Iose' Magno

The Holy Spirit Church in Rome

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Sometimes the Lord makes us special gifts. He uses weird happenings to deliver us clear messages. We can feel his presence and get right sensations while living life such as meeting special people or making all life long decisions..but only Lord has the full portrait, all the pieces of the puzzle as one. For some weird reason you can get in touch with unique figures like Faustina, Gemma and Giovanni Paolo II but you don't ever expect to find them all in one single place waiting for you!

Einstein on the economic crisis

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0000

We are in the midst of a huge economic crisis for over years and, honestly, it seems to me few people here in Italy, as well as all around the world, are facing it in the right way. In that case it is useful to put in mind powerful thoughts provided by powerful minds. Therefore I'm pleased to share with you Einstein speech on 1930's economic crisis.

ENG
"Let's not pretend that things will change if we keep doing the same things. A crisis can be a real blessing to any person, to any nation. For all crises bring progress. Creativity is born from anguish, just like the day is born form the dark night. It's in crisis that inventive is born, as well as discoveries, and big strategies. Who overcomes crisis, overcomes himself, without getting overcome. Who blames his failure to a crisis neglects his own talent, and is more respectful to problems than to solutions. Incompetence is the true crisis.

The greatest inconvenience of people and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems. There's no challenge without a crisis. Without challenges, life becomes a routine, a slow agony. There’s no merit without crisis. It's in the crisis where we can show the very best in us. Without a crisis, any wind becomes a tender touch. To speak about a crisis is to promote it. Not to speak about it is to exalt conformism. Let us work hard instead.

Let us stop, once and for all, the menacing crisis that represents the tragedy of not being willing to overcome it"

ITA

"Non pretendiamo che le cose cambino, se continuiamo a fare le stesse cose. La crisi può essere una grande benedizione per le persone e le nazioni, perché la crisi porta progressi.

La creatività nasce dall'angoscia come il giorno nasce dalla notte oscura. E' nella crisi che sorge l'inventiva, le scoperte e le grandi strategie. Chi supera la crisi supera sé stesso senza essere superato. Chi attribuisce alla crisi i suoi fallimenti e disagi, inibisce il proprio talento e dà più valore ai problemi che alle soluzioni. La vera crisi è l'incompetenza. Il più grande inconveniente delle persone e delle nazioni è la pigrizia nel cercare soluzioni e vie di uscita ai propri problemi.

Senza crisi non ci sono sfide, senza sfide la vita è una routine, una lenta agonia.

Senza crisi non c'è merito. E' nella crisi che emerge il meglio di ognuno, perché senza crisi tutti i venti sono solo lievi brezze. Parlare di crisi significa incrementarla, e tacere nella crisi è esaltare il conformismo. Invece, lavoriamo duro.

Finiamola una volta per tutte con l'unica crisi pericolosa, che è la tragedia di non voler lottare per superarla."

Palm Pre

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Hi guys,
I waited for a while before writing about the Palm Pre. It seems Palm's product can really compete with Apple's iphone regarding concepts like "user experience", "innovation" and "convergence". Thanks to Palm even Apple should have to add some missing features in their next firmware! unbelievable ;-) For sure Palm's men worked hard and studied a lot. What about nokia and microsoft?? Their job is harder cause they have to improve and evolve their old stuff (they could not built an OS from scratch) but sometime I wonder if someone there held an iphone in his hands during this two-year time period!!

Follow the signs

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:41:00 +0000

My last post was about how monetary crisis will impact on the wireless market..this new one will report something that seems to confirm my thoughts.

It seems that the MySpace Blackberry application has reached 400K downloads in only one week after the launch.

Everybody also knows that RIM’s primary target cannot be considered really a consumer one! ;-)

Monetary crisis is going to spread the Mobile 2.0 revolution

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Ok..I know..it's a very funny or paradoxical title...but I'd like to share my personal point of view about how the crisis will impact on the wireless market. We know from ABI reasearch that up to 1 billion wifi enabled mobile phones will be sold by the end of 2012.

