The Best Is Yet To Come

This is just a quick update. I have been working on my own startup for the last month, but the work hasn’t gone as fast as I wished. On the other hand I am trying to involve more people in what Great Preneurs is today and will be in the future. Further I am taking my political activism to the Zenit. I have been able to meet a lot of interesting people in the last two weeks and I hope this will keep happening.

I have recently turned 20, so I just have 10 years left to make something good for myself and society.

Guess who I have met in Rome?

ps: if you want to be part of something and write for greatpreneurs, email us at info at greatpreneurs.com

The Tawkon Retro Handset

Source: http://greatpreneurs.com/handson-tawkon-retro-handset/ ‎
Tawkon_retro_handset
Pivot. That’s the word, Pivot if you see new opportunities. This is one of the most important things that an Entrepreneur must understand before starting a business and I think that Tawkon has got it. Even though they haven’t changed their mission, they have started shipping a product that was designed just for conferences in order to promote the Tawkon brand.

I am talking about the Tawkon Retro Handset, a simple and nice way to keep your brain away from your phone’s radiations. My first impression is that it’s totally in row with Tawkon’s philosophy, which aims to remove phones’ radiation from our lifestyles. The device has a smooth design and blue is the only color available for now. It can be easily connected to every mobile phone on the market through an AUX cable, which Tawkon provides you with the device.

The retro handset is set to a $24.99 with free shipping all over the world. However, if you are a Tawkon user, you will be able to get a 20% discount. As the company lists on the website, these are the main features:

Tawkon Retro Handset Features

My first thought about the handset was:”Why didn’t they make it smaller?”. The answer is simple, this is just the beginning. If they believe in this project and if they see the success of it, they will build smaller versions with different colors. Blue is a great color, but there are plenty of colors out there that might be explored. The basics relies on one simple principle:”the phone needs to be away from your ears and your body”. With this idea in mind they could even try to build a Tawkon portable speaker system that allows you to talk to the phone while driving or performing a physical activity.

Although it was a nice way to promote Tawkon, the Retro Handset is getting popular. That’s why the company has decided to partner with The SEA Executive Suites in Tel Aviv (Israel). In this way:

Each of SEA Executive Suites 40 plus rooms will have a tawkon branded retro handset, a placard explaining the details of mobile radiation, as well as information on about the tawkon application and how to download the app. Compatible with most mobile phones, the handset eliminates 99 percent of absorbed radiation when used during a phone call. Along with the tawkon applications, the retro handset offers an end to end solution for avoiding mobile radiation. According to hotel general manager Ilanit Ram “Adding the tawkon handset is just another way to help our guests achieve the best possible health.”

After the Fresh Living Project and the Android App, this company has made another giant step toward a healthy future for the mankind. What we can really wish is that Apple finally understands the importance of apps like Tawkon.

Tawkon Retro Handset

Dalton Ellis Is The Best All In Manchester

Dalton Ellis Hall
Your first year at Uni is always something that you will never forget.

That’s why you should choose the best hall in Manchester if you want to fully live the experience. As the policy says, the halls are guaranteed just for first year students; so it is just one year, but the choice can really make the difference.

When I started looking at the halls, I didn’t have a clue of what I wanted; so the first thing I did was asking questions on the student room. However I didn’t receive any “great” feedback back, so in the end I opted for two halls in Fallowfield and as my second choice, in Victoria Park, I chose Dalton Ellis.

I chose Dalton Ellis because it was in Victoria Park, quite close to Uni, and also because it was one of the halls that was catered and had shared bathrooms. What it seemed to be a random choice, between the dozens of halls that we have in Manchester, it turned to be the best.

Dalton Ellis Hall is the best because in one single area is able to gather different things at once. The diversity of each building that is part of the Dalton Ellis ecosystem make it exceptional. In one single hall, you can opt to have en-suite rooms, shared bathrooms, rooms with a sink and the catered option, which is for everyone. Further, what impressed me was the green that is all around the Hall, which is not even comparable to a Hall in the city centre.

The same green that I see every day, is the one that is able to give us a Basketball field, a squash court and a huge pitch, where you can chill whenever you want. Moreover the catered option gives you a lot of spare time, which you can spend by playing snooker, having a drink in our own bar or playing football outside.

What you can not find here is the noisiness of fallowfield and the need to take the bus every single day. The hall is very close to the city campus, if you want to walk you can do it, without even buying an annual bus pass.

