A first step to stimulating entrepreneurship among the young people we are working with as youth workers and not-for-profit organisation is mapping and measuring the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem in our country and exchange the best practices among ourselves. The purpose of this analysis is to identify learning, development and funding opportunities for young people who want to launch their start-ups or social projects. We will collect all the data from 6 different countries and publish it in only one guide.
For the purpose of mapping, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is defined as a product of three elements:
1. the surrounding environment, more precisely the business environment and investment climate,
2. its interacting actors, and
3. the evolving culture and attitudes.
Question 1
What is the national strategy of your government regarding start-ups and youth entrepreneurship?
The new 2019 budget law provides for the creation of the National Innovation Fund, a sort of multi-fund that will operate through venture capital methods. The Fund is a Savings Management Company and will have an initial endowment of 1 billion euros. It will become operational starting from June 2019.
This Fund will be managed by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, which will have the task of bringing together public and private resources to be directly injected into startups or into other venture capital funds.
The estimated impact of the creation of the Fund is around 2 to 2.5 billion euros over three years, so around 700-800 million euros invested each year in the Italian market.
Another important measure promoted by the Government in Italy is the 50% tax credit for companies that acquire innovative startups: it means that a company that buys 100% of a startup and holds it for three years has the possibility to deduct 50% of the startup purchase cost from the tax declaration.
Question 2
What is the strategy if the Education/Labour Ministry regarding early entrepreneurial education?
In Italy, the formation of the concepts that revolve around the world of startups is entrusted to incubators and accelerators.
The difference between incubator and accelerator is that the former essentially provides a physical space in which to work, access to a limited number of services, such as conference rooms and internet connection, and networking opportunities. The accelerator, on the other hand, offers free or paid services, professional strategic consultancy services ranging from the definition of the business to the establishment of the team, from fundraising to the management of any pivot up to the launch of the product on the market. The acceleration program has an average duration ranging from 6 months to a year. In this period the objective is to resolve all the organizational, operational and strategic difficulties typical of a new company.
Question 3
Who are the main providers of entrepreneurial education in your country? List 3 to 10 public, private and non-profit entities actively involved in creating learning contexts for young people.
1. Luiss EnLabs
2. TechPeaks
3. Startalia
4. Industrio
5. Nanabianca
6. Tim#Wcap
7. Trento Rise
Question 4
What public/private grants are available for young people to launch their start-ups at national/ international level?
(please add links and a short description)
1. BEST Program
The BEST Program (Business Exchange and Student Training) is promoted by Invitalia - the national agency for the attraction of investments and business development - and by the BEST Steering Committee, an entity made up of individuals who share the institutional aims of cultural exchanges between them. 'Italy and the United States intend to foster the growth of Italian entrepreneurship and technological innovation through partnerships with American companies and universities.
Link: http://www.fulbright.it/programma-best/
2. WIP2019
The 2019 Wylab Incubation Program has as main objectives:
● help the growth path of the most innovative startups that develop products or services for the sports industry;
● facilitating access to the main sports players, such as federations, companies, clubs and i sport-tech brand;
● facilitate the finding of financial resources through relations with the world of investors.
The call is aimed at startups and teams with innovative ideas and projects in the sports field, both in the "early" phase stage ", for which an incubation program was conceived, which in a more advanced stage" growth stage ”, with a tailored acceleration path.
Link: https://www.wylab.net/wip2019/
3. Smart&Start Italia
Smart & Start Italia supports the creation and growth of high-tech innovative startups to stimulate a new entrepreneurial culture linked to the digital economy, to enhance the results of scientific and technological research and to encourage the return of «brains» from abroad.\
The measure was refinanced by the Ministry of Economic Development with 95 million euros (Budget Law 2017).
45.5 million were made available by the Pon Companies and Competitiveness 2014-2020.
From the start, in September 2013, Smart & Start has financed almost 900 startups with projects mainly in the sectors of digital economy, life science, environment and energy against almost 270 million euros of concessions and 4,442 new jobs created.
Link: http://www.smartstart.invitalia.it/site/smart/home.html
Question 5
What are struggles that youth entrepreneurs from your country face?
Networking is without a doubt the most important ingredient in a startup recipe. In Italy, there is no space, an environment, a climate in which they will meet technical specifications with business skills.
Another element that is missing in Italy is the risk. Few really want to invest in new businesses - a little because maybe there are few opportunities or little money around, but certainly also because the ability to see possible perspectives and interactions is lacking. My negative effects are mediocre with little future in terms of innovation.
The third and most painful point of my somewhat crude analysis has arrived: The worst confusion is between small business and startup. The young man who opens on a small fruit shop in the house, even if he is present on all the social networks of the world and can check on Foursquare in front of the watermelon counter, is not a startupper but simply an entrepreneur who has understood the The utility of social networks to promote one's business and attract customers.
Question 6
Name few private companies that support entrepreneurial education through Corporate Social Responsibility programmes, hackatons, accelerators etc.
(Links and a paragraph by company are highly appreciated)
Question 7
List 1-5 start-up hubs from your country and what type of services they provide for new entrepreneurs
Question 8
List 5-10 successful startups developed by youth entrepreneurs under 30 years old based on the following structure:
Name of the founder
Industry
Aim of the startup
Products/Services
Link to start-up website (if any)
Question 9
What are the industries who have the biggest potential to develop? Or the ones that developed in an accelerated way?
Question 10
Which are the top 3 cities who have an encouraging climate for entrepreneurs? Why?
Question 11
List 3-5 projects/programmes initiated by non-profit organisations with the topic: social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education.
