My thoughts about #Techstars #SmartMobility Accelerator

On April 23rd 11 cool startups with founders from 9 different nationalities presented their projects to the world. It was the #Demoday of the first Techstars #SmartMobility accelerator.

It resumed 13 weeks of 24/7 work of founders from all over the world merged together in Turin (Italy)(inside the OGR - Officine Grandi Riparazioni location) from Techstars in partnership with Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, and Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center.

It was amazing to see how many founders were there with a full commitment and how much enthusiasm was brought there by the Techstars family and mentors.

I was involved as one of the mentors and I had the chance to "grab a bite" of the accelerator time from each startup.

During the #mentormadness every single mentor was able to take a chance to know each startup and give them a "first look" feedback. I went to that day well prepared (I did my homework) and what impressed me the most was the "willingness of succeeding" that was in the air that day.

I tried to have my first look at each startup before meeting them. During the meetings (short and fast-paced) I tried to do two things:

• evaluate the knowledge gap from what I got on their websites and what they pitched to me
• try to understand how I can help them with advises or contacts

During the 13 weeks of the program I didn't have the chance to be really useful for most of them, due to some personal Covid-19 issues, but I followed their evolutions, made some intros, and got feedback about their projects from some friends and contacts.

I was really excited to listen for the Demo day pitches to look at the different impacts of their latest evolutions and pitch, compared to my first impressions. If you want to know my personal thoughts about the startups, just drop me an inbox.

I am really proud of being part of this adventure and I was proud to see the teams working hard even with the particular worldwide situation that occurred just in the middle of the acceleration.

If you are curious about the startups and their amazing stories you can still have a look here:

https://demoday.techstars.com/smart-mobility-2020-t1

You will find videos and contacts of all of them.

Here the STARTUPS:

• Automotus
• GetHenry
• Go To-U
• Nickelytics
• Parkofon
• Power Market
• Think Outside AS
• TUC.Technology
• Urban SDK
• V2X Network
• WeGlad

Generally speaking, I felt a great wind of innovation focused on a crucial aspect of our future: the mobility. Even when I didn't agree too much with the ideas I always found energy and the honest willingness to make it real and have a positive impact on the communities.

Stretching from mobility tailored for social issues to data-driven mobility decision makings, I heard about 11 very cool projects. All of them are worth to be investigated and I want to share my personal "thumb up" to all of them wishing good luck for the future.

#admaiora

PR