We can consider that 70-80% will be next generation mobile phones such as iphone, android, symbian, windows mobile. New phones with great resource (cpu, memory, display, connectivity, multimedia support, touch, etc) build to support next generation mob 2.0 experience (a lot of data, a lot of multimedia, a lot of internet and a lot of openess ;-)

According to the last research of The Kelsey Group it seems that up to 19% of mobile consumer in U.S. now is using smartphone, with 49% planning to use smarthphone in the next two years.

I think the crisis will reduce a little bit the mobile phones sales but will spread the mob 2.0 revolution because of:

- next generation mobile phones price will drop down (you know..Manufacturers have to sell their phones ;-)

- mobile advertising will be powered by web advertising. There are enought numbers right there. Think about MySpace AD that become a 50$ million business the same year of the launch

- users want to move next to the new hot stuff. We are not asking the users to change their old 4 megapixel device with a 8 megapixel new one..we are talking about jumping in a new big mobile experience..a great revolution with a 150$ entry level ticket. The crisis cannot stop that train! it will stop the car market..and damage Ford,Chrysler and Gm but it cannot have the same impact on Apple, Nokia and Google roadmap.

Summing up I think we will see a lot of people handling next generation mobile phones in the next two years ;-)

Android android android..

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:10:00 +0000

It's always the same story..I love Apple..I love iphone..I think I'm one of the few italians with a jailbreaked 8Gb iphone 2G in his hands and please don't try to get it from my hands! :-) But it's stronger than me..I love the market much more than Apple...I'm a consumer, a developer and a service provider so I'm waiting fervently for Android to spread on the market and definitely open the new mobile era. Come on guys! Mobile 2.0 is much more than a mobile phone..it's something more than an incredible device with an amazing multi-touch experience..Mobile 2.0 is about mobile everywhere and openess in network, services and applications. Everybody is doomed to realize very soon how much Google is going to impact on mobile market as a big Game Changer. It's funny to consider that while Apple setup its incredible high quality offer leveraging on a full chain control and closeness, Google is going to achieve the same result leveraging on openess and without imposing itselft any kind of hardware paranoid evangelization (the OS power). If I remember well Microsoft won its own battle with similar weapons...but..we know..mobile is a little bit different :-)) Six month ago I started to said we would have seen Android inside iphones and nokia soon. I know someone even ported Windows Mobile inside Iphone (that doesn't really make sense for me!) but for sure Android is on the Nokia and we will see it inside Iphone sooner or later..

Btw I can live with both the world..I can "wash my hands" everytime before using an iphone feeling like the compliant elected or push the G1 phone with dirty chocolate fingers enjoying Google's amazing services. I love both...I love mobile!

MtB Venture Camp - Venezia

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:32:00 +0000

I'm coming back from the Mind The Bridge Venture Camp in Venice and I'd like to write down something about the event.. as you know MtB is the ambitious initiative aimed at spread the italian innovation and entrepreneurship. Having heard all the speeches of invited speakers (I was one of them as MtB first edition finalist) I think that we must still focus our attention on what MtB is and how we should give a concrete contribute. Mtb is much more of a business paln competition! The competition should be just the showcase of an entire movement composed of many entities (like Mtb itself, first generation network, parternership for grow, baia, sviec, embassy, entrepreneurs and investors, angels…but I means real angels from the sky) that join together to setup a new environment that can help young talent italian entreprenuers to make ambitious and global business take off from Italy.

What we should really love of MtB is it’s pre-seed nature…where pre-seed means something that anticipate the seed. Infact there are a lot of written and unwritten rules that you have to know while doing a startup that need to be backed by VC funds. Because if you don’t respect them you will automatically being cut off. That’s the big lack of knowledge and experience that young Italian talents have against American cousins. MtB helps you to close this gap and when you are ready it introduces you to an high level and very active international network that can make you to jump out the italian little walled gardens.

Yes! italian little walled gardens suffocate the great potential of a natural creativity! But..who decided that italians must be inventors and saints?? The Lord decided! We don't have to understand why! We must only follow our nature. Italian inventors (mostly joined with american cousins in the recent history) have given a great contribute to what we now call modern society...think about nuclear, medicine, science, microprocessor, electronics, architecture, desing, engineer, ...too much stuff to remark.

