Good Ideas Find Capitals at Bocconi Start Up Day

One day, two great opportunities for young entrepreneurs: 24 November, at Università Bocconi, will be the Start-Up Day, with a marketplace for new businesses seeking funding and an award to those who have already demonstrated in practice the quality of their project. During the marketplace startups will present their ideas to venture capitalists, angel investors and private equity practitioners. The prize will be awarded to startups that have already achieved significant results, although still at an early stage of their life cycle.

Applications for participation in the marketplace are already open, on https://www.startupday.unibocconi.eu, to teams wanting to develop a business idea or in the planning or launching stage of a startup (the team must include a student or alumnus of Università Bocconi, a SDA Bocconi School of Management or Mumbai International School of Business – MISB Bocconi – graduate), as well as to the startups incubated in Speed ​​MI Up. Registration closes on 7 September.

Registration for the Bocconi Start-Up Day Award will open on 15 May. The jury will include Carlo Bronzini (Sonenshine Partners), Gabriele Cappellini (Italian Investment Fund), Riccardo Donadon (H-Farm Ventures), Anna Gervasoni (AIFI), Giovanni Gorno Tempini (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), Doerte Hoeppner (EVCA), Alberto Meomartini (Milan's Chamber of Commerce), Gaetano Miccichè (Intesa Sanpaolo), Gianni Franco Papa (UniCredit), Bruno Pavesi (Università Bocconi), Alicia Robb (Kauffman Foundation), Fabio Sattin (Private Equity Partners), Fabiano Schivardi (Università Bocconi), Massimo Sideri (Corriere della Sera) and Andrea Sironi (Università Bocconi).

"The Bocconi Start-Up Day is an example of practical support to new businesses," said the Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Head of the initiative, Stefano Caselli, "i.e. one of the three fronts on which the University is engaged in the field of entrepreneurship, alongside education and research. Do not forget that our University was founded at the beginning of the last century by an entrepreneur who decided to create, in a sense, his own startup in the world of culture: Università Bocconi ".

The participants in the marketplace have not only the opportunity to meet potential funders, but will follow a training course that includes participation in two webinars and two networking seminars taught by Bocconi faculty, venture capital practitioners, entrepreneurs and managers, as well as the Speed MI Up video course on building a business plan. Among the business projects admitted to the marketplace, a small number (up to 5) will be admitted to Speed ​​MI Up Acknowledgment (fast-track admission path to the Speed ​​MI Up incubator) and will then have the opportunity to enter the incubator at the standard conditions from February 2016.

Applications are subject to the assessment of a commission, which will examine experiences and skills of the start-up team with respect to the proposed business plan and will analyze innovativeness (response to the needs / expectations), feasibility (business model and financial balance) and scalability (replicability in new segments and international markets) of the business idea. The result of the evaluation will be announced on 30 September.