A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be in Silicon Valley for two weeks, during that time I got the opportunity to meet a lot of smart people. Many of them were part of the Italian community in the Valley, and a subset came from Olivetti, an Italian company established in 1908 in Ivrea, a small town near Turin, in the northern part of my country. Olivetti was probably one of the few Italian companies that made its mark in the Silicon Valley many years ago, entering the personal computer market with success in the ’80s.

Many of the people I met had a very well established position in the Bay Area, and over the years gained respect from the community of growing entrepreneurs, investing and living there with their families. That means they have access to smart people, financial institutions, venture capitalists and investors, events and mentoring. They are successful also because they are considered Americans by Americans’: they have been living there for many years, their children are born there and they voted in the Presidential election. Anyone who works in information technology, at least once in their lives have dreamt of being part of that environment, because there, in that place, innovation happens, for real. In a dynamic environment like that, technology ventures are rising every day, many of them will fail, but a few will change the way we work, communicate and live. Continue…