What was Startup Tales about?
Startup Tales is a webinar series organized by CLab Trento to tell the start-ups world from a different perspective. Not only as a reality common only to students of economics or computer science but also as a reality accessible to students of other disciplines.
Through the stories of young entrepreneurs and their start-ups, Startup Tales gave a more varied and real representation than the cliché that often accompany this world. From January 14 to February 4 there have been five webinars, each of which with a specific topic and some guests to talk about it. The topics were different from one another, as well as the guests' profiles:
SOCIAL STARTUP TALES
with Nicola Doppio (Innovation Officer at Hub Innovazione Trentino) and Vanessa Cento (Institutional Relations at Progetto quid).
LEGAL STARTUP TALES
Andrea Giannangelo (Founder and Head of Product at iubenda) and Sara Lovato (Investment Manager at United Ventures).
TECH STARTUP TALES
Luca D’Alessandro (CEO and Co-founder at Phononic Vibes), Marco Bezzi (CEO and Co-founder at Bluetentacles) and Giacomo Lazzarini (Analyst at Endeavor Italy).
HUMAN CENTRIC STARTUP TALES
Giulio Michelon (CEO at Belka) and Jacopo Romani (CEO at Needius).
BIOTECH STARTUP TALES
Ana Rodriguez Prieto (CEO and Co-founder at WonderGene) and Antonio Cassini (Chief Technology Officer at Alia Therapeutics).
Thanks to their stories we managed to discover interesting professional paths and to get to the heart of their activities, understanding what it means to have an entrepreneurial spirit in such different fields.
Many different stories have, however, brought out many common visions. Many are indeed the elements that people, who work in completely different sectors, showed to share in the tale of their professional experience: the team before the idea, the courage to start, the ability to take risks, knowing how to take opportunities and obviously failing as a way to improve.
Startup Tales brought to light a different narrative of this world, which we thought we knew so well.
What do we take home? 3 great tips!
One of the main pieces of advice, which the guests left for future entrepreneurs, is the importance of putting the needs of potential customers, and therefore of the people, we want to address, at the centre of one’s own business. Many have mentioned ‘validation’ as a key step in developing one’s own product or service. It is an important step to test the product or service in relation to the identified target. The sooner mistakes and inconsistencies with respect to customers’ needs are understood, the sooner it will be possible to correct the shot and improve.
The second tip focuses on the importance of the team, that is, the choice of the people to work with. People’s mentality is vital in determining the values and direction of a business project. In particular, having a positive attitude towards change and a genuine passion were cited by guests as important characteristics to make teamwork work better. According to them, in fact, great attention is always paid to a person's technical skills, but less to these aspects which are just as important, if not more, in daily work.
A final piece of advice for participants was to learn to seize all the opportunities that arise to grow personally, to meet new companies, people, and therefore also potential partners or customers.
As CLab Trento we try in our own way to condense all these tips in a programme that brings together 100 selected students and to accompany them during the development of their business idea: namely Start-Up Lab. Participants have the opportunity to be followed and helped in the initial stages of their project by mentors who already work in the fields of innovations and entrepreneurship. They can therefore speed up their learning process, their acknowledgement of mistakes, which can come along the way, and help them with direct advice. Start-Up Lab will start at the end of the month and will continue until the end of May.
In these three months, participants will make use of all the tips and indications of teachers and mentors, all the way to the Demo Day. See you there!