Mentor and startup founder: his initiatives and his book

A focus on the various activities carried out by a very popular mentor in Italy 

How can you transform a business idea into a startup? Let’s talk to a startup mentor that has just written a book on this topic!

Let’s meet Fabio De Martino, an important mentor in the ecosystem of Italian startups

Interview with Fabio De Martino, Entrepreneur, manager, advisor, Startup Mentor and author.

Hi Fabio, nice to see you again! We wanted to ask you for some updates on the last few months. Since the last time we met in July, what has changed in your life as a mentor and in general?

When it comes to innovation and the startup world, change is the only constant. This is a mantra that a mentor has try to keep in mind when dealing with everyday activities.

A few things have changed since our meeting in July, several projects have started, and new opportunities are becoming reality.

First of all, I officially entered with the role of CiO (Chief Innovation Officer) in the Pini Group, a leading engineering company in Switzerland, with over 70 years of experience and present on the Swiss market, but also internationally (Austria, Italy, France and Israel for example). There are over 350 collaborators offering consulting and design services. A wonderful challenge, within a dynamic and rapidly growing context.

During the last months, I also started to collaborate with Levante as Advisor. Levante is a Green Tech startup that wants to make energy accessible everywhere. The founders, Sara and Kim, have patented Sunfinity, a photovoltaic panel inspired by origami and, therefore, compact, smart and modular. It is a sustainable product (created starting from recycled materials, as well as totally regenerable) and efficient (it orients itself following the sun and increases the results thanks to its being double-sided). I had the pleasure of following their growth thanks to the Startup Builder, an incubator by Startup Geeks. Levante’s potential is crazy, and the founders are just as crazy. I could not make myself unavailable. If you want to find out more about Levante, take a look here: Levante sustainable essential design. 

The last time, you briefly introduced us to the new Incloodo startup, where is the project at? How is it going? Why a new social network? What is your mission as a mentor?

The Incloodo project is going well. We are finalizing the development of the app, which will soon be released in the Beta phase. There is the possibility to subscribe to the waitlist by going to our website: Incloodo: Il social network dei gruppi.

We are working by involving the Early Adopters in the development that we have been carrying out for months now and which has completed the first validation phase. Soon we will start the pre-launch marketing activities, in order to convey our mission and make the social network known. 

As the name suggests, Incloodo was born with the idea of being a social network that can promote inclusion, overcoming the barriers of participation, socialization, and communication. To do this, this specific social network was created for groups of people with common interests, basing the social network on this and not on the individualism of users. I do not deny that, for me, the validation phase was a surprise. I did not think that the issue of inclusion and aggregation was such a deeply felt problem on social media.

Talking about Startup Geeks, we know that you have collaborated in writing a new book. Can you tell us something more? Why did you feel the need to write it? What is your goal?

Alessio, Giulia and I wrote the “Manuale dello Startupper”, available in Kindle format and in paper format. It can be purchased on Amazon at this link. 

It is a project that started about a year ago, on which we worked a lot, with the aim of providing a useful and practical tool to anyone who wants to launch a startup or realize a business idea.

There are so many books on the startup theme, but only a few have a useful common thread to accompany aspiring entrepreneurs step by step. What we set ourselves as a goal was to create a “toolbox” that could help understand how to move within the startup world. We then included tools, reading tips (to deepen the issues we deal with in the book), and contributions from ten successful Italian entrepreneurs and startup founders. Personally, it is the book I wanted to read when I started doing startups (before becoming a mentor) and this is the mood with which we wrote it.

How are the sales going? Are you experiencing the desired success?

I would like to preface that we had no benchmarks and we didn’t wrote the book with sales in mind. We started from the “need” to write it, precisely because we felt that a tool of this type was missing.

Having said that, I can say that we are satisfied with how sales are going and with the appreciation comments we are receiving.

Personally, I had set myself the goal of reaching 500 copies by the end of 2021. We reached the goal just one month after the launch, so we are very satisfied.

During the writing, we asked ourselves if the book would have the satisfaction (and therefore the usefulness) that we hoped for. It seems that we succeeded in our goals.

Thanks Fabio, as usual it was a pleasure to host a mentor of your reach here with us.

If you want to know more about Fabio De Martino, please read also: Mentor supports startup founders along their journey