In our article "From broke young coder to successful CEO", where we told the story of some American programmers who saw their digital projects grow until they became world-famous businesses, we asked ourselves this question:
What about Italy? Is it possible here to develop a website or an app so successful that it becomes known and appreciated internationally?
We gave away the answer (yes) without saying more.
Today we look more closely at four emblematic cases of all-Italian digital projects that made it.
In a country that is not always friendly to innovation, with oppressive bureaucracy and high taxation that often put a spoke in the wheels of local makers and innovators, this is perhaps good news that may inspire others to try with more conviction.
But this time we will talk less about programmers and more about start-ups. In Italy, probably because companies went online when global competition was already very strong, and because low digitalisation, especially back then, did not help, worldwide success rhymes more with digital entrepreneurship than with programming.
Although the last case we will describe, an open source project, may be an exception...
1) Federico Marchetti of Yoox
Not everyone knows that Federico Marchetti was a pioneer of e-commerce, not only in Italy but worldwide.
With a degree in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan and an MBA from Columbia Business School, in 2000, long before online shopping became common practice, Marchetti founded YOOX.
Started as an e-commerce site selling end-of-season high-fashion items, YOOX achieved great sales success worldwide. After years of excellent results, in 2015 the project merged with Net-a-Porter to create YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, today one of the main global players in online luxury.
Marchetti's merit lies in having been able to anticipate and shape the future of digital luxury shopping, becoming a global reference point for the sector.
2) Riccardo Zacconi of Candy Crush Saga
Riccardo Zacconi is also one of the brightest examples of Italian success in the digital world.
He was co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the global phenomenon Candy Crush Saga.
Under his leadership, the company revolutionised mobile gaming, creating one of the most profitable and recognisable gaming franchises in the world. It was then acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2016 for almost 6 billion dollars, one of the biggest successes in the mobile gaming industry.
Of course, this is not an Italian company, since King Digital Entertainment is Swedish, but we praise the initiative and intuition of this Italian entrepreneur, perhaps proof that vision, combined with a solid understanding of the digital market, can lead to products that capture the attention and interest of millions of users worldwide.
3) The Satispay team
In more recent years a special mention goes to Satispay, a Milan-based company founded in 2013 by Alberto Dalmasso, Dario Brignone and Samuele Pinta, three Italian entrepreneurs who had the idea of creating an innovative system to simplify everyday financial transactions, reducing costs for merchants and consumers while promoting the use of digital payments.
Satispay's goal was to offer a cheap, easy-to-use alternative to traditional payment methods, using mobile technology to enable secure transactions without relying on credit cards or cash. The platform is based on an app that links the user's bank account directly to their smartphone, allowing quick and simple payments.
The company quickly established itself as one of the most innovative start-ups in Italian fintech, gaining popularity with both consumers and merchants thanks to its ease of use and low transaction costs. Its growth was supported by significant investment from Italian and international backers, allowing it to expand its offer and reach beyond Italy.
4) The Arduino team
And finally we come to the only case on our list in which an Italian programmer, or rather a team of programmers, managed to win a worldwide audience: we are talking about the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in the persons of Massimo Banzi, Gianluca Martino and David Mellis (as well as the Spaniard David Cuartielles and the American Tom Igoe).
Developed in 2005 as a teaching project, Arduino quickly became a standard in DIY electronics (Do It Yourself) and in programming education. This open source platform for building electronic prototypes is used by hobbyists, artists, engineers and researchers worldwide to develop interactive projects.
It consists mainly of a microcontroller board and a development environment (IDE) used to write, test and upload code to the board. The board can be programmed to control and interact with a wide range of sensors, actuators and other electronic components. Arduino boards have digital and analogue inputs and outputs that can be connected to components such as LEDs, motors, temperature sensors and much more.
Arduino is indeed known and used all over the world. Its ease of use, low cost, open source nature and a large community of users and developers have made it an extremely popular tool for learning electronics and programming.
In conclusion
Arduino in particular is an important success for Italy and yet another proof that we too can take the world stage with digital projects, not just with art, food, fashion and tourism.
Another worldwide success built "from scratch"? Musixmatch, the world's largest song lyrics platform, offering access to millions of lyrics and translations synchronised with music. It was founded in Bologna in 2010 by Italian coders.
But even without necessarily conquering the world, there are a great many successful Italian digital projects.
How did they do it?
Good question! There is no magic recipe, but a mix of factors including vision, goals and, only in part, technical skills certainly helps. Being a good programmer is not enough to succeed. The strength probably lies in the team, in the ability to build one that is diverse but at the same time united by similar values and by the same goals and vision.
In our own small way, here at ESSE I we are trying to do the same, leading a team of skilled professionals who are also bound by something beyond technique, something more to do with a common purpose. Our mission is to bring harmony with our software.
What's yours?
