A Business Accelerator Is a Bit Like a a Rollercoaster
Twenty EMIT (MSc in Technology and Innovation Strategy ) students visited today the Milan headquarters of #Wcap, Telecom Italia's program which selects, finances and accelerates digital start-ups. Divided into four teams, the same that in December 2014 won the TIM Graduate Contest submitting innovation projects, they had a first hand experience of what it means to be in an accelerator and make a pitch in front of potential investors.
During the event, which was promoted by Gianmario Verona's TIM Chair, with tutors Alessio Cozzolino and Paola Zanella (PhD students in Business Administration at Università Bocconi), the teams faced a pitching and demolition session. They presented their ideas and answered questions posed by Telecom managers, startuppers, and associates of dpixel, the venture capital firm that operates with #Wcap. In the second part of the session, the teams worked with mentors who advised them on how to improve their projects.
The four teams involved were Prometheus' Revenge (Jasmine Comi, Serena Scorza, Davide Venegoni, Massimo Venegoni, Manu Sharma), that proposed a platform for the labor market; iGroup (Marta Maria Caputi, Enrica Fracasso, Tommaso Meroni, Lorenzo Saibene, Tommaso Stucchi), that aims to use cloud computing to connect public and private health facilities; Green Team (Federica Guerra, Giulia Bessi, Giacomo Malandrino, Alessandro Bruni, Alessandro Giovanelli), that designed an eco-friendly home automation platform; and Contimgency (Arne Huttenbrink, Larissa Habbel, Irene Milani, Sussan Nadine Schneider, Thilo Bohm), that thought about a POS that allows retailers to control and manage checkout while monitoring the performance indicators.
"Students had the opportunity to enter a working incubator and present their projects in front of young entrepreneurs", Verona says. "They were able to work for two hours alongside entrepreneurs and business angels and had a taste of what it means to make a pitch in front of venture capitalists". In the coming weeks the four teams will continue to work at #Wcap to further refine their projects and then decide whether to participate in the Call for Ideas program announced by TIM. The start-ups that that will be selected will receive a 25,000 euro grant.