italian startups

Italian startups

Frieda Brioschi

[email protected]

IEDLesson 1

Course program1. Italian Startups2. Set up a startup in Italy3. I've got an idea. And now? 4. Value analysis5. Business model6. Communicate, communicate, communicate7. Being net 8. Find your market9. Funding: venture capital, business angel and other ways of financing 10. Pitch

Today's table of content

1. Alive and kicking startups

2. #EpicFAILS

3. Lessons learned

Buongiorno

“Buongiorno, a DOCOMO Company, is known in the worldwide mobile commerce ecosystem for developing and managing paid apps and services that help consumers get greater enjoyment from mobile devices. Buongiorno is now a global leader at the heart of the mobile internet revolution.”

http://www.buongiorno.com/

BuongiornoBuongiorno is an Italian company that provides content (such as games, music, and information) for mobile phones.

Buongiorno started out in 1995 when current chairman Mauro Del Rio started sending humorous e-mail messages with the subject "Buongiorno" to 11 friends. The business expanded quickly—by 1998 he was sending e-mail newsletters to 25,000 people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buongiorno

BuongiornoDel Rio launched Buongiorno SpA to provided services for the telecommunications market, beginning a policy of growth through international acquisitions, the first of which was of the Spanish company MyAlert in 2001. Buongiorno merged with Vitaminic in July 2003 to form Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA. The company continued with its policy of acquisitions, the most significant of which were the Italian company Gsmbox in 2004, and the French company Freever in 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buongiornohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buongiorno

Buongiorno

http://www.buongiorno.com/history-infographic

BuongiornoIn 2006 the group Buongiorno delivered almost 1.4 billion "digital objects" (ringtones, Java games, wallpapers, etc.) to over 60 million end users (unique mobile phone numbers).As reported on the 2009 balance sheet, the Buongiorno group has a net worth of around €158.1 million and revenues of about €259,5 million.In 2009 the Buongiorno group employed 1000+ employees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buongiorno - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buongiorno

Yoox

YOOX Group S.p.A is an Italian internet mail order retailer of men's and women's multibrand clothing and accessories. Founded by Federico Marchetti, a former investment banker, in Zola Predosa near Bologna in 2000, Yoox Group has become a profitable e-commerce company that serves "more than 100 countries worldwide".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOOX

Yoox

It has established itself amongst the market leaders with the multi-brand stores yoox.com, thecorner.com and shoescribe.com

Since 2006, YOOX Group designs and manages mono-brand online stores for fashion brands looking to offer their latest collection on the Internet (Emporio Armani, Diesel, Valentino, Moschino, ecc.)

http://www.yooxgroup.com/en/press_area/press_kit/yoox_group.asp

Yoox

As reported on the 2011 balance sheet, Yoox group has a net worth of around €10 million and revenues of about €291,2 million.

In 2011 the Yoox group employed 469 employees (+26% than 2010).

http://cdn2.yoox.biz/yooxgroup/pdf/Bil_YOOX_11_07tris_lr.pdf

Volagratis

The website was created in 2004, spawning from the success of low-cost flight companies. Low-costs were usually not considered in the traditional channels of distribution (booking sites and travel agencies): an hassle for the customer willing to book a flight, who had to check all the companies' sites one by one. This intuition pushed the founders to “ride the wave”, gaining instant success. Later, they broadened the range of services offered, including hotels and full holiday packages, therefore improving the perceived value of the service.

http://www.ict4executive.it/executive/interviste/volagratiscom-sul-web-un-successo-made-in-italy---intervista-a-marco-corradino-fondatore_4367215330.htm

Volagratis

2004 – First incorporation of the society, with 50.000 € capital, by two founder (Marco Corradino and a business parntner), one employeeSale of first flight2005 – Scheduled flights are introduced (CRS)First internal customer service, with four employees2006 - Bravofly Group is constituted, service for the European market starts, in four languages

http://www.volagratis.com/content/it/chisiamo.html

Jobrapido

“Jobrapido is one of the largest job search engines in the world, delivering 660m visits per year in more than 50 countries. It helps job seekers search millions of jobs globally, and provides employers with access to one of the world's largest candidate audiences.”

http://www.evenbase.com/

Jobrapido

“Looking for a job on the web is annoying”. From this thought of Vito Lomele (an engineer from Conversano, who lived in UK and Germany) was born the idea to limit to the minumum this unavoidable phase: “I was looking for a hob, and I realized how it was difficult and complicated. So I said myself: there are no search engines for job offers? I'll make one”

Started in 2004, in 2006 became a company.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobrapido

Jobrapido

With the project growing, more people and money were needed: 200k € were raised from some friends, including the former boss, and 150k € were invested by an european entrepreneur, Oliver Samwer.

2011's turnover was 24 million Euro, with 3 of net profit; 660 million users, 80 employees from all over the world.

