London Calling for the Bocconi Startup

 The idea for the startup was hatched in the classrooms at Via Sarfatti, where they both attended both a Master of Science and Bachelor program. During their MSc, Paolo and Mario began to think about how brands could take advantage of the potential of user-generated content and interact online with their customers.

 

“Social media is limiting for brands, because after a like or a follow the interaction with the customer tends to decrease,” explains Paolo. “We thought instead of a platform that would revolutionize online advertising, facilitating non-invasive interaction while also providing an area for customer creativity.”

 

That’s how Adverdose came about, a platform created to provide brands the chance to ask their community to make very short advertising videos, offering a series of prizes for customers based on their interaction. After a trial run in 2013, the students applied to the Sirius program promoted by the UK Trade & Investment department to promote new foreign businesses through the support of recent international graduates – as long as they then moved to the UK. The selected startups also included teech.io, where Lorenzo Bruno, another recent Bocconi graduate, is a founder.

 

“The selected startups get financial support, the support of an accelerator for 12 months, mentoring and networking opportunities,” explains Paolo. “We’ve been in London since March at the co-working space Innovation Warehouse,  and we’ve been busy getting ready for the launch.”

 

This summer, Adverdose conducted trial competitions for Fubles e Customuse and soon their first full-fledged competition will begin for the app Runnit.