Nowadays the big problem is the current italian entreprenueral ecosystem aas well as many italian investors or entreprenuers are not in the position to think different, bigger or to give a real contribute to changing the status quo.

I agree with Gianluca Dettori (founder of Dpixel) that said publicly that we must start from scratch...redo...rethink the entire system...build new groups of persons...rejuvenate engaged talent and do things different!

I also said in my speech something about the age factor.. I told that Italy is a strange country where if you are twenty or thirty you are considered as a young baby that needs the mom (no matter if you are Einstein) if you are forty or fifty you are the young guy that is getting out and give a contribute to the society and if you are seventy you are ready to become the prime minister (no matter if you will be dead the day after becuase we don't do plans in italy...it seems we don't need to do plans! :-) But if you want to do facebook first of all you must be young!! So we are loosing a lot of potential business right now in Italy.

...but getting back on Dettori's sentence...we need to start from scratch and with different people...it's really true! For example someone told the young participants that the Silicon Valley is not Lourdes and a strange message could reach the the audience "yes...it's difficult to do business here in Italy...but...come one guys!...it's difficult everywhere!!...and if you will survive to this harsh environment then you will have the antibodies!" Grrrrhhh!!! Autogenic training, please!! :-) I'm fed up with such idiocies! We need to recover a lot of creativity and potential business that now we are killing as a real abortion. Let's try to image how many successful initiatives could have been born here in Italy if they'd had favorable conditions! So I don't know the man...I don't want to know why the man said such a thing...but it's a so misleading concept and I will show you why!!

Let say that you are a young entreprenuer with a great idea and the capability to make it...let say you need a seed round (just to start) of 150K. In that case you could talk with few potential investors and maybe meet Mr Lorenzo Franchini (another speaker) that brought together up to 50 italian business angels into an organization called Italian Angels for Growth. They could start a due diligence process and maybe give you that money after a 6 monthes period! :-) Franchini said "I know it's frustrating for the entrepreneur to wait such a long time but we invest on person and we know the person during the bad and difficult moments!!!!" Come on man...you are saying me that you are going to stress young entrepreneurs for a six monthes period??? Listen to me please... they already have many problems! :-) You would act as an angel but you seem just an incoming problem!! Btw we have an investor that acts contrary to his nature...he doesn't solve your problems and free the entreprenuer's mind (making the guy to focus on the business), he is going to create other problems. He wants to see how the entrepreneur will react (and maybe buy him the ice-cream later!)..here is not an angel that accelerate the business but an angel that puts at risk the business time to market...therefore an angel that penalizes both himself and the entrepreneur! Cool!!! :-)

If you are a disruptive business then probably you could survive to that penalty but if you are something else then it will be the disaster...it's better for you to go fast and hit your balls hard down on a desk corner!! :-))

Another note on Franchini speech was about the big due-diligence period objectively not alligned to the small amount of capital. Within the 6 monthes period or even less you could be able to raise up to 5mln from a big VC and get enough breath to go to the market and spread your identity! You want to know the reply?? He answered "if the entreprenuer is asking 150K it means that he needs 150K!!! not more not lees!"

I need to smoke and drink something ..really! The 150K, that are a little breath to start and turn on the engine, suddenly become a capital good enough to do the product, launch it on the market and maybe become the next Google!! ;-) the reality is that if the entreprenuer don't get the next big round from the VC than the angel will simply loose his money!

Money is referred to time and size...it's not something static or an ethereal entity..so I conclude by saying that if you need to close a seed round here in Italy it's better to put your own money in and don't waste time and efforts! ;-) You could never find the right man and you could kill your business in the meantime. We also must consider that the most interesting help of a seed investement group should not be the money but the network and this is another missing value-added too! No way!

