Massimo Ciaglia is a Beeleever & the CEO and Founder of Haamble, the free app entirely made in Italy. It was created by a team of young programmers, with the objective of combining innovative communication through social media and personal relationships. In this interview, discover how he makes his brainchild solid and promising enough to convince major investors and economists.
We operate in a growing market where Italians become more and more attached to their smartphone. Daily connections from mobile devices are higher in number than those of desktop computers. Morevover, today, before visiting a place, many Internet users look on the net for reviews and comments from those who have already been there.
Based on these observations and thanks to a hard working team of 40 professionals, we made it real. The basic idea is to create a union between communication through social media and personal relationships. In the end, it all comes down to: "Tell me where, I'll tell you who”. Every user is geo-located, and its position is visible on a radar along with places and other users who are close by.
Our app has become the first "Urban Social Network”. We have gained more than forty thousand users, just one month after its creation. Thanks to this visibility, we gained authenticity and were able to demonstrate that people are engaged with what we were offering.
However, the first obstacle we encountered was the lack of funds to develop the project. So I decided to register a patent to make the project stronger in the eyes of the investors. A patent is a decisive tool when you need to increase investors’ confidence. But before moving forward with it, we spent two full years of work: it was critical to first evaluate our idea as a viable business opportunity (understanding our product, our target market and our competition the best we could).
Today, Haamble involved in property two major Italian investment funds. Microsoft itself believed in the initiative and has incubated the project in an accelerator dedicated to the most promising startups. In less than three months I got two funds in capital, one of €300,000 and the other of €700,000. Thus, after that fund raising, Microsoft invited us to its incubator called Bizspark. From this experience, I have learned that a winning idea does not encounter obstacles, if it is known by the audience.
I would like to suggest all brilliant minds with good ideas to trust their projects and to work hard. With that attitude, money will come and projects will grow. The most important thing to do is to firmly believe in your ideas, your team and yourself.
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