After 23 years in Silicon Valley, I moved back to my Valtellina (the alps of Lake Como). I did it, because I finally could. Sondrio is 99% covered by optic fiber, I work remotely, and I can go skiing in the middle of the day when the sky is blue and the snow is fresh.

My life is too good. I live in nature, hike in summer with my dog, ski in winter. I always breathe good air and I am 5 minutes to everything I need. I initially wondered whether I should keep it a secret, just for myself. Then I remembered one of the main lessons I learned in Silicon Valley: give back.

So I decided it was time to give back everything else I learned in Silicon Valley. For example: always think big. Life is too short to live in a crappy place, and to create zombie companies that never grow and make a difference. Live to change the world while having a great time, because your time on earth is short and precious. Anything else is a waste.

Today, we are launching The Liquid Factory. It is a startup studio with a clear goal: to create the next Silicon Valley unicorn starting from Valtellina. We will select 20 young entrepreneurs to join us in the Italian Alps (four every year, for five years). We will help them create liquid companies (100% remote) and flip to Silicon Valley, keeping the actual brains back in Europe (a dual mode company, like Funambol and TOK.tv).

In the next five years we will create 20 new companies, investing €200K per company with a €1M cap, ready to flip it in a SAFE on the US corporation. This will happen thanks to the vision of Banca Popolare di Sondrio, who gave us €4M to achieve our crazy goal.

We are a group of entrepreneurs, who either started a company in Silicon Valley, worked for a liquid company, live in Valtellina or are still in Silicon Valley (hey, we can't force them all to move to Valtellina...). People who can really help as a co-founder, having experienced the highs and the lows of being an entrepreneur and making a lot of mistakes.

If you are out there wondering why nobody understands your crazy idea, why nobody wants to give you money, or just feel you are ready to become an entrepreneur (ideas are optional, we have plenty for you) this is the time to act.

Our first TLF 2024 batch starts in January 2025 (right in the middle of the ski season), and the deadline to apply is October 31st. We only want people who think big, and want to change the world. If you do not like the outdoors, do not apply. We are looking for entrepreneurs who wake up in the morning, work a bit, get their bike or snowboard, and develop their MVP surrounded by nature, then go back to their computers. And are happy to do it every day.

We are waiting for you in Valtellina. We'll be there with you, all the way.