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ProntoPro.it, the Startup That Takes the Stress Out of Finding a Skilled Professional

, by Emanuele Elli
The idea is the fruit of personal experience of due alumni who are a couple in private life and partners in a business growing at 20% each year


It all started when Silvia Wang and Marco Ogliengo tried to organize their Italian wedding from Jakarta. Their difficulty in finding reliable professionals for their most special day highlighted a market opportunity in the service sector and this was the embryonic idea from which ProntoPro.it was born. Today, it is the leading portal in Italy that brings together supply and demand for professionals and craftsmen. «In fact, in addition to noticing untapped demand, we worked hard to verify that the economics was there to support an entrepreneurial initiative», Silvia, 31 years old, says. She is the same age as her husband Marco, CEO and co-founder of ProntoPro.it. They were fellow students at Bocconi and then colleagues at Zalora, the largest e-commerce portal in South-East Asia.

"Only when we had a convincing business plan, did we go back to Italy to found our own startup. After a string of rejections, we found a business angel, Andrea Rota, also active in Italian Angels for Growth, who believed in our team and in our project and personally invested in the business." The portal, on the other hand, looks like the classic Columbus' egg: the customer puts in the request for a quote for a particular job (ranging from plumber to DJ, from personal trainer to computer technician) and in a few hours he/she receives a maximum of five personalized offers from skilled professionals, among which he/she can choose the right one by reviewing their profiles, reviews and ratings. All this at no charge for the customer and at a minimal cost for the skilled professional who replies to a posting (on average, for every 10 quotes, he/she gets on job). The results were not slow in coming, and already in 2016, a little more than a year after the birth of the company and the first real round of investments, ProntoPro.it raised €3 million, €1.5 million from Immobiliare.it and went on to win a Bocconi Startup Day Award.

"Our investing partners, however, are very discreet and respectful of the work we are doing, so for now we have maintained absolute autonomy", Silvia is proud to underline. And it could not be otherwise, considering that the company is growing by 20% on month-to-month basis and currently has 90 employees. The platform has 150,000 professionals registered who are divided into 500 categories and have provided services to 200,000 customers, with a quote request every 3 seconds on average.

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