Nikas Bergaglio

Four years ago when Camilla and I launched Made IT Podcast, we were driven by a mission: to inspire the next generation of Italian entrepreneurs and innovators. How where we going to achieve this? We decided to interview the most brilliant Italian founders and break down the steps it took to build their companies, from making the decision to quit their full-time jobs to facing and overcoming the toughest obstacles. Our mission remains the same, but we realized that to truly grow the Italian startup ecosystem, we needed to expand our reach beyond borders 🇮🇹 Recognizing that no international news outlet consistently covers Italian tech in-depth, we felt compelled to act. Enter Amy O'Brien, a passionate journalist who has been reporting on Italian tech for years. Together, we created Il Digestivo, the most comprehensive monthly newsletter on the Italian new economy. Every month, we bring you the latest news, exclusive scoops, insightful interviews, and so much more. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest innovations from Italy. Subscribe to our newsletter – it's free, but you can also choose to donate if you want support independent journalism. The second edition comes out tomorrow. Don’t miss it 👇🏼 https://lnkd.in/epYwy5Bd

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A few weeks ago I pitched my new company for the first time. We received amazing feedback on the pitch (both in person and under Vento's video here on LinkedIn - thanks!), but before getting into what’s next, let me tell you how I got to pitch in front of hundreds of amazing investors a 3 minutes pitch that I loved. It’s quite simple, actually. I went through 13 versions of the pitch in 1 month. Condensing months worth of work and aspirations for the next decades in 3 minutes is absolutely not an easy task. You want it to be simple, but you also want to convey the message that a lot of work went into your venture so far, and a lot more will be needed to reach future milestones. The first version of my pitch was a Notion page with the most basic questions you should be able to answer: here’s what we do, here’s why it’s hard, here’s why it’s needed, here are the people who will need it, here’s why we’re the ones to build it, here’s how it works, here’s how big the market can be. The smartest thing my co-founder and I have done is building a data room early on: context, articles, explanations of the problem, users interview, info about ourselves, financials, and much more in a single place. This made it incredibly easy to package straight to the point answers to those questions (Notion Q&A, thank you for saving my life). After pitching my Notion page to a couple of investors, I understood what points needed extra information to de-risk the deal for investors, and what points were almost trivial and didn’t need an explanation. 13 iterations later, an infinte number of toggles, callouts, AI support in making the pitch shorter, simpler, bolder, and we got to the version we pitched last month. If you are in the process right now, trust me: write down everything you’ve collected so far in a digestible way, ask yourself those questions, pitch to everyone you know and continuously iterate. And keep track of every version! Something tells me those comments will never cease to be useful 🙂 I if you're an entrepreneur looking for a tool to replicate the process use my link to get 6 months for free + unlimited AI (value worth up to 6,000$) with Notion! Submit an application using my custom link: https://lnkd.in/d-JtWdJU and select Michela Andreolli on the partner list. Don't forget to Include my key: STARTUP4110P54770.

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Looking forward to our panel on "Success Stories from international VCS: How to increase potential unicorns?" with Ash Arora, Yacine Ghalim, Aman Ghei and Kenneth Pentimonti at the 0100 conference in Milan!

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"It's important to build for longevity and set the right foundations. Although on Day 1 you think you have an idea for a business with longevity, that idea may change. Whatever it is, if you are passionate about it, start building and the rest will come." That's Luca Franchi, CEO and co-founder of Ambient Network, a decentralized network of air quality sensors, on this week's episode of MoneyNeverSleeps. Blockchain has grown up. This is my second interview with an emerging DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure network) founder, and I'm talking to masters of their respective crafts building platforms, networks and yes, businesses, with longevity in mind. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform 👇👇👇 🎧Apple, Spotify, or web player:  https://lnkd.in/eZExgn7H 🎧MoneyNeverSleeps Website: https://lnkd.in/deWZxZk 📰MoneyNeverSleeps Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eRTiXyU 📣 On-air shout-outs to Jamie H. Finn, Carlos Domingo, Martin Olczyk and NATIX Network. #depin #web3 #blockchain #founder #climatetech #environment