But I'm curious about Italian Angel for Growth methodology and I will check to their website how many big shots they have done in their portfolio!!! ;-)

So lets summing up...if you are a young talent entreprenuer with a big idea looking for a seed round here in Italy you could live the above experience! Wow! And what about if you need a bigger round?? lets says from 2 to 5 million... In that case you can only speak with 3-4 potential investors...3-4!!! 3-4!! ping-pong! ping-pong! ..it's seems the score of a football match too! :-)

Summing up you can understand why Marco Marinucci and all the people engaged into MtB decided to do such an initiative. We need to connect the italian talents to the best entreprenueral ecosystem in the world (the Silicon Valley) leveraging on all the italian professionals that made great things right there and now are big managers, investors, entrepreneurs.

Many of them had to leave Italy in the past because of the lack of good investors and partners and now they are very estimated in the bay area. Think about Fabrizio Capobianco (the Ceo of Funambol) that is one of the most estimated man in the wireless field or Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli (professor at Berkeley, cofounder of Cadence and Synopsys) that is a kind of icon...one of the men that represent the italian genius worldwide. It not a case that people like that talk about "passion, love , wish, stomach, fortune and right environment" as the fundamental key factors for a successful business. They are not money-first men..you know...the men that live around money or are driven by money...they are real entrepreneurs that made their business and are inviting the new generation to follow their path..that's great! That's the only reason they are engaged with Mind The Bridge initiative..

I want to end this post telling that if you are a money-first man you are doomed to loose ..no matter if you play as the entreprenuer or as the investor..you will loose..sooner or later.

..and I'm sure that MtB must build a profit organization in addition to the no-profit organization. The profit organization could become a partner of some of the finalist projects requiring them to have an italian R&D and an american Headquarter and pushing on the american ecosystem to make them get out! I belive that if we will redo many new funambol companies we will be able, in the next 10 years, to make big international VC open their office in some of our beautiful italian locations and to stimulate the italian risk capital investment system in the right way. Let's see!

How many possibilities?

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:18:00 +0000

I'm coming back from TechGarage initiative and I really want to congratulate the LUISS University and Dpixel on how they organized the event. TechGarage tries to setup a stimulating environment where startups can meet with potential investors or even entrepreneurs can exchange their ideas and considerations on the markets.

Btw the big problem is alway the same...italian visionary entrepreneurs! where do they are??

We cannot celebrate things like "Jobrapido", "Downlovers" or similars. And, sure, we cannot invest money and hopes on a "mind" following a future where to be at Hawaii knowing a PC is doing the work for him!

Fiuuuuuuuuuu! A little bit of autogenic training, please! :-)

I am fed up with that situation! Me and Gianfranco got enough bored to leave the event as soon as all the pitches were done. We respect the hard work behind each business proposition...we know how many efforts were done... but we must be concrete and report that we can't go to war with such soldiers and such weapons.

While here in Italy we live this desperate situation, today, some of the best italian businessmen like Fabrizio Capobianco (one of the few visionary italian entrepreneurs able to jump the italian VC's ditch), Federico Faggin (the father of the Microchip), Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza (one of the best geneticists) and Giacomo Marini (Logitech co-founder now leading Noventi) are going for a meeting with the Italian Ambassador to the US, Giovanni Castellaneta. They will present their own ideas and suggestions for moving towards the big dream of an Italian Silicon Valley working ecosystem. I think we are in good hands!..and I absolutely recall you all that these are the kind of minds we italians should celebrate! ;-)

So as I wrote sometime ago only "strong men do strong business"...I know a lot of extremely talent guys are now working on amazing business ideas and research topics here in Italy. We must make them get out..

TechGarage sounds good but "Seed need Pre-Seed"

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:08:00 +0000

I wish to point out to all of you the next TechGarage edition on Friday June 20 in Rome. You can find me and Gianfranco right there looking for good early stage or very early stage business to invest on.

I have started working with Gianfranco, Blucape co-founder and CEO at Believing Capital, focusing on good models able to make high potential global market business take off from Italy.

It seems to us it’s the right time for italian VCs to understand they cannot apply in Italy the same role models usually applied somewhere else.