If we want to compare this hall with any other Hall in Fallowfield, they win just on one single aspect, the ratio between males and females. In fact, the main block, in DE, is an only male building and the catered options doesn’t tempt the girls that want to cook for themselves in their first year. However, parties run through the whole year, and if you want to meet someone, you can; even if your hall’s ratio is not that good.

I am currently living in the Main Block, which as I said before is a male only building with shared bathrooms. When I was coming here, I thought that a shared bathroom was the worst thing you could have in a hall, but even though the idea looks horrible, I didn’t have any problem at all. Main Block is also one of the best because it has the largest rooms on campus, and when I say campus I don’t mean just Dalton Ellis, but every single Hall in Manchester. We also have a bar, which is open in the weekends, where you can relax, play some pool or ping pong.

Even if we are a catered Hall, on each floor, in any building there is at least one kitchen with all the facilities and utilities that you need. If you don’t like the food that they serve at the canteen, you can easily cook for yourself in the kitchen.

After having lived here for the last year I give to Dalton Ellis a score of 8 out of 10, because this is the place to be.

Two Weeks Left

Quick Update: I am currently in the exams period and I can easily say that I have performed well in the first three exams: Java, Math and Computation. I just need to do two other exams and then I am out of this country. I will leave in two weeks time. This is what is waiting for me:

Yes, I live in Rome.

ps: If you have any questions about the exams, just leave a comment below.

UPs An Interesting Product

UPs SolidEnergy is our innovative new caffeine energy sweet which we launched in Manchester, January 2013.

Kaffeination consists of four founders, three of whom studied together in Manchester doing their Masters in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. The fourth founder studied Business and Engineering in Dresden, Germany.

The team has an international background, complementary skills and a unified passion for innovation.

I have come across this product a couple of days ago, it is called Ups.

What I have found incredible at first glance was the idea behind it. What they are basically trying to distribute is a sweet which is able to give the energy you need during the day. If you are not able to drink coffee or have an energy drink, Ups is the solution for you. In fact, just 16g of this product are equal to one cup of coffee, in terms of the Caffeine that they have.

At this moment, the only flavour that they are producing is Strawberry, which I think is probably the most interesting they could have chosen. However if they want to take this further they will have to able to produce other different flavours. In my opinion lemon, orange, pineapple, melon and pear could be the next ones. Even if I would try to make something completely different with a “banana” flavour, which I think it has never been tried before by anyone.

The product comes out in two versions, the 16g and the 50g pack. I have been lucky enough to test both and I can easily suggest to stick to the smaller one, which contains the equivalent of one cup of coffee and it is not too addictive. Further it is small enough to fit in your pocket; you can do the same thing with the second version, but I think it is too big to bring it around.

In the next months they will probably face two main issues: distribution and the improvement of the product. The distribution, from what I have been able to see, has been achieved in the best way as possible by starting from the University of Manchester user base. On the other hand the improvement of the product will have to focus on the next flavours and on a low calories product.

Even though it is just a sweet, it has up to 333 calories per 100 grams; which is not a lot, but this number can be lowered. Here you can find the nutrional table, which gives you a general idea:

I have been able to test it during revision time today and I have to admit that I am pretty well satisfied by it. I have tried the small pack first, which I think it is the right caffeine for my body, and it was useful and even tasty. It remembered me a lot hairbo, but with a different vision. That is what makes them different from other sweets. They are trying to distribute a product that can help people, not just a mere sweet that is able to fill our greediness.

I believe they will have to work on their vision a lot, because that’s what it makes them unique and different by the others. Although this looks like a small market, it can be a huge one for the simple fact that there isn’t one yet. They are introducing a different way of gaining solid energy to achieve what we want.

That’s why they might find a big user base in students, who are constantly studying, revising and trying to do more at University; but also in professional workers, who need to be focused on what they are doing for hours, without any break. Being in a University is extremely important if you want to start a project like this one, because you can actually see how the product flows goes by testing it directly. Further students have connections all over other Universities, which are important assets for this product.

In fact they can use the Facebook distribution model from one University to the next one, University by University. If the product is good enough, it will take over even in the offices, impacting the niche we were talking about; but there is still time for that. Now they just need to focus on students, because they will be the future professional workers.

