(June 29, 2016) A full immersion for three weeks in the birthplace of Airbnb, Whatsapp, Tesla, Goolge and Apple. It is an adventure as stimulating as it is educational. The three finalists from the Unibo Launch Pad have arrived in Silicon Valley last week to attend the final part of their journey: joining other innovators from other three continents. The finalists of Unibo are taking part in the international programme TVLP.co. It is as an intensive course that aims to teach the “Silicon Valley mindset”. According to one of the three finalists Marco Zibordi, “the thing that has struck us the most is that the teachers on the courses are professors from Stanford, Berkely and Santa Clara who were first successful entrepreneurs. They talk about their real life experiences”. Along with Marco are Simona de Cesaris and Enrico di Oto. Enrico explains “the mentors are investors themselves. It is wonderful how they are capable of understanding what we are doing even though it could be in a completely different industrial sector”. The TVLP.co programme, combines theoretical lectures, mentoring and social events. Among the professors teaching the courses, the head of Yahoo Growth and successful investors such as Steve Goldberg from Venrock, Carol Sands from Angel’s Forum, David Carlick founder of Double Click and also Silicon Valley stars such as Chris Yen investor and writer for the Harvard Business Review. Yen has also written a book in collaboration with the founder of LinkedIn. The rest of the teaching body includes Naeem Zafar investor who has sold six start ups one of which a publicly-traded company. Encounters with some of the investors is also part of the programme. According to Sara de Cesaris, “it is incredible to see how such important people are willing to share and to give everyone an opportunity. We must make use of their time in order to learn as much as possible”. They have also met a partner of Lux Capital, a new fund with investments of approximately $5 million each on science based projects. They have also met the founder of Xfund, created to highlight Harvard University’s talents. Not to forget next week’s schedules meetings with ‘angels’ Keiretsu Forum and Sand Hill Road, encounters with businessmen, start-ups, big companies among which BOX’s number two. Alongside Unibo’s three finalists, businessmen from other nations are also due to arrive to partake in the intense work rhythm. “We work everyday. The activities begin at 7:30am until 22:00 and we go home after a networking event. These are the opportunities to build a network with Silicon Valley’s ecosystem. “The event that took place at the Madera restaurant at Sand Hill Road frequented by businessmen where we met the CEO of Logitech among others. The street with the highest concentration of venture capitalism is two steps away from where we live, in Menlo Park”. The adventure is only just beginning.
Entrepreneurship: from the University of Bologna to Silicon Valley
