BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 23, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- STRATEGIES ONLINE EXTRA: Cirlab's Big Ideas Just a few years ago, the first step for Europeans itching to start a tech company was to buy a plane ticket, usually to Boston or Silicon Valley. Venture capital was scarce on the Old Continent, angel investors an unknown concept -- and the local Internet still in diapers. That pattern is starting to change. Europe's Internet, while far behind America's, has greater growth prospects now. And it's ahead of the U.S. in mobile telephony, the next frontier for the Web. Equally important, European and American investors alike are opening venture funds and incubators throughout the region. How do they convince entrepreneurs that they have the winning formula? More often than not, the new companies boast partners and branches with Silicon Valley credentials. A year ago, Rodolfo de Benedetti, 38, was having lunch with one American and two Italian techies in the deal-making epicenter of Silicon Valley -- Palo Alto's Il Fornaio restaurant. The lunch stretched to four hours as de Benedetti, scion of the Italian industrial family, sketched out a plan to mint Silicon Valley-style riches in Italy. Within two months, with an initial funding of $10 million, he opened the Cirlab incubator down the street from Milan's La Scala opera house. His model, he says, was idealab! in Los Angeles. He would buy a big chunk of the startups, bring many of them right into the Cirlab complex, and provide them with everything from office furniture and computers to marketing advice and contacts in Silicon Valley. To run the incubator, de Benedetti hired Gordon Anderson, a 35-year-old veteran of CMGI and Hoovers.com. By Stephen Baker in Paris _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _					RELATED ITEMS EBIZ Contents for issue dated Oct. 23, 2000 Silicon D-Day (int'l edition) TABLE: A New Plan for the Old World (int'l edition) TABLE: Harnessing Silicon Valley Culture (int'l edition) ONLINE EXTRA: Profiles of Cirlab... ONLINE EXTRA: ...and some of its spin-offs Old-World Upstart (int'l edition) ONLINE EXTRA: Q&A with Icon Medialab CFO Rems Buchwaldt INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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