I’d personally like to share up to seven simple concepts, referring to Italy, we are meditating about:

1) Stop waiting for an high potential - high level seed company perfectly “ready to” raise the big financing round…that means risking to get old without any big stroke :-)

2) Don’t hurry to bet on a race. Discover and growth the ”good horse” instead. We all know who we are looking for:

- owns a big idea but believes to be intended for an higher call

- predestination. He does his job when everybody is looking somewhere else

- deeply understand the market

- high technology skills

- iron will and a lot of passion

- forever young

- very very lucky man (protected by Heaven!) :-))

3) We should start to invest time and money on setting-up a mentoring division able to turn big ideas into big companies. We need to teach the colt how to run or, the same, teach the guys how to use their talent in the right way (the game’s rules)

4) We should see the Talent as a God’s gift. It last forever…thus we can talk about "being serial". No serial entrepreneurs means no pure talents…and no pure talents means big problems for an entire country. We need to start priorizing the social-missionary role the VC should play today in a country such Italy.

5) We all should be humble. The humility is like a filter in front of the eyes. It makes us see things in a different way. Without such a filter we could drink a Martini with Mr. Einstein without understanding who is standing near us. Too much often italian talent scouts are not in the right position to discover the next Einstein!

6) Rome is not San Francisco or London!

7) We must recall nowadays italian schools are not the perfect places to growth high potential world-wide entrepreneurs! We must resign ourselves to relate with unripe young guy and do with them a pre-seed hard work.

Again…Here in Italy seed need pre-seed :-)

Strong men do strong business

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Hi again guys,

I’m coming back from an hard working period and I really do have to thanks my big mentors, advisors and friends such as Fabrizio and Alberto.

Fabrizio Capobianco

I think Blucape is really a lucky baby! It’s not a common story having such exciting figures giving an help in bringing out the business highest potential. It’s really true..strong men do strong business. The goal is ambitious..redo the new Funambol or Synopsys. Yet another italian disruptive business with a global potential market. As Fabrizio recently wrote in his blog "I am fed up with being know just for making pizza and clothes". Absolutely! I couldn't agree with you more Fabrizio! ;-)

Mind the Bridge - another milestone

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Here's my new post about the Mind The Bridge initiative. As you know...Blucape is one of the six finalists and I will give you more and more details during time. Here's the Marco Marinucci's post published on the very interesting Silicon Valley Study Tour network. It says more about the people behind this initiative's first edition (Organizing committee & Selection committee). Really impressive! Marco also sums up the next steps.
Here's a video about the announcement of finalists

A wonderful travel in Puglia

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:33:00 +0000

Padre Pio invites me to fly higher

Sure a man can fly if The Lord blows in his wings...!

I spent two amazing days in a wonderful land making new interesting friends.

Here we are!
Someone could think we are strange
...maybe
Someone could think we are crazy
...yeah...a little bit
Someone else could think we are joking

DEFINITELY NOT! ;-)

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:36:00 +0000

Yep, Blucape was appointed as a MtB's finalist. First of all I do congratulate all the people behind this great opportunity for italian minds. You know...big initiatives require big resources and efforts. So very thanks to all of you, from Marco Marinucci (idea's creator) to all the involved people and organizations.

Mind The Bridge 's goal can be summed up in the attempt to help italian talents to tear down all the italian entrepreneur ecosystem walls (we are not talking only about the lack of high quality VCs!)
If you spend sometime looking at all the involved people you can understand two important statements:
1) italians in Silicon Valley are more and more able of having big impact on those left in Italy because they are very estimated for their achievements
2) americans know great ideas can come from Italy
Here's an interesting reportage about Silicon Valley, Mind The Bridge and italian best business ideas established there

Non spariamo addosso al VC italiano!

