“This is the story of the Italian venture capital. And this is why it has not taken off yet.” P101 interviews Elserino Piol — P101“We choose to inaugurate the new course of our website and of this blog with an interview to Elserino Mario Piol. Those who deal with innovation or venture capital have surely heard about him: Piol is without a doubt the first Italian venture capitalist and is, above all, one of the great Italian innovators. To talk about him is no nostalgic operation: we look to the future and to the developments that our industry, we hope, will have, as venture capital is finally getting the attention it deserves in Italy for its key role of propulsion of tomorrow’s economy. We look to the future, but we have not forgotten that in the 1970s, in this country that today seems suspended in its granite beauty, there was a buzz from which the innovation miracle of Olivetti was born — the first portable computer ever created in Italy, to which Piol is strongly connected. That computer was named P101: our name is openly inspired by that world, with which we share a creative mindset and spirit: we want to participate and actively contribute to a transformation of production and society, which needs technology and digitization, two things that deeply involve us. Not follow this wind of change is the same as choosing to suffocate.
