Partners
Partner universities
The SERP Entrepreneurship Summerschool is the result of years of collaboration between leading research universities: the University of Genova, the Université Paris-Saclay, the University of Porto, and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, later joined by McGill University in Montreal. Built on a shared belief that scientists and engineers deserve a practical bridge between the lab and the market, the programme brings together the academic excellence, international networks and entrepreneurial experience of all five institutions across two continents to create something none could have built alone.
SERPESS Intro
At a glance
School overview
SERP Entrepreneurship Summerschool is a ten-day intensive program for scientists and engineers who want to turn research into reality. No business degree required — just curiosity and a problem worth solving.
SERP Entrepreneurship Summerschool is an intensive international two-week program at the University of Genova that transforms scientists and engineers into founders.
During this school you will learn how to:
· Spot and validate a real problem before you build anything
· Design a value proposition that customers actually want
· Talk to customers and get honest, useful feedback
· Size your market and map the competition
· Protect your IP, split equity and manage your runway
· Scope and build your first MVP without wasting time
· Pitch to investors and tell a story that raises money
Logistics
Where to go
The school will be held in our beautiful Genova, in room 12 of the DCCI building in Via Dodecaneso 31, 16146.
All lectures take place at Aula 12, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI), Via Dodecaneso 31, 16146 Genova, Italy. The department sits in the Valletta Puggia area, adjacent to the Departments of Physics, Mathematics and Information Technology.
The closing pitch exam takes place at the historic seat of Genoese Chamber of Commerce, Via Garibaldi 4, in the UNESCO World heritage heart of the city.🚌 City buses — AMT Genova
Download the “AMT Genova” app to check routes/timetables and buy digital bus tickets directly on your phone, available from Google play and App Store. This is the easiest way to get between the hotel, the school, and the city centre.
🚆 Trains — Trenitalia
If you plan any day trips outside Genova (e.g. Camogli, Cinque Terre, Nervi), use the “Trenitalia” app to check schedules and buy train tickets, available from Google play and App Store.
Getting from the hotel to DCCI (Aula 12):
• You may walk about 22 minutes through this route if you resist the heat.
• From Cavallotti/De Gaspari stop, you may take bus No. 42, drop off at the 5th stop at Orsini 1/Sturla then walk along via Sturla and via Padre Semeria through this route.
• Allow about 25–30 minutes door to door (either options).
• At the entrance of DCCI building you will find indications to the lecture room (Aula 12).
Getting from Stazione Brignole to DCCI (Aula 12):
• From Brignole FS/Capolinea stop, you may preferably take buses No. 45, 85, 86, 87, drop off at San Martino 2/PAPIGLIANO, and walk about 450 m, following this overall route, or take buses No. 17 or 17/, drop off at Europa 1/OSPEDALE San Martino, and walk about 600 m, following this overall route
• Alternatively, you may walk about 38 minutes through this route if you resist the heat.Hotel La Capannina
Via Tito Speri 7, 16146 Genova.
Tel. +39 010 317131 · info@lacapanninagenova.it
The hotel sits right next to Boccadasse, a small colourful fishing village just outside Genova’s historic centre, with the sea a few steps away. Breakfast is included at the hotel every morning.
Getting from Brignole train station to the hotel:
• You may take bus No. 31 at Brignole and drop off at the 12th stop at Cavallotti/De Gaspari (about 70 m from the hotel), or bus No. 15 and drop off at the 11th stop at Caprera/Orsini (about 240 m north of the hotel).• Welcoming pizza on Sunday 5 at 7.30 pm @Pizzeria Del Ponte Bistrot, a few steps away from the hotel.
• Breakfast — included at the hotel every morning.
• Lunch — provided at the school on teaching days (Mon–Fri), and via meal coupons on Saturday at Mensa Gastaldi
• Coffee breaks — provided at the school at mid-afternoon, as per the daily schedule.
• Dinners (every day except Sunday) — covered via meal coupons at Mensa Gastaldi.Eduroam wi-fi is available at the lecture venue. As students belonging to the partner Universities you should have your credentials to access Eduroam wi-fi. Before travelling, please make sure you have performed all the necessary steps to have access to Eduroam according to your institution’s rules.
Pitches delivered at Camera di Commercio will make use of a desktop computer connected to internet provided by our host.
Speakers & instructors
Meet the speakers
Our Entrepreneurship School brings together international founders, executives, investors, researchers, and technology-transfer experts to share practical insights on building, scaling, and sustaining innovation-driven ventures.
Programme
What to expect
The programme covers all the key stages of building a startup from scratch: from problem discovery and customer validation, to market sizing, MVP design, legal and financial basics, and a final investor pitch, giving scientists and engineers a full end-to-end playbook in just two weeks.
Monday, July 6, 2026
Class
Startup Mindset & Problem Discovery.
