Matteo Roversi

Love makes me do great things

Tue, 22 May 2012 18:01:10 +0200

What is the thing that inspires you?
What value, person or place is your motivation to work, live and feel happy everyday?

Yesterday a friend of mine told me: “It’s love that makes me do great things”.
So true: love is a powerful engine…

Love is something you don’t think about when things with your girlfriend or family are ok. But what if something starts going wrong? How can you continue doing your business if your heart and mind are lost with your love?

Building a startup is much more than creating an awesome product: it’s about finding your motivation to work, live and feel happy.
And it means never giving up, even when your motivations seem lost.

A meeting with Alberto Tretti from Glancee: what I learned

Thu, 10 May 2012 22:05:00 +0200

Passion is everything.

Look at Alberto, look at his eyes: you will understand why and how startups succeed.
Alberto and the Glancee team strongly believe in their product. They believe that Glancee can change the way people meet and interact with each other. They have been spending their life working on Glancee because their app is not only a product for them: it’s a set of values, a dream, an idea that drives their actions.

This is what makes the difference.

If you look at Glancee and at the story of their founders you will see a story of guys that believe they can change the world with their product. If you work at a product that is not only an idea for you, but a set of values… Then you will succeed.

Alberto and the Glancee team sold their app to Facebook. I think that selling your app to a bigger player is almost always a failure: you can’t have the exit strategy as your business model!

But if you look at the story of Glancee, then you will see that selling the product has been an opportunity for them, not a failure: now they can work to their idea with more money, users and resources and with the right player to improve the product and its features.
Congratulations to Alberto and to the Glancee team.

To all the startuppers: always work on products you believe in, always work on ideas that are really meaningful for you and for people.

Never give up.

A startup is a team, not an idea.

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:04:46 +0200

It seems to be the mantra of all the startuppers: a VC invests on your team, not on your idea.
How many startups are working on the same idea? A lot.
How many of them will succeed? Only a few.
Execution is the key to success. This is why your team is the most important thing you have to invest on.

A perfect team must include:
1) a business guy
too many startups fail because they don’t know the market and they don’t have any idea on how to launch their product. Our companies need to be sustainable… so we need a business model!
2) a great designer
because execution is the key, user experience and design are crucial to differentiate from competitors. We need beautiful hand-crafted apps, not only prototypes;
3) a developer
you can’t outsource the development of your app. It’s not sustainable. Today hiring a developer, especially a mobile one, is too expensive for a startup. You have to find a technical co-founder who shares your vision and passion for the product and the market.

But this is not enough.
Today the market and the evolution of digital professions require that every co-founder is at the same time a business guy, a designer and a tech curious. We don’t need co-founders who are vertically skilled on their job, but business guys that are passionate of technology and design, designer who are also technical and strategic guys, developers who love design and give their contribute to ideas and business strategy.

This is the biggest challenge of our time:
to be curious and passionate, speak the languages of our coworkers, use the digital media to improve our knowledge and skills in different markets and jobs.

"I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come."

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:00:29 +0200

“I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.”

- Michael Jordan

5 lessons in 1 week

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:47:00 +0100

One week has gone since I left my job to become an entrepreneur.
These are the 5 lessons I’ve learned during the week:

1) Work hard, but remember eating
2) Try to be honest with others
3) Try to be honest with yourself
4) Stop hiding and exit the stealth mode
5) Take time to build your team

Enjoy the presentation :)

A life that matters

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:04:00 +0100

I left my job to become an entrepreneur.
A lot of friends told me “you’re crazy”, but many others would have liked to be as crazy as me.
I think that, if we want to live a life that matters, we have to believe in something and take risks every day.
And this is what I did.

"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value."

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:45:00 +0200

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”

- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)