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:58:00 +0000

Amici carissimi stiamo trattando un tema delicato e complesso con aspetti che non riguardano il semplice contesto economico finanziario ma anche tecnologico, culturale, sociale...insomma...per analizzare la situazione senza dire stronzate megagalattiche bisogna calare la problematica nel contesto territoriale di riferimento, ovvero l'Italia.
Io penso che le cose vadano male sia per colpe riconducibili ai VC o a chi si spaccia tale sia per colpe oggettivamente imputabili agli imprenditori o presunti tali. Da dove cominciamo? I VC italiani!
La grande difficoltà sta nel cambiare completamente una mentalità incapace di produrre risultati eclatanti, durevoli, consistenti. Bisonga iniziare a prendere coscienza che viviamo in un momento di grandi opportunità...internet non è un mercato consolidato...la sua evoluzione è così fortemente influenzata da una tecnologia che muta a ritmi frenetici spostando l'asse su opportunità e funzionalità sempre nuove, che non siamo lontani dal vero se etichettiamo la Rete come il mercato perennemente pionieristico.
Eppure...amici...chi in Italia crede che possano nascere iniziative di business globali totalmente "made in italy"? tecnologie ed idee con un tasso di innovazione tale da poter dire che, primi al mondo, proponiamo prodotti, servizi e costrutti funzionali nuovi? E' evidente che tolto Silvio che va va va con Babelgum, ed io penso che raccoglierà presto per quanto seminato, non rimane altro. Che tristezza! Ma perchè? il tasso di rischio incide molto. Queste iniziative pazzesche vengono normalmente concepite da giovani menti che si propongono in uno stato talmente early stage da intimorire un investitore che di suo non è propenso ad accollarsi alti rischi finanziari. Bisogna prendere atto che VC significa alto rischio e che l'alto rischio sa accollarselo solo chi ha abbastanza moneta, vision e palle...e che in Italia...ahime...sono in pochi a soddisfare questi requisiti. Se poi consideriamo che nel 2006 il venture capital made in italy finanzia solo 62 investimenti early-stage per un capitale investito di 28 milioni di euro, contro i 4,2 miliardi della Gran Bretagna, ci rendiamo conto che stiamo parlando di aria fritta! Perchè sparare addosso al VC italiano? Basta prendere solo atto che, semplicemente, l'early stage o il seed capital in Italia non esiste ed il sistema cerca facili guadagni altrove (es. 2,5 miliardi di euro in operazioni di by-out). La capacità valutativa incide anche...spesso le idee non sono valutate da persone all'altezza della situazione...spesso sono economisti con una buona conoscenza del settore informatico ed anche delle principali tecnologie di riferimento, sono perennemente aggiornati ma questo non è sufficiente per essere all'altezza della situazione il più delle volte. Prendiamo il caso Atomico...è difficile trovare merda nel loro porfolio semplicemente perchè loro sono imprenditori e visionari prima ancora di essere finanziatori. Possono sbagliare anche loro...anzi sbaglieranno di sicuro...ma è difficile che non intravedino un business valido per incapacità di vision o inadeguatezza di know-how tecnologico.
D'altro canto anche il tessuto imprenditoriale italiano non consente ai Vc di fare il grande salto di qualità. Essi ricevono un'enormità di business spazzatura...cosa sicuramente frustrante e tale da rendere loro la vita difficile in fase di cernita. Un po come dire...so che l'ago nel pagliaio esiste ma trovarlo è un pazzia! Un tempo si etichettava il popolo italiano come un popolo di esploratori, amanti e scienziati. Oggi pecchiamo su tutti i fronti e la cosa più grave è che viviamo in un Paese orientato alla mediocrità...che spinge a non sognare...a non credere...a non sacrificarsi. Mia madre, insegnante delle scuole primarie, mi accennava ad un fatto sconvolgente ma che riassume bene la situazione. Un insegnante vuole incontrare la madre di una bambina sveglia, studiosa, preparata, brillante e dice " Signora dobbiamo intervenire...dobbiamo fare qualcosa...sua figlia è troppo brava...troppo sveglia...troppo brillante...mette in ombra la classe...e poi...io lo dico anche per lei...se continua così sarà sempre una esclusa!!" Vedete come siamo educati alla mediocrità! Non è vero che dalle nostre università escono flotte di talentuosi ma un esercito di mediocri che potevano essere talentuosi e che sono stati sacrificati sull'altera del sistema. Un altro giorno, parlando con un mio caro amico docente di matematica, mi lamentavo di alcuni giovani laureati del suo dipartimento che avevano miseramente fallito un colloquio di lavoro e dicevo "sono scarsi! come è possibile" e la risposta fu "Iosè...a noi ci arrivano scarsi dai licei...troppe lacune...nessuna voglia di studiare...è logico che nell'università non si trasformano in scienziati...anzi..." Conludendo io ritengo che abbiamo perso il treno su cui sono saliti Israele, Cina, India, Taiwan, il nord Europa e che non possiamo più recuperare. Il mio scetticismo non riguarda il fatto che il treno non passa più...il treno potrebbe anche ripassare...siamo noi incapaci di salire sopra e prendere posto...e l'inadeguatezza della nostra classe politica non è una valida scusante.
Io credo anche, però, che il Signore semina talenti ovunque e, quindi, continuerà a seminare anche in Italia. Credo che il sistema possa almeno supportare le poche isole felici che nasceranno ugualmente per la legge dei grandi numeri. Ritengo che il VC italiano non sia, salvo alcune eccezioni constatate personalmente, il migliore supporter per un giovane imprenditore locale che, invece, laddove bisognasse di piccoli capitali, potrebbe rivolgersi al circuito dei business angel. Per il resto esistono anche le grosse corporate ed i VC Europei.

