MTB 2014
As the year draws to a close, I’d like to take a moment to look back at the incredibly long list of activities we were able to accomplish in 2014.
With the European Commission we designed and launched a brand new platform to stimulate the integration between large corporations and the best EU startups, and, ultimately, more M&As (=exits!) in Europe. Since the January’s announcement in Davos, 7 among the most successful EU corporations joined the partnership, as well as 20+ EU VCs. We reviewed thousands of startups and hosted 5 matching events, that resulted in 44due diligence processes, 106 qualified meetings and dozens of negotiations started.
While in Europe we were busy leading the Scaleup manifesto, on the other side of the pond, we were busy helping entrepreneurs in our Startup Schools (74 of them to be precise), and launched 2 new programs, an Executive School and an Angel Investor program. In total we hosted 6 sessions of Startup Schools, 4 executive programs, 1 angel investor program. To top it off, we met with prime ministers, mayors, hosted an Italian Innovation Day in Silicon Valley, a Digital Venice summit, two bootcamps for MTS Fund, + an incredible number of presentations, meetings, trips…
Most importantly, we grew our team from 6 to 16 incredibly talented MTB-ers, increasing our presence in cities such as Madrid, London and Bruxelles.
If “Bridging the world through entrepreneurship” is our motto, in 2014 we were definitely able to build a few more of those bridge pillars. The future looks bright, and we look forward to an even more exciting 2015.
Off the bat, we expect to launch a brand new office space in San Francisco, take on more responsibility within the Startup & investor ecosystem in EU, and enhance our bridges with more countries…
Today, there’s plenty to celebrate. And when it comes to celebrating, we know a thing or two.
The video below is just a glimpse of our innate ability to celebrate the good moments. (VIDEO)
To you, to the MTB old-time friends and to the new ones: Thanks.
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Marco Marinucci, Founder & CEO, Mind the Bridge Foundation