Welcome
9:30 - 10.00 - Welcome & introduction.
Prof. Emanuele Magi (Director, of DCCI @UniGe) · Dr. Si Mohamed Kaabour (Genova City Councillor for Economic Development and International Relations).
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 01a Innovative entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial learning and innovation.
Massimo Vanzi
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 01b Innovative Entrepreneurship: what is a startup, what kind of startups.
Massimo Vanzi
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Write in your words what is a Startup and what is the difference between startup and small company? Give an example for both. Among the types of startups which one is more suitable for yours? Explain why.
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 01c Problem-first thinking.
Giovanni Battistini
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 01d Problem-first thinking. Identify ideal customer profile (ICP).
Giovanni Battistini
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
What is the core problem your startup wants to solve? Who suffers the most from this problem today? Describe them.
Group project
20.00 - Output for the day.
Startup name + one liner, your ICP (1 sentence), what problem your startup solves (1 sentence).
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Class
Value Proposition Design.
Lecture
10:00–10:45 - 02a Constructing business hypotheses.
Giovanni Battistini
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 02b Value proposition canvas.
Giovanni Battistini
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Start creating 5 hypotheses, how you plan to test them and questions you are gonna ask customers.
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Group project
13:45-15:30 - Teamwork assignment.
Continue creating 5 hypotheses, how you plan to test them and questions you are gonna ask customers.
Interlude
15:30-15:45
Lecture
15:45–16:30 - 02c Storytelling and customer pitching.
Vittorio Viarengo
Interlude
16:30-16:45
Lecture
16:45–17:30 - 02d Storytelling and customer pitching.
Vittorio Viarengo
Dinner
17:30-18:00 - Aperitivo.
Group project
18:00-19:30 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: create and send a video with 60 second pitch to customer.
Group project
21:30 - Output for the day.
Update your Customer Outreach Excel file. Each day at least 20 more names should appear.
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Class
Validation & Customer Interviews.
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 03a Customer personas and early adopters.
Mark Andrews
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 03b From benchtop to marketplace: validating deep-tech via real customers (Anomera).
Mark Andrews
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
What are the main ‘pains’ and ‘gains’ of your target customer? How would you run a ‘cheap test’ to validate demand before building anything?
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 03c How to test assumptions cheaply.
Guglielmo Schenardi
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 03d Interview techniques that avoid polite lies (the Mom Test).
Guglielmo Schenardi & Irina Gushchina
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: design a ‘Mom Test’-compliant interview to validate your main assumption. Pursue the Mom test interview on at least one person, not your team member or other student and write the outcome of the interview and their responses.
Group project
20:00 - Output for the day.
Update your Customer Outreach Excel file. Each day at least 20 more names should appear.
Thursday, July 9, 2026
Class
Customer & Market Understanding.
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 04a Market size basics (TAM, SAM, SOM).
Giovanni Battistini
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 04b Competitive landscape (return on future).
Giovanni Battistini
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Estimate your TAM, SAM, and SOM with a bottom-up calculation. Provide used sources, how was calculated and based on which data.
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 04c Understanding customers, understanding responsibility: Ethics in deep-tech markets.
Mark Andrews
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 04d Understanding customers, understanding responsibility (cont'd).
Mark Andrews
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: who are your top 3 competitors and what is your competitive advantage? Which societal impact should you take in consideration while creating your startup?
Group project
20:00 - Output for the day.
Update your Customer Outreach Excel file. Each day at least 20 more names should appear.
Friday, July 10, 2026
Class
Legal, Finance & Operations (Survival Edition).
Talk
10:00-10:45 - 05a IP, licensing, startup founder equity, role of TTOs.
Emilio Alacevich
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Talk
11:00–11:45 - 05b Startup finances and runway: non-dilutive EU grants for tech to market.
Paolo Bondavalli
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
If your startup idea originated in a university lab, who actually owns the underlying IP today — you, your institution, or a funding body — and what would it take to license it out? Name one EU non-dilutive grant programme (EIC Accelerator, Horizon Europe, or similar) that fits your technology. What specific eligibility criteria do you already meet, and which ones don’t you meet yet?
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 05c Diluted funding: angel investors, VCs, funding scheme (equity, SAFE).
Mark Andrews & Massimo Vanzi
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 05d AI and the meta-ethical dilemma: who is responsible in the AI-driven startup?
Mark Andrews
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: Estimate the money you need to create MVP for your startup and suggest which funding you’d ask for it on which conditions. How are you using AI in your startup and what safety recursions you must take?
Group project
20:00 - Output for the day.
Update your Customer Outreach Excel file. Each day at least 20 more names should appear.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
Leisure activity
Free day.
Leisure activity
10:00-12:30 - Joint visit to Acquario di Genova (free tickets).
