Start Me Up!
“If you start me up I’ll never stop” — Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
Alas, the days are getting longer, buds of wild flowers are starting to emerge, and passion is in the air again — No, I’m not talking about the annual right of spring — It’s time to apply for Mind the Bridge Startup School!
Startup School is all about nurturing entrepreneurial passions and dreams — as recent participant Nicola Mastrojanni (The Bici Caffè) described it, “a dream place for people who have ideas.” Well into our second year, our program is about entrepreneurial education and steeping participants in “The Silicon Valley Experience.” Regardless of your heritage or place of origin (the Valley thrives on cultural diversity), here is where passion is the common fuel that carries your dream from vision to reality.
But as any serial entrepreneur will tell you, the Valley’s seductive stories of fame and fortune are filled with harrowing tales of risk and failure that will make a grown man cry. Indeed, failure is a fundamental part of the Valley culture. If you haven’t failed a couple of times you’re probably not going to succeed.
Passion is what I love about Startup School. With my fellow faculty and mentors, we give you permission to be passionate, creative, innovative, and to know success means you got to never, never, never stop — until you reach your goal.
Regardless of whether or not you’re from Italy (I confess I’m unabashedly biased), passion is the key prerequisite for getting the most out of our program. Do you remember your first love — what it was like to lie alone in bed at night, sleepless, anxious, restless, longing for your next holy communion? Well, we’re not offering sexual bliss, but we will take you places you’ve never seen — Google, Apple, Facebook — and you’ll spend a lot of time in the GYM sweating, honing your entrepreneurial muscles, refining your business development project, and grabbing your potential investor (no, not that way!).
Anybody who is passionate about building a technology startup is welcome to apply: mature business concept or no idea, full-time job or unemployed, young or old, experienced in business or straight out of school. However, you must be proficient in English.
March 15th is the deadline for our spring session of Startup School, April 8-26th. Kick on the starter, give it all you got!