Scenes from an incubator (Adventures of an Italian team at 500 Startups)

Four weeks ago we got started at 500 startups. It’s called an accelerator program and the name is really well deserved because you feel that they actually put a rocket in your company.

The network of people that you can access through 500 is mind-blowing. No jokes. We’ve talked to people that were our heros, whose blogs we’ve been reading for years.You just need to learn how to look easygoing when talking about your project with people that are Spiderman, Superman, Batman and Robin combined in one. And that’s part of the game.

This is kind of a mistery. Dave, Paul and Christine never show enthusiasm about your product -that’s an euphemism- they do try their best to make you understand why what you’re doing sucks. But, somehow, you never feel discouraged. No, you actually feel you’re going to build something great. Because the quantity of stuff that we learn here every week is huge. It’s literally tons of lessons learned by some of the most successful entrepreneurs of the whole world. If you take on the challenge, and keep your eyes open, and cope with the ups and downs, we bet you can build something great. Well, we are. And we never felt as excited as now about it.

That’s also because we’re surrounded by people that are believers, hard workers, and that have overcome many difficulties to reach the 12th floor of this building. And they want a wider horizon, their challenges to become bigger and harder. You bet it’s an awesome place to be for an ambitious group of people that is rethinking the way stories are consumed on tablets.

Anyway, if you’re a delicate, sensitive person, you’re going to have a hard time at 500. Almost any request is brought up under whatever threat comes to Dave’s and Paul’s insane minds.

Want an example?

“i WILL get in your face if i see you leaving **** around. i WILL NOT provide funding references. i WILL publicly shame you with photos, and place it on your desks, send it to your parents (and your investors), and i WILL let mentors know that you are lazy ******* slobs.”

This was Dave, three weeks ago.

There are one million things that you’ve got to do and to get right to build an awesome company. There’s no way you’re going to get them all right. But that’s also not really the point. The point is that you need to understand what your priorities are, where to focus, what to measure and how. And you learn very quickly, yes, even though Dave tries his best to hide the romantic part of this adventure, that your heart can’t be left home while on this journey. These people really want to make the world a better, warmer place. It’s an amazing challenge. Kind of a life-changing experience. We’re proud of being here.

#500strong

David Doubilet is a very special photographer. He takes pictures underwater. Actually, let’s be exact: he takes the most incredible uderwater pictures we have ever seen. To us, these pictures look like they were taken in a dream.

Like this one:

Or this, of a leafy seadragon:

And here is the Ziebell’s handfish, very upset that the photographer didn’t ask for his permission before taking the picture:

Luckily, the weedy seadragon seems happy to show his best profile:

And check out the cherry blossom fish! Such an attention seeker:

“You have to think poetically,” says Doubilet in an interesting post about his work on Lens.

The seal agrees:

She is feeling really poetic too.

Infinity is perhaps the most mind-boggling concept. That the universe never ends, that you can keep on counting forever and there would always be one more number: these are unimaginable thoughts that stretch the mind and make the head spin. It’s fascinating and makes you feel very, very small.

This beautiful episode from BBC Two’s Horizon explores the mystery of infinity, its history, its meaning.

Did you get vertigo? We too.

The New York Times announced an amazing new feature for kids. Every day or so they will ask children in the audience to render a current event in pictorial form and submit it to the newsroom. The best drawings will then be presented in a gallery on the NYT website.

The first assignment is based on this article: The spectacular brawl in the Tap Room of the New York Athletic Club. Talking points: fancy restaurant/bar, men and women dressed up, people punching each other, throwing glasses, overturning tables, arrests. They also provide you with an example drawn by Violet Newman, daughter of NYT journalist Andy Newman.

Ready, steady, draw!

“So then why do girls have to buy princesses? Some girls want superheroes and some boys want princesses, some boys want superheroes, some boys want princesses!”

Very good point, Riley, we agree completely.

In 2006, Salman Khan, a man with three MIT degrees and an MBA from Harvard, started something new. The story goes that he was tutoring his cousin and made some doodles to help her understand better, and that those doodled tutorials became so popular that he opened a YouTube channel for them.

Then, in 2009, he started dreaming bigger. He founded Khan Academy, an incredible online video library, source of a true world-class education. For free. For everyone.

Khan Academy’s videos have now been watched by millions of kids (and adults) and there have been pilot classes in California, with teachers using the video from the Academy in the classrooms. The results are really promising.

This could be a great revolution for making high-quality education accessible, and this is why Salman Khan has been selected by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people of 2012. Congratulations!

(One more reason to like Khan Academy: they are our neighbor in Mountain View!

Reading Alice in Wonderland is always fun, but reading it with great illustrations is way better!

Yayoi Kusama, one of Japan’s most prominent contemporary artists, has illustrated a new edition of the book. It’s a pretty wonderful wonderland.

The book is published by Penguin Classics, and you can read more about it on Brain PIckings.

Meet the coolest kids on the block – James and his team mates.

No football or cheerleading here: these guys have no time to play around. They are chess masters.

On Sunday, their team representing Intermediate School 318 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, became the first middle school to win the United States Chess Federation’s national high school championship.

You read that right: it’s a high school championship and, for the first time, a middle school won it. Without any of the expensive private chess classes the students of the competing schools could afford. These guys did it simply with intelligence, dedication, lots of practicing.

No extra help. Because they are real heroes.

Even The New York Times thinks so.

(Photo credit: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)

Caine is a nine year old boy from Los Angeles who really likes game arcades, which is pretty normal. But you know what’s not normal? Caine has built an awesome cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.

That is truly special.

Now watch the video, because something even more special happens in it.

More informaton about Caine’s Arcade – where it is for instance, if you want to go play – is here.

This is the pitch that won us the title of 2012 Best Italian Startup. It was at the Italian Innovation Day organized by Mind the Bridge in Berkeley (Haas School of Business). We had a lot of fun!