I am definitely going to order more packs for the next exams and I suggest you doing the same at this website get-ups.com

This article first appeared here: http://greatpreneurs.com/ups-interesting-sweet/

Why You Should Go To University

A huge dilemma or the silliest thing to think about for a Young Entrepreneur?

Peter Thiel once said:

You can’t teach people a specific way to change things for the better. I don’t believe people can become entrepreneurs as an aspirational thing. It’s like saying you want to be rich and famous when you grow up–it’s too abstract. The motivation is what’s important. There should be a problem you want to solve, and in the process of solving it, you might have to become an entrepreneur.

In the same way, many Entrepreneurs would completely agree on what Thiel states. You can’t teach Entrepreneurship because it is something that you feel inside, not just an “aspirational thing”. Likewise many mentors see College as a waste of time and resources. Young Entrepreneurs aren’t able to see the world from several points of views, but they can see it just from textbooks.

Further Students are overwhelmed by student loans and part time jobs, things that a Young Entrepreneur can not bear. When you are young you should start seeing dots, connections and links in order to build what it is going to be your future. In many aspects, College can’t help you and it could be easily considered something to leave out.

However there are thousands of reasons to go to College to be Entrepreneurs.

Connections

This is one of the main point. Connections, as we already said before, are extremely important for a Young Entrepreneur who needs a mentor and a group of people that can support and stimulate it. Further when you build a strong network, you can easily ask for help. During the development of an idea or a project, you turn to the point in which you need a developer or marketing strategist and if this person is in your connections, you don’t need to look for other people, because you already know the right person and you have complete trust in him.

Inspiration

I strongly believe that Entrepreneurship is an aspirational thing. I mean, you have to be creative and you have to feel it, but you can easily look for it if you really want to become an Entrepreneur. College is the best place to find it; through courses and the learning of new things you can get the most.

Critical Thinking

What an Entrepreneur should have is Critical Thinking. When you have a problem or an idea in front of you, you should be able to see it from a critical point of view in order to understand if it can or can’t work. Likewise CR can let you understand and connect the dots in particular areas such as Social Networks. What you need is a different way to look a the world and this is what College is about.

Psychology and Sociology

A real Entrepreneur should understand people’s needs and what they could want. People’s psychology is extremely important to see patterns into society and to think as your future costumer. A strong study in this area lets you see dots and connections in a clear way. A recent proof comes from Mark Zuckerberg, who studied Psychology and Computer Science; he was able to develop most of what he learnt from this course (Psychology) in Facebook, making it more social and engaging.
If you don’t want to study it, you can learn it by meeting new people and talking to them. The more you talk, the more you understand social interactions.

History

From the study of what other people did in the past, you can perceive the mistakes and the good things. If you know what others did, you could apply your knowledge in the challenge that you would encounter in an Entrepreneurship life.
With this idea in mind, Sir Isaac Newton once said:

If I have seen further, It is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Communication

This is one of the Critical Skills that an Entrepreneur should always have and to get it you need to live, to interact and to meet people. You don’t need an extend course about public speaking to understand what communication is about, you just need to meet and talk to people. The key to do it in an easy way is to go to College, one of the most overcrowded place on Earth.

Although there are dozens of reasons to move to College, we decided to list the most important key points that you would gain in College. What we wanted to underline is that College could be the most interesting experience of your life and there is no reason to lose it for a young and immature project. Life is long.

Further you can always think about “dropping out”; if the project is very strong and you are really motivated, you should definitely drop out.

Just relax and take the most from it.

“This article first appeared on GreatPreneurs

Italian Politics What A Great Mess

When you are miles away from your native country, it becomes weird to look back and see that your country is screwed. You feel powerless when you see what it is going on from a political and economic point of view. You can not do anything, you can not join the people who are protesting for freedom and a better country, you can not support the people who are trying to make things better for everyone.

You can just watch and comment.

That’s what most of the people think, but it’s not like that. When you live in a different country you can look at Italy from a different point of view, you can analyze its problems and find ways of fixing them. Further with the use of the internet you can coordinate thousands of people, just with one click. At the same time, reading Italian newspapers has never been so easy as it is today.

You can still contact your local Italian political activists in the place you live or everywhere in Europe and you can keep you active on every side. There is still another politics that you can run from England, which is the one that affects the Italians who are living in other countries; because when we have elections, there are also seats reserved to Italians who live in the four main regions of the world: Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Further with the use of social media, in my case, Facebook and Twitter, you can run your own campaigns about the problems you care about and people listen to you! The power that the internet has given us is so immense and even if we are thousands of miles away we feel at home.