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Here’s why I don’t believe in VC Funding, at least here in Italy! 👇 I know it may sound harsh, but hear me out: The entrepreneurship model is totally missing. When we built intranet.ai many years ago, we had some great ideas and an already developed product, but we weren’t yet live on the market. So, we started looking for investors. When you ask a VC to fundraise your project, the first thing they’ll do is ask for guarantees. Guarantees in a seed stage? What? How do you ensure that you can make it when — even if you have all the skills and good ideas — you don’t know how the project will turn out? Truth is, that many Italians wannabe VC act more like a bank. It’s not an investment they’re making, but rather lending you money. And quite frankly they don’t necessarily believe in you nor your project. That’s why we decided to steer away from funding models and followed our guts. We decided to do it on our own terms: fully bootstrapped, Intranet.ai is now a worldwide product, installed in more than 200 companies, with 20+ employees 🚀 What’s your experience with funding? Did it worked for you? Miro #Founder #Entrepreneurship #VCFunding #Technology 

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This morning, while reading Italian business news in Culture Shock, I discovered that Startup Week in Rome starts in just two days. Thanks to the app, I'm heading there tomorrow! We are the only language learning app that has relevant dynamic content. It's our latest updates that got me using the news feature more frequently. Here's what we’ve changed: • Adjustable Difficulty for News Articles: You can now toggle between difficulty levels for news content, allowing you to match the challenge to your proficiency level. • Redesigned Home Screen: We've replaced progress rings with intuitive progress cards, giving you a clearer view of your learning journey. • Enhanced Conversation Mode: - 3 new conversation modes to explore - Conversation mode is now set as the default, making it easier to jump into speaking practice - Improved tracking of your conversation practice progress • Balanced Credit System: Reviews now receive equal credit to original word-level practices, ensuring a more balanced approach to your learning. • UI Improvements: We've made several tweaks to improve your overall app experience. The update is live and available for download now! It’s your feedback that is driving our progress so please keep it coming!

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My dog just ate the piece of paper on which I saved my seed phrase 🐶📄 Guess it's time to rethink how we secure our Bitcoin, huh? No worries, I got your back 🔒 Thrilled to announce I'll be speaking at the @Lugano's Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano this October, where I'll deep dive into the concept of Bitcoin's keyless future 🍊 Spoiler alert: We're about to make seed phrases as outdated as floppy disks. (Remember those?) Join me to explore: 1️⃣ Why your grandma's authentication methods just won't cut it anymore 2️⃣ How we're keeping and pushing Bitcoin to be non-custodial 3️⃣ The magic of on-demand key generation (it's like Uber, but for security!) See you in Lugano, where we'll unlock the secrets to a simpler orange pilled world (like my face)! 🗝️💥

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Time is more relevant than money. Mentioned Andrea Di Camillo, Founding Partner at P101. Building a leading tech company involves many moving parts: 👉 developing products 👉 adapting to markets 👉 scaling internationally 👉 establishing governance This doesn’t happen overnight. Italy might not be the next Silicon Valley just yet. BUT, with the right direction and time, the future looks bright. Tune in for the full story on EUVC & your favorite streaming platforms. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/dXSsg2fd #EUVCpodcast #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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OpenAI sold you out. Literally. I'm cancelling my subscription. And the 2 are not even related. This week I hosted an event at the Italian Tech Week, where Sam Altman joined a fireside chat with Exor's John Elkan. Serendipitously, I also read a grat chronological account by Vox on how Sam Altman has single-handedly turned a (sort of) social enterprise into a possible global security and climate risk. And a possible money scam too. What I find worrying is not that a company or its leader seeks to make profit. I'm a venture CAPITALIST myself. And the founder of my own firm. Making money is how I make my living. But OpenAI took advantage of a (semi)non-profit status to advance technology (open sourced by others btw -i.e. Google) only to shift its agenda without any accountability for the consequences. Theses days OpenAI is reportedly pitching for 1 Trillion investment from oil money (Saudis etc) to bankroll a technology that's already accounting for a significant chunk of the global energy consumption. Folks on LinkedIn laugh about the EU wanting to regulate AI. But now even Americans and their publications are worrying. Even Musk, who's normally for extreme versions of capitalism. I now think it's a justified worry. When OpenAI was cofounded in 2015 the budding research lab introduced itself to the world with these words: "OpenAI is a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return." OpenAI was a nonprofit controlled not by its CEO or by its shareholders, but by a board with a single mission: keep humanity safe. But! By 2023, the nonprofit board had grown so suspicious of the leadership that it tried to oust it's CEO. That didn't work. Earlier this year, OpenAI’s safety team imploded and quit the company. Now OpenAI will no longer be controlled by the nonprofit board. And Sam Altman is now getting equity worth billions. How could this be legal? If OpenAI does away with the profit cap, it would be redirecting a huge amount of money — prospective billions of dollars in the future — from the nonprofit to investors. Because the nonprofit is there to represent the public, this would effectively mean shifting billions away from the public. As magazine Vox notes: "it feels a lot like theft." And if somehow now OpenAI starts to onboard investors with dubious climate agenda and disregard for AI safety regulations, I wonder where all this will lead. Oh well, in the meantime maybe we should smile that their features and UX are losing pretty much against all their competitors: Claude is better for coding. Perplexity better for searching. Mistral for open sourcing and agent creation. So yes after all it's not consumer worries that are pushing me to unsubscribe from the premium OpenAI. It's just that they are falling behind despite all the money manoeuvres. Thoughts?