Teambuilding activity
Sunday, July 12, 2026
All day - No lectures - Teams work independently to refine their startup idea based on feedback.
How would you structure equity among your founding team, and why? Provide customer overview based on interviews, information about ICP, problem you solve, main pain point of your customers.
Monday, July 13, 2026
Class
MVP & Product Thinking and Retention.
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 06a What a minimum viable product (MVP) really is (and isn't).
Francesco Boano
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 06b Feature prioritization.
Francesco Boano
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Draw or describe the user journey through your MVP in 5 steps. What metric will you use to know if your MVP is working? How will you measure it?
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 06c Prototyping.
Francesco Boano
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 06d Project prioritization.
Francesco Boano
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: What’s the simplest prototype you could build this week to test your riskiest assumption — and what would you prioritize cutting if you only had half the time?
Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Class
More hands-on with customers and/or previous points.
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 07a Science that matters: building an international research career with real-world impact.
Jakub Rybka
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 07b From lab bench to startup: lessons from university spin-offs.
Jakub Rybka
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Output: What is one concrete lesson from today’s spin-off examples that applies directly to your own startup’s path from research to market?
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 07c The modern scientist: leadership, entrepreneurship and life beyond the lab.
Jakub Rybka
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Group project
14:45–15:30 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: How are leadership roles split across your team, and how will you handle disagreements as co-founders?
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Group project
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Continue working on your assignment file to refine the answers you have given during the previous days in light of the input from all lecturers.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Class
Lecture
10:00-10:45 - 08a Startup storytelling structure.
Massimo Vanzi
Interlude
10:45-11.00
Lecture
11:00–11:45 - 08b Investor vs customer pitch.
Massimo Vanzi
Group project
11:45–12:45 - Lecture follow-up.
Create storytelling canvas for investors and customers separately.
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Lecture
13:45–14:30 - 08c Pitch deck essentials.
Massimo Vanzi
Interlude
14:30–14:45
Lecture
14:45–15:30 - 08d Examples of successful pitch decks.
Massimo Vanzi
Coffee break
15:30-16:00
Class
16:00-18:00 - Teamwork assignment.
Output: Create the first version of the pitch deck, having 5 min for the whole pitch.
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Class
Success Stories Testimonies.
Talk
09:15–09:45 - 09a How incubation helps transform scientific discoveries into successfull startups (Incuballiance).
Arielle Santé
Interlude
09:45–10:00
Talk
10:00–10:30 - 09b From advanced materials to smart textiles: translating science into technology transfer.
Clara Pereira
Interlude
10:30–10:45
Talk
10:45–11:15 - 09c ERC Consolidator grant success story (SelfEnergyDriver).
Clara Pereira
Interlude
11:15–11:30
Talk
11:30–12:00 - 09d Creating value through scientific communication (Clarity Studio).
Annalisa Barla & Andrea Vian
Interlude
12:00–12:15
Talk
12:15–12:45 - 09e Innovation = Technology x People: lessons from the journey of building a business
Césaré Cejas
Lunch
12:45–13:45
Tutorial
13:45–14:00 - 09f Pitch essentials recap.
Clara Pereira
Group project
14:00–15:30 - Work on pitch, with mentor support.
Activity: Pitch to at least 3 mentors and get the comments.
Coffee break
15:30–16:00
16:00–17:30 - Continue work on pitch, with mentor support.
Activity (cont.): Pitch to at least 3 mentors and get the comments.
Friday, July 17, 2026
Final pitch & diploma ceremony.
Chamber of Commerce of Genoa (Sala del Bergamasco, 1st floor).
10:00–10:05 - Start of the pitch day.
Closing address by Sandrine Lacombe.
10:05–11:05 - Pitch session 1.
10 min per team + 10 min Q&A.
Interlude
11:05–11:10
11:10–12:00 - Pitch session 2.
10 min per team + 10 min Q&A.
12:00–12:30 - Commission meeting.
Jury members: Sandrine Lacombe, Massimo Vanzi, Arielle Santé, Francesco Boano, Clara Pereira, and Diego Colombara.
12:30–13:00 - Final ceremony.
Note by Dr. Luigi Attanasio, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Genoa. Delivery of diplomas and Best Startup Idea Award.
Lunch
13:00–14:30 - Reception.
Chamber of Commerce of Genoa (Ground floor).
Registration Fees
How to participate
The registration fee of €3,000 covers the full cost of participation, including all lectures and workshop materials, accommodation for the duration of the programme, daily meals, and social and networking events. Participants arrive, focus entirely on the programme, and leave with a pitch deck and a network. Everything else is taken care of. If you belong to one of the partner universities, special rates may be negotiated.
Students & alumni
School partecipants
Organization
The Organizing Committee combines diverse expertise and shared commitment to shape a rigorous, inspiring, and well-connected entrepreneurship school.