Speakers & instructors

Invited speakers

Mark Andrews
Full Professor @McGill University
PhD from the University of Toronto under Professor Geoffrey Ozin - followed by six years at the legendary AT&T Bell Laboratories before joining McGill as a Full Professor. Over 200 publications and roughly 40 patents and patent disclosures later - his research still spans an unusually wide range: medical and biological sciences - physics - electrical and materials engineering - photonics - and green chemistry. He's not just a lab scientist: he's co-founded 3 companies: Lumenon (photonics telecom) - Plastic Knowledge (flexible/printed electronics) - and currently Anomera (carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals) - turning his own discoveries into commercial ventures rather than leaving that step to someone else. Within this school - Mark will address customer personas and early adopters - validating deep-tech via real customers - ethics in deep-tech markets - diluted funding - and AI and the Meta-Ethical Dilemma.
Giovanni Battistini
CEO & Founder @Phenotap Inc. · New York, USA
Giovanni runs Phenotap Inc. from New York and brings a transatlantic perspective to market strategy and startup operations. He covers two critical and often neglected topics: how to truly understand your market (TAM/SAM/SOM - competitive landscape) and how to survive as a startup legally and financially — IP - equity splits - runway management. Teaches: Market Sizing · Competitive Landscape · Legal & Finance Basics
Francesco Boano
CTO @Next Different · Milan, Italy
Francesco is Chief Technology Officer at Next Different - a Milan-based innovation studio. He brings a builder's mindset to product development — what an MVP really is (hint: not a prototype) - how to prioritise features ruthlessly - and how to prototype fast without wasting engineering cycles. Teaches: MVP Design · Feature Prioritisation · Prototyping
Clara Pereira
Assistant Professor @University of Porto Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Porto (Portugal)
PhD in Chemistry - now Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto - after nearly a decade as Auxiliary Researcher at LAQVREQUIMTE. Her real-world impact is tangible: as PI of the ERC Consolidator Grant SelfEnergyDriver - she develops self-powered hybrid energy-driven wearable technologies that unify energy harvesting and storage. More broadly - her research bridges multifunctional materials - smart textiles - stimuli-responsive systems - electromagnetic radiation protection - wastewater treatment and sustainable manufacturing processes. Her technologies have received several entrepreneurship prizes. Within the school - she will present her success stories in technology transfer from lab to smart textiles - her success story with receiving an ERC Consolidator grant - and summarize the essential points for effective pitching.\n
Jakub Rybka
Director of NanoBioMedical Centre AMU | Full Professor of Biotechnology | Co-Founder and COO of Spinbionic
Dedicated researcher and accomplished professional with a distinguished portfolio of achievements in academia and beyond. My innovative work has garnered several awards and grants - reflecting its significant impact. Actively engaged in collaborative projects with industry leaders - I excel in bridging the gap between theoretical research and practical application. I have a proven track record of mentoring students and young professionals. Combining academic rigor with real-world experience - I am poised to make lasting impacts and continue achieving success in both academic and professional realms.
Guglielmo Schenardi
Founder @Genoa Founder School, Genova (Italy)
Guglielmo founded the Genoa Entrepreneurship School and has coached dozens of student ventures. He specialises in the hardest skill in early-stage startups: talking to customers without hearing what you want to hear. His session covers the "Mum Test - " interview design - and how to generate conditional orders before you've built anything. Teaches: Validation · Customer Interviews · Assumption Testing
Massimo Vanzi
Co-Founder @Fondazione Genova Startup · Genova, Italy
A 50-year veteran of semiconductors and tech who started with passion doing research at university and high-tech R&D centers - then management of R&D both in large corporate and startup - in 1993 Massimo founded his own company turning a 5-engineers team into Europe's #1 fabless IC design company. In 2007 Massimo has co-founded Italian Angels for Growth (IAG) - the primary Italian network of Business Angels and since then he has co-founded over 14 tech startups across Italy and Europe. Massimo is now a teacher of entrepreneurship both at UNIGE Economics - master’s degree - and UNIGE Engineering for PhD’s - senior advisor of several VC funds investing in deep-tech and co-founder of Fondazione Genova Startup - the engine behind a citywide founder ecosystem.\nOverall - Massimo is a serial entrepreneur and startup ecosystem builder based in Genova. Through Fondazione Genova Startup - he has supported hundreds of early-stage ventures. Within this school - he leads the opening session on Startup Mindset and closes Week 2 with Investor Pitching — bookending the program with the full arc from idea to pitch. Teaches: Startup Mindset · Investor Pitching.
Vittorio Viarengo
Former Vice President, Cross-Cloud Services @ VMware · Palo Alto, USA
Dropped out of university in 1997 to chase entrepreneurship - founding ViVi Software in a Genoa garage - a venture that led him to Boston after an unforgettable pitch resulted in an 8X acquisition offer. That gamble launched 30+ years building product - engineering and marketing teams inside fast-growing tech companies - from Oracle and BEA Systems to CMO roles at MobileIron - where revenue grew from $40M to $132M during his tenure and the company went public - and eventually Vice President of Cross-Cloud Services at VMware.\n Vittorio brings Silicon Valley experience from his years as VP at VMware - one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. He teaches the craft of value proposition design — how to construct business hypotheses - build the value proposition canvas - and tell your story in a way that makes customers lean forward. Teaches: Value Proposition Design · Storytelling & Customer Pitching

Guest lecturers