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My angel investment ContentRadar is coming out of beta today. They use AI to make content marketing and social media easier and less time consuming. As a happy beta customer I am very excited for them to release their product to the public. Onwards and upwards team! Katia Yakovleva Riccardo ♦︎ Buzzotta with kind support of superangels 😇 #angelinvestment #contentmarketing #ai

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Black Dog Venture Partners a webinar with Fabio Hediger the founder of Aglimpse: Future of New Home Buying. Make sure to attend it on November 26. Introducing Aglimpse: Future of New Home Buying Join us for an exclusive look at how Aglimpse is transforming the home-building industry with immersive virtual reality. This 30–40-minute session will reveal how Aglimpse addresses the high costs and limitations of physical model homes by allowing prospective buyers to tour, customize, and engage with their future homes—all in real time and from anywhere. Date: Tuesday, November 26th at 1pm eastern time via zoom. Register at https://lnkd.in/e3nJ-vkm This webinar is ideal for home builders, sales professionals, and marketing teams looking to elevate their model home presentations, cut costs, and provide a unique buying experience that resonates with modern buyers. Agenda: • Introduction - The problem with current methods • What is Aglimpse? • Aglimpse Demo Video • Implementation Story • Q and A Session Key Highlights: • Builder Competitive Advantage • More Engaged Buyer Experience • Cost Efficient Opportunity • Increased Marketability • Pre-Sales Potential • Eco-Friendly Solution • Model Flexibility and Mobility Watch our video to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eDPDv9q4

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Sometimes they come back, and first loves are never forgotten After a couple of years of sleep, I am proud to announce that TDI’s original production about women who form startups is now in production. The location has changed a bit – we are now in the beautiful Casentino region of Tuscany, and our focus is on the incredible artisan women who live and work here. “Donne Artigiane in Casentino” is a docufilm that celebrates the strength, determination, and exceptional skills of women who have chosen to embark on entrepreneurial journeys. These women balance the dual roles of being mothers and entrepreneurs, navigating the challenges of running small startups and family businesses, all while facing workplace discrimination and societal expectations. The project is structured in three parts: 1. Television Series: Six engaging 30-minute episodes that tell the stories of women who have reinvented themselves as artisans and business owners. 2. Podcast/Videocast: Six informative podcasts and videocasts serving as guides for other women looking to start their own artisanal businesses. We cover practical topics like obtaining a VAT number, licenses, and permits, with a clear and accessible approach. 3. Masterclasses in Casentino: Inspirational events featuring female CEOs aimed at motivating young women to pursue new careers and contribute to the revitalization of local craftsmanship. These events will also generate content to be shared across our social and online channels. We have already completed the first episode and are in preliminary discussions with a few broadcasters. Stay tuned for more updates and join us in celebrating these remarkable women who are transforming their communities one handcrafted piece at a time. This version aims to be engaging, informative, and inspiring, drawing readers in with the story and significance of the project.

