This is what I like best about what we do at MTB.

It happens all the time. After a Venture Camp, a Startup School or an incubation, there is always someone that gets so jazzed up by the experience that he/she feels the need to pass the buck and inspire others. 

That’s what happened with Paolo Bonaccorsi, successful entrepreneur and creative director of his own agency, who joined our startup school in October 2011 in a quest for inspiration. And there, in San Francisco, he found it. So much so that, as a pro-phographer, he started collecting pictures that could describe in colors the life-changing stimuli he was experiencing.

Ever since, he started his process of convincing me, restlessly and with endless persistence, that describing through images this can-do attitude would have been the most direct language to communicate emotions to the community.

Nearly 14 months later, here’s the result: an emotional picture book that includes both the most representative moments of the past year and a collection of data from a few startups who strived in 2012.

In its fancy, limited edition then (by Silvia Bosio, Paolo’s wife) it includes a super creative, hand made package where a foldable bridge brings together a removable magnet book with a semi-transparent calendar.

Each month can be associated with the startup of your choice. The names of the months are the ones used during the French revolution as a reminder that we are living revolutionary times, A.K.A. The startup era.

The QR code takes you to the cyberspace, where you can download the digital version of the book and more ancillary multimedia content.

Congrats to Paolo, Silvia and all the startups featured in the book, namely

Timbuktu Labs, Maison Academia, Ploonge, Vivocha, Mangatar, Atooma, Ilike.tv, Stereomood, D-Orbit and Flazio.
With this, we hope to start an yearly tradition.
You can’t make it in the Pirelli calendar? Fear not! You might be able to make the MTB year book!

Last but not least.
Among the notable startups, we also included our  (and our partner’s II&IB) 2012 highlights.

Here are some numbers:

* $6.5M+ of funding raised by Winter 2012 Accelerator class in the last 10 months (~$1M/startup on average)

* 2400+ attendees at our 2012 events in Italy and US

* graduated a total of 44 entrepreneurs from the startup school, and 12 from the accelerator program

and much more…

It’s the last day of the year, time to give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back and raise our glass, everybody: Let’s have a crazy memorable 2013!