Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
Is Italy ready for OpenCoffee?
Posted by Giovanni Intini | Filed under Business, Italy, OpenCoffee
I guess most of you know of OpenCoffee and those who don’t should read the exhaustive post that started it all.
I have seen OpenCoffees prosperate all around Europe and America with the exception of Italy.
Are we ready for it? If so, why isn’t anyone doing anything? I’m pretty sure an OpenCoffee in Italy would be a wonderful thing, and every person I talk to thinks the same, yet no one is taking action to start anything.
There are similar initiatives, but they are not born with openness as one of the core principles.
If you’re wondering why I don’t start an OpenCoffee instead of whining about it on my blog, it’s because of my geographic position. I live deep in the South, where most people only go on Vacation and where no one would go for an OpenCoffee, so I guess I’m entitled to wish for someone in a better position to begin working on an Italian OpenCoffee 
I hope laziness it the only reason OpenCoffees are not being organized in Italy, instead of the usual trust-no-one approach we have to enterpreneurship, so I keep my fingers crossed waiting to see what will happen in the next few months.
As I keep telling people I work with, there’s no more time, we have to take action now, or stop thinking about it.
Bread and Butter vs The Big Project
Posted by Giovanni Intini | Filed under Business, Italy
A month or so ago I had the luck of being able to talk with Marco Palombi, one of the few Italian enterpreneurs that have succeded.
It was a pleasant and inspiring experience, mostly because I discovered that he encountered the same problems we all do, but was able to overcome them. What hit me like a rock though, was the fact that he didn’t earn a single cent for five years. That’s an important fact that shows success doesn’t come with zero effort. You have to believe so much in what you do that you’re willing to risk five years of your life to reach the goal you set for yourself.
Unfortunately strong beliefs are not all that’s needed. You have to find a way to sustain yourself while you work on your big projects, and I have to resort to bread and butter jobs to earn what I need to go on with my life.
I think there are many people among you that are in the same situation and struggle daily trying to balance those jobs with what you really would like to do. Sometimes b&b jobs are well paid, sometimes they’re interesting too, but they are no substitute for the rush of energy you get when you work on your own projects.
In the South of Italy this situation exacerbates, because b&b projects aren’t well paid here, and you have to work more for less money, and that’s not an ideal situation.
Sometimes I think I would be better just dropping unpaid projects, my own brainchildren, and getting some sleep at night, but there’s something in the back of my head that tells me I would not be happy doing that, and time after time I keep listening to that voice.
Maybe, just maybe, that’s the voice of freedom, the freedom of doing what we really like to do, creating cool technologies.
Italian Enterpreneurship
Posted by Giovanni Intini | Filed under Business, Del.icio.us, Italy
I don’t like writing posts about the things I tag in del.icio.us, but this is an important moment for Italy, and an important signal that something is starting to happen here too.
If you understand Italian you can read the blog post on Infoservi. It basically says that Marco Palombi (former member of the board of the jabber foundation and former Tipic/Splinder CEO) and Michele Appendino (venture capitalist) have decided to form an association to help Italian Enterpreneurs.
This is a breakthrough since Italy has always been 100% old economy, with the notable exception of Splinder, that was acquired by RCS last summer.
I really hope this is just a first step for all the Italians involved with net startups, and I hope Italy will become a viable environment for those businesses.