Le donne più belle e capricciose della mia vita...

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:56:00 +0000

Hai avuto l'idea? Ora fatti il prototipo!

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:13:00 +0000

Amici, l'influenza mi tiene ancora a letto. Avevo provato a mettere un piede fuori di casa ma ho capito che non era proprio il caso e mi sono rassegnato a mettermi a riposo. Ma la noia mi assale e così ho deciso di continuare la mia serie di post volti a descrivere il tipo di vita condotto da un numero molto sparuto di individui creativi capaci di progettare in toto i principali costrutti concettuali e tecnologici alla base delle proprie idee, dalla definizione della vision del prodotto fino all’individuazione dei core tecnologici e funzionali. E' un destino duro appartenere alla schiera dei creativi...molto duro! Chi con noi si fa i soldi usa termini quali "visionari" o "geni" ed indica le nostre idee con nomignoli lusinghieri quali "disruptive" "phenomenon" "cutting edge" ma, di fatto, guarda solo il proprio tornaconto; chi, invece, ci segue con lo sguardo da lontano ci chiama "folli" o "scienziati pazzi" (una sorta di pazzi scatenati), chi boccia le nostre idee ci chiama "illusi" o "sognatori". La realtà, però, è molto più complessa. Siamo degli inguaribili romantici capaci di pensare così tanto "lucidamente" e fortemente il futuro che deve ancora venire, da riuscire, a volte, ad anticiparne un pezzetto contribuendo così al progesso tecnologico. Per noi ogni mercato ha ciclicamente dei momenti pionieristici che vanno cavalcati...a dire il vero a volte capita che la nostra idea sia così innovativa da non avercelo proprio un mercato e, quindi, bisogna costruirselo from-scratch (da zero). Siamo soli! Tendenzialmente soli ed incompresi da tutti...in particolar modo dalle persone che più ci amano.
Un vero casino dirà qualcuno! Che sia un bel casino lo penso anche io, è una vita cazzuta per gente cazzuta (bisonga avere la testa e lo stomaco)!
Dove sta il gusto dirà qualcun altro? Il gusto sta nell'essere noi stessi, non potremmo essere altro, non sapremmo fare altro. Il gusto sta nell'essere un faro che emana luce intorno a sè e che, quindi, può contribuire a migliorare le cose...
Tornando a noi, ho già detto qualcosa su come schematizzare un'idea...passiamo ora a spiegare il valore di un prototipo. Nella foto in alto trovate una sorta di microterminal domestico che ho tirato sù da me per realizzare il prototipo di una iniziativa di business denomianta Blucape.
Adoro questo genere di cose...la prima volta che giocai ad hackerare il protocollo bluetooth (1 anno fa, usando amplificatori di segnale, antenne high-gain e un po di codice lato server) mi dipinsi il volto da rapinatore notturno. ;-)
Requisiti prototipali:
- un micro pc di dimensioni molto ridotte (palmo di una mano)
- un device bluetooth classe 1 dotato di antenna esterna (oppure modificate una chiavetta bluetooth usb come ho fatto io)
- la possibilità di runnare un java server
- la possibilità di runnare un java client su dispositivo mobile (micro edition)
E' molto importante realizzare un prototipo ogni qual volta vi trovate a sostenere tesi non banali e che vi richiederanno un adeguato periodo di studio e sperimentazione volto a sciogliere ogni dubbio tecnologico, ad affinare l'idea iniziale, ad instaurare rapporti con potenziali fornitori ed amici, ma soprattutto a dare un primissimo volto a ciò che qualche mese prima poteva solo essere una buona intuizione.