In 2012 Evenbase, from the publishing group DMGT (Daily Mail and General Trust) bought out 49% of the company (it is said, for 30 millions), leaving Lomele at the helm with 51%.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobrapido

Glancee

Glancee is an app that let you discover people nearby who share friends and interests with you. Behind the scenes, Glancee uses Facebook to find common friends and Wikipedia to match users based on interests relevant to one another. It is a social discovery tool that reveals the hidden connections we share with the people we stumble upon everyday in bars, campuses, even grocery stores.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/glancee

Glancee

Founded in 2010 by Andrea Vaccari, Alberto Tretti and Gabriel Grisé, it was bought out in 2012 by Facebook.

It was bought before having earned any money, and without having received any funding.

Glancee

“We are therefore very excited to announce that Facebook has acquired Glancee and that we have joined the team in Menlo Park to build great products for over 900 million Facebook users. We've had such a blast connecting people through Glancee, and we truly thank our users for being a part of the Glancee community.”

http://www.glancee.com/

Timbuktu

“Mag.0” research project funded by WorkingCapital in 2010.

Timbuktu

In 2011 they won “Mind The Bridge”, then took part in “500startups” program, where they raised $515K and won Best Design Award at LAUNCH Education.

http://timbuktu.me/blog/category/startup/

AppsBuilder

“AppsBuilder is the new cross-platform tool to create apps in a cost-effective way and without having any coding skills. The project was born in 2010, when the two computer engineers Luigi Giglio and Daniele Pelleri acknowledged the mobile as the major technology shift of our times and decided to develop a do-it-yourself app platform to create, edit and promote mobile apps with no programming skills at all.”

http://www.apps-builder.com/en/about

AppsBuilder

http://www.apps-builder.com/en/about

Balsamiq

“Balsamiq is the maker of Mockups, the rapid wireframing software that combines the simplicity of paper sketching with the power of a digital tool so that teams can focus on what’s important. We’re a fast-growing, but small and personable company that competes on usability and service. We believe work should be fun, and that life is too short for bad software.”

http://www.balsamiq.com/company/press

Balsamiq

Balsamiq was profitable in 3 weeks after launch.

(it was developed while Peldi was working for Adobe in the US, coding at night)

Passpack

“Since 2006 Passpack is the leading innovator in web-based password management and secure collaboration. Passpack employs the highest grade encryption systems, coupled with security patterns built specifically for the Internet to guarantee complete data privacy. Businesses worldwide trust Passpack to protect their logins every day.”

http://www.passpack.com/en/media/

Passpack

2006: Passpack, the free online password manager, launched and immediately started to grow.

2008: Passpack incorporated with headquarters in Italy.It received seed funding from Zernike Meta Ventures S.p.A (ZMV), representing Ingenium and members of Italian Angels for Growth.

2009: ZMV renewed their dedication with additional funding.

2010: Founders move to California, and release Passpack Mobile.

http://www.passpack.com/en/company/

Changing perspective..

Napster

Webvan

Born in 1999 as a online shop and delivery service for groceries in Silicon Valley, California.

Founded by Louis Borders, a successful entrepreneur (founder of Borders Bookstores)

Promised 30 minutes deliveries anywhere in town, 24/7.

Within an year and still in the red, it expanded business to 10 major US cities, aiming to reach 26 biggest cities in the country.

Webvan

Gained 375 million $ in investment money within 18 months(from Goldman Sachs, Yahoo, Sequoia Capital etc)

Worth 1.2 billion after two years (despite no sustainable revenues)

13 million sales in its first 6 months (despite reporting 35 million losses)

Over 2000 employees, presence in the most important US markets (west coast)

Bought out its direct competitor with 1 billion $ in stocks

Webvan

Huge investments in infrastructure (inspired by Amazon)

300,000-square-foot distribution centres(the “most automated in the world”)

Lots of advertising

200 trucks for the Atlanta area only (grand total actually unknown)

Refitted company headquarters → 92.000$ for 115 chairs (800$ ea)

Webvan

Grocery business in the US works on razor-thin margins2-3 cents per dollar are considered good margin1 cent per dollar is common

Burned through 1 billion $ in investment money withoutachieving a sustainable business model

No one on the board had any experience in management

Operating expenses much higher than traditional channels

Webvan

Ultimately:- bad management decisions- customers' advantages did not justified higher prices- too much money avalaible induced lavish spending- dotcom bubble collapsed

LARGEST DOT COM FLOP EVER

According to CNET

Further analysis

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/8c534f3b5ad611c0ff8aeccd5/files/Startup_Genome_Report_Extra_Premature_Scaling_1.56.pdf

http://venturevillage.eu/startup-genome-report-europe

http://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/rapporto-startup-2012.pdfhttp://www.sviluppoeconomico.gov.it/images/stories/documenti/rapporto-startup-2012.pdf

Don't do it!

Galatea's 5 points against founding a startup:1. A startup is not only a good idea2. A startup is an enterprise3. A startup is a work group4. A startup must have a good product5. A startup is stressful

http://www.techeconomy.it/2012/10/10/lorgia-della-start-up-e-sei-consigli-per-non-fondarla/

www.fi.com/join/dna

http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-analyzing-startup-failure-post-mortem/

Don't forget..

..to choose the right name for your company!

Have you ever heard of Skypho?

http://www.chefuturo.it/2013/02/come-dare-un-nome-ad-una-startup-la-storia-di-adespresso/

Next week

How to set up a startup in Italy!