Former Google Italy Country Manager Wants To Create A New “Silicon Valley” In Milan

Massimilano Magrini, head of Google Italy until the first quarter of June, said it’s now time to create a new “Silicon Valley” in Milan. The idea is basically to build a sort of “tech center” where startups can take advantage of fresh new capital to grow up and innovate.

I’ve been in touch with Massimiliano for a while now and I like what he did for Google Italy. He basically started it up back in 2002 and made it a profitable and important country for Google, leveraging the local market at its best. I like the idea of a tech center (reminds me of what my friends in Silicon Valley are successfully doing with the Plug&Play Tech Center), not new though, since others are trying to do the same in other parts of Italy.

One is H-Farm, founded by Riccardo Donadon, former founder and CEO of one of the biggest web agencies in Italy (e-Tree) in the north-east of Italy.

The other is The Net Value, founded by former CEO of Tiscali Italy Mario Mariani and (I’m proud of that) located in the same buildings of my company here in the beautiful Sardinia.

Happy to see another smart italian mind willing to help small startups to grow. Who did say Silicon Valley could be only in… Silicon Valley? We have lots to do in order to bring the same Silicon Valley’s smell here in Italy, in particular I look forward to seeing as many social networking events as those I used to attend in Silicon Valley, where you had to make a choice since a lot of events were overlapping…

Tagged as: h-farm, mario mariani, massimiliano magrini, Plug and play, riccardo donadon, Silicon Valley, the net value