people and 0% for
others (tax fraud is easy peasy for certain professions). Culturally we are
sinking since universities are regulated like in a third word country and most
academics never even published a paper in all their lifes.

Technically, if you had private money you could start an Italian Ycombinator
and get return because it's full of talents. Yet, your return will be better
if you were to do the same in most other countries so why bother?

~~~
loewenskind
>Yet, your return will be better if you were to do the same in most other
countries so why bother?

Well, with something like YC sure, but anything else you might bother because
it's the country you grow up and you know it well. Also because any of those
countries that are easier to do will also have more, tougher competition.

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coffeemug
Jesus. What on earth is "Etsy for cloud services"?

~~~
drtse4
Saying that it's a service that you can use to build mashups would have been a
lot less intriguing ;)

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bambax
How did they "move" to SF -- esp. regarding visa issues -- is what we'd like
to know... Tell us more!

~~~
petercooper
I might have misread the article but I don't recall anything about actually
_moving_ to the US.

Going to the US for up to 3 months (or 6 if you actually apply for a B visa)
as a "business visitor" under the VWP would allow you to do most of the
activities relating to funding and attending conferences, etc. You just
couldn't do any "work" or plan to stay.

~~~
bambax
> I don't recall anything about actually moving to the US

It's right there in the title and in this sentence (last sentence of paragraph
2): _the team decided they would pack their bags and move across the Atlantic
for good_

I don't understand much about visa rules; from a distance it seems the rules
are very strict and complex, but enforced unevenly; I would love to read a
comprehensive article on this subject.

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gopi
The career pessimists in US should read the comments here. Many in america
dont understand how good the system in US is and that is the problem. BTB, i
am saying this as a outsider (indian) living in US.

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Tomek_
Worth to note that it's not Europe that is the problem, it's Italy. I
absolutely love that country for many things, but business/economical-wise it
is really screwed, and latests news that come from there, about national debt
and such, draw rather catastrophic image of their nearest future.

~~~
swombat
On the contrary, I think you'll find raising money is equally difficult in,
say, London. I know some well-connected people, with a track record of
previous successful businesses and exits and connections throughout the
VC/angel community who still struggle to raise seed funding for pre-revenue
ideas (even some which are showing traction).

Compare that to the Valley, where it seems that the main test of whether you
can raise money is to put a mirror in front of your mouth and check that some
water vapor condenses on the mirror (if there is no water vapor, the
entrepreneur is dead. do not fund)...

~~~
davidw
At least you can create a company (a Ltd) in the UK easily. It's at least one
order of magnitude more expensive in Italy.

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edw519
Better title: "How hard work, determination, and a move got a start-up to
second base."

Great story and lots to inspire, especially

 _...the team went to every last event in Silicon Valley, called every person
they knew and asked around for help._

But in all the hoopla, it's easy to forget that getting funding is not the
goal, it's just one of many intermediate steps. In spite of appearances, the
_real_ hard work is just beginning.

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nodata
Causation versus correlation..