Societies And Clubs, This Is Manchester

The majority of people I have met so far believe that a Job is the final destination after University. I don’t think so, even if that’s where I will end up ( I hope not). I think that in these three or four years of University, instead of thinking about getting a job, a student should think about his/her life. These are the best years of your life, the ones where you have a lot of spare time, the ones where you can meet as many people as possible and the ones where you can actually enjoy life.

That’s why I believe that University is about knowing ourselves, who we are, what we believe and what we want to give to our modern society. It can not be always about getting the best grades and the best job. It can not be always about getting a good salary, living for sixty years and then die (that’s a little bit depressing). It’s also about enjoying what you are doing, finding new things, discovering stuff you didn’t know and stuff you would like to know.

This is what Manchester has to offer, even if there are a lot of people thinking about their future job (why?), there are so many things you can do while studying, which can help you to differentiate yourself from the crowd. In my personal experience, I have been part of the swimming club here at the Acquatics Center ( one of the best pools I have ever seen). Even if I had never done competitive, I decided to give it a try and in the long term now I can say that I see results coming. I am still not at the level of the best guys and maybe I will never be, but I am improving, knowing different people, doing something else apart from studying and I am also getting fit (Oh yeah).

Before coming here I have applied to several top University in the Uk and even one in the US, but this University impressed me for the community that was built around it. With the biggest Student Union in the Uk, there are plenty of activities which you can do and there are plenty of sports. University is about enjoying the best years of your lives and that’s what I mean, studying is not everything, understanding people and learning how to interact with them is even more important.

Next year, I will also be the Operations Director at the Society of Accounting and Business(SOFAB), why? Simply because it is different from what I am doing. Remember, the first rule is to differentiate you from the crowd. Be different, think different and don’t do what the other Computer Scientists do.  Another practical reason can be found in the simple fact that with that role you can know a lot of people who are not in your circles of interest, which means having more connections spread on different fields of interest, which means “valuable connections” that can help you at any moment.

I hope you will come to our SOFAB meetings next year, just to see a different point of view, a different perspective and different people. Life is like an Entrepreneurial journey and yes, I am not going to sit on a chair for the next sixty years, even if I will be over paid by a corporation.

The final destination is not a job, but it is happiness.

Ibiza 2012 - You have to sleep if you don't want to be like me

ps: The best is yet to come…

Let The Blog Begin

Writing on a blog is not the easiest thing in the world. There are always lows and highs in your blogging career and the more you blog, the more you get new followers. This is going to be my first blog post ever on this website, and it is going to be the first of a long series.

When I firstly read a blog post from a blogger I always want to understand, before reading, what kind of person he/she is, because I believe that a blogger is free and is able to say whatever he/she wants from her point of view. That’s why a good understanding of the blogger’s preferences can always help you while reading his/her blog posts.

This is why I am writing two lists in my first blog post, the likes and dislikes. Lists are the most powerful tools a blogger can use and here I am going to use them just to describe my personality and way of behaving.

Likes

  1. GNU/Linux and Richard Stallman
  2. Entrepreneurship
  3. Swimming
  4. Innovation
  5. Startups
  6. Isaac Newton
  7. Direct Democracy
  8. The Five Star Movement
  9. Freedom
  10. People who don’t lie to me

Dislikes

  1. Redundant people
  2. Dictatorship
  3. Ideologies
  4. Quentin Tarantino and DJango
  5. English weather
  6. People who do not comment my Blog
  7. Cheaters
  8. Huge corporations who copy innovators
  9. Two of the biggest tech companies in the world (Guess..)
  10. The Italian way of doing things (It can be the best or the worst)

Well, these two lists could have been pretty long, but I wanted to give you a first taste of what this blog is going to be about. I extremely love writing about Entrepreneurship, Startups, Technology and what I really think the world should be; but on the other hand, I would like to record the experience I am getting here at the university of Manchester, where I will enjoy the best years of my life.

The conclusion of a blog post is always something embarrassing, I could have stopped writing in the last paragraph with that great sentence about the best years of my life; but today, I want to write down two quotes which have inspired me along these years. The first one has helped me a lot, the latter is more recent, but it helped me understand how the world works.

“If I have seen further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

They have always told me that less than five hundred words for a blog post are not much, but this is it for today, see you in the next blog post.

Let the hack begin.