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HOT - VC Italia AI (Milan-IT) startups - Family Offices chasing Italy AI startups - data speaks for itself. Milan is the new Berlin for AI startups innovation. quote "Q3-24 is the best quarter of the last 2 years and the best ever excluding mega rounds. Pre-seed and Seed remain the most frequent round types (63% of the total), although lower than H1-24 (71%). 45% of total raised comes from Series B+" end-quote. #startups, #privateequity, #investments, #cfa, #fundraise, #preseed, #seed, #seriesa, #fundmanager, #venturecapital, #vc, #euro, #fx, #milan, #rome, #spain, #italy, #berlin, #israel, #boston, #mit, #israel, #harvard, #miami, #capital, #realestate, #bitcoin, #miami, #zurich, #geneva, #newjersey, #sanfrancisco, #machinelearning, #ai, #deeplearning, #artificialintelligence, #proptech, #medtech, #cybersecurity ref - https://lnkd.in/em_j5zAb

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Last weekend, I dove deep into a topic close to my heart—Europe’s innovation landscape—sparked by an insightful report (Future of European Competitiveness Report by Former Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Draghi - link: https://lnkd.in/g3xMiJD9) I first heard about thanks to Owen Reynolds. (Thank you, Owen, for making me aware of it). The result? An article where I weave my entrepreneurial lens with Peter Wollmann’s “Three Pillar Framework,” a model I now find myself addicted to thinking with. In this piece, I explore Europe’s innovation dilemma: a continent rich in ideas yet challenged in scaling them. My article unpacks why Europe’s legacy of ingenuity must now be matched with bold risk-taking and systemic transformation. From fragmented markets to risk-averse venture capital, the challenges are significant—but so are the opportunities. From fragmented markets to risk-averse venture capital, the challenges are significant, but so are the opportunities. As an immigrant, American, and former founder, I care deeply about Europe’s future because I believe a strong, innovative Europe benefits the entire world. Tackling global challenges—from climate change to digital equity—requires a uniquely European approach, one that doesn’t imitate the American or Chinese models but instead builds on Europe’s own values and strengths. 📖 Who should read this? Anyone who cares about Europe’s future. Founders, policymakers, investors, and global citizens. #EuropeanInnovation #InnovationProblem #AITransformation #CompetitivenessReport https://lnkd.in/g4bvA3FE

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Last week I interviewed Francesco Dominidiato! Francesco is CTO at Moneyfarm, one of the largest wealth management companies in Europe, and former CTO at high-growth startups like Casavo and Docebo. During his career he scaled organizations from 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀, and has incredible experience at all levels: from leading small teams to NASDAQ-listed companies. With Francesco, we talked about 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀, how to create a path that creates opportunities for both individual contributors and managers, how to address career development issues, organizational debt and more. I include a clip here, and the full interview is available on Substack, Youtube, Spotify, and all channels (I put the link in the first comment!)

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*Opportunity at the end!* Ever since Matteo and I begun working on our startup time has literally flown. It started with the intuition of a problem, went on with +100 interviews with our target users, it became an ever evolving sketch on Figma, it turned into a VC backed company in the meanwhile, and we had an emotional moment last week when we saw first users had their "aha moment" after logging into the product. As someone who tried to build a startup solo in the past, having someone with whom you get to share the emotional and operational load feels like a true privilege. This is not only true in hard times (which are definitely there!), but also in good times when things go incredibly well and fast. In those situations, when everyone has a different opinion or advice that they *need* to share with you, having someone that constantly reminds you that the only opinion that matters is the one of those who need our product is a true lifeline (Matteo thank you). Because I lived both scenarios - the one where you are alone and the one where you understand that having the right support makes you go incredibly faster - I am convinced now that we could serve our users even better if we had someone equally convinced that there's no point in building tech products for the tech industry unless we're capable to extend the same potential to the real world. In other words, we are looking for a CTO! If you are passionate about complex technical challenges, the possibility of positively disrupting the work of the real makers of our world (manufacturers), and are a genuinely nice person (this is a hard requirement 👀 ), let me buy you a coffee and tell you more about why this could be the greatest experience of your life. If you know someone I should talk to, reach out! (Don't worry I'm clearly not the designer in the team)