Una grande delusione!

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:02:00 +0000

Un giorno, non molto tempo fa, mi venne spontaneo rivelare a Paolo (noto imprenditore italiano) una grande delusione...
A lui dicevo ed a voi ripeto: "Quale può essere il futuro di un Paese che uccide i suoi figli migliori opprimendone il talento o facendo terra bruciata attorno ad essi, che ha perso la fede in un Dio vero e perciò non sa che i frutti migliori si colgono negli orticelli dei poveri, non sa rischiare e giocare, sa fare discorsi da grandi ma non è più capace di sorridere, cerca facili guadagni con mille artifizi finanziari, non inventa più niente e si è seduto a guardare gli altri correre, senza onore, senza onestà, senza entusiamo??"
Ancora oggi guardando ad Israele, all'India, persino Taiwan con la sua "piccola" Tapei, io mi rammarico..quanto mi rammarico!

Spiami la moleskine!

iose.magno@gmail.com (Iosè) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:27:00 +0000

Ebbene si...una semplice moleskine può rappresentare, per quelli come me, un vero e proprio scrigno in cui sono racchiusi i tesori dell'anima. Qualcuno obietterà pensando che le idee siano tesori della mente ma lasciatemi libero di credere, assieme ad Agostino ed in buona compagnia, che persino l'intelligenza sia un attributo dell'anima e non il risultato di impulsi e stimoli elettromagnetici prodotti dalla materia nella materia. Di fatto essa si esprime per tutti in modi e forme molto personali ed a volte, in taluni casi molto speciali, inimitabili. Avrei voluto essere seduto di fronte John Lennon per gustarmi la scena di chi stava esprimendo l'inesprimibile in musica e parole, avrei voluto ancor di più essere presente in una visione della Valtorta quando, per Amore e Grazia, vedeva la Verità volontariamente confinatasi nello spazio e nel tempo di una Palestina di 2000 anni fa al solo scopo di darci il pane di Vita. Ed allora intelligenza, amore, spirito esistono se esiste un'anima. Ma torniamo a noi e dopo questo rapimento continuiamo a parlare di come si possono schematizzare le idee propedeutiche allo sviluppo di qualsivoglia piattaforma tecnologica. Io nello specifico mi occupo di "comunicazione digitale", ovvero qualsiasi sistema capace di archiviare, manipolare e muovere dati.
Armati di:
- moleskine
- matita e gomma
- registratore vocale (il tuo fedele mobile phone può andar bene)

La moleskine serve ad accogliere su carta ogni idea che ti frulla in testa mentre il registratore vocale ti tornerà utile quando accadrà di avere l'intuizione che stavi cercando proprio mentre stai facendo shopping con la tua ragazza!!
Mentre scrivi usa tutto ciò che ritieni utile a rappresentare i tuoi concetti e non fare caso se affiancherai immagini, testi, tabelle, grafi, modelli matematici, euristiche, altro...tutto serve....tutto è utile per una mente che sta partorendo e soffre, soffre, e si dimena per anticipare il parto.
Poichè questo know-how è una conoscenza di tipo "naturale" si può apprendere solo con l'esperienza (un po come quando impari il rovescio al tennis o a colpire bene una palla da golf) perciò se deve pur esserci qualcuno a testimoniare ed indicare una via, sei solo tu che puoi percorrerla...