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Italy levelling up their startup game. One government, one country at a time the understanding develops and action is taken. To build strong, multi-generational #ecosystems for #innovation, #entrepreneurship, #investment, #jobcreation and the #sustainability transformation, these key stakeholders need to collaborate towards a unified vision. If you ask me, ideally for a better future for people and planet 🌱🌊🌞 Startups: 🤠 innovative, brave, agile, at the forefront of new developments. Running on Ramen and Coffee. Corporates: 🏢 In need of solutions to remain relevant and thrive. Have clients, resources, reach, talent, infrastructure, capital. Investors: 🤑 Good investors have the expertise, network and capital to make success happen. Fuel the ventures. Is performance metric and benchmarking tool. Important to measure non-monetary impact of the business activity as well! Academia & research: 🤓 Develop brave, smart, curious and energetic talent to work with the latest of what humanity develops in scientific research. Politics: Super-networked people operating on systems level. Slowish due to democratic processes. Important to be brave and put policies and infrastructure in place with transformative and long-term benefits for society and our natural environment we live in, and depend on! Like STATION F in Paris Media: With the power, reach and responsibility to show-case positive solutions, positive rolemodels, the people and vision behind big and small ideas which improve how we live and work every day. We're building our future today. Every day. One day at a time. 🌱🌞 It's important to show what we're doing, to provide hope, perspective and motivate everyone to contribute to the solution. Let's build #EoTs - Ecosystems of Transformation. Let's build them together. Share in the comments what you need to thrive in your mission, or how you create positive impact people need to know about! Cambridge Judge Business School Stanford LEAD ETH Zurich, Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering digitalswitzerland World Economic Forum Hugo Rauch Michael Jackson Tech Barcelona Oliver Bussmann Nicolas Bürer

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💸 Here are the 1️⃣1️⃣ #FoodTech news you should know this week: 🧬 🇬🇧 Basecamp Research, a British startup, raised $60M for its protein discovery platform. It gathers information worldwide and builds a large dataset that can be explored for biotech, pharma and agriculture applications. 🌾 🇮🇹 xFarm Technologies, a leading Italian startup, raised €36M for its digital platform, which supports farmers in all their operations, from managing expenses to using sensor data or satellite imagery to better manage their farms. 🏭🇨🇭 planetary, a Swiss startup, raised €3.5M from Royal Cosun, an agricultural cooperative focused on plant-based ingredients, to scale its fermentation technology. 2️⃣🍷 🇫🇷 moderato 0% 🍷 , a French startup, raised over €3M for its no-low alcohol wines. Also, FRENCH BLOOM, another French startup, raised an undisclosed amount from LVMH for its alcohol-free, sparkling wine offerings. 🍈 🇺🇸 The Jackfruit Company, an American startup, raised $5M in a Series B extension for its jackfruit-based alternative meat alternatives. 🌱🇳🇱 Blue Radix, a Dutch startup, raised €5M for its AI solutions that optimise greenhouse management for growers. 🍴🇹🇷 Paket Mutfak, a Turkish startup, raised $2.7M for its cloud kitchen and food delivery operations. 🍫 🇺🇸 California Cultured Inc., an American startup, raised an undisclosed but “significant” amount from Sparkalis, Belgium bakery giant Puratos’ CVC, for its lab-grown cocoa. 💥 🇺🇸 Tiamat Sciences Corp. Sciences, a US-based startup using molecular farming to develop ingredients that could be used in other alternative protein processes (such as growth factors), is shutting down as it was unable to attract additional funding.   🇬🇧 💰 The UK food regulatory agency, the FSA, has been awarded £1.6M from the government to introduce a regulatory sandbox to facilitate the approval process for lab-grown and cultivated meat. 5 companies have already applied for regulatory approval in the UK. 🇫🇷 🥓 EU’s top courts have ruled that France cannot ban the use of “meaty” words for plant-based foods. That’s a strong win for French companies fearing that they would be treated unfairly. 👉 All the links and more insights in the link in the first comment #startup #foodtech #agtech #deal #fundraising

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Lorenzo Franzi and the Italian Founders Fund. Congratulations! <3 This week, Lorenzo and his team launched the Italian Founders Fund. They brought together over 100 founders and entrepreneurs, pooling €50M to support the next generation. It’s a big deal for Italian entrepreneurship. He has watched the Italian market with Global Founders Capital for three years. He has seen tremendous progress, met many talented people, and met ambitious new founders. Now, they're building the next wave of tech companies and putting Italy on the venture capital map. The pay-it-forward model—where experienced founders help the new generation—has worked in many places. Lorenzo and his team are making it happen in Italy with the Italian Founders Fund. They’re looking to work with angels and local investors. They're also excited about the growing interest from international investors. Their goal? Support Italian founders abroad and welcome foreign ventures to Italy. #ItalianFoundersFund #VC #Tech #Entrepreneurship #Italy #Innovation

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