High Frequencies: From a PhD in Italy to Silicon Valley… and back again

What does it take to go from a PhD in Computer Science to an exit in Silicon Valley, and then help a new generation of entrepreneurs build global start-ups from a valley in northern Italy?

Fabrizio Capobianco grew up in Valtellina, completed his PhD at the University of Pavia and founded his first two companies in Italy before moving to Silicon Valley, where he lived for 23 years. There, he set up two more start-ups, both of which were successfully concluded with an exit. On his return to Italy, he launched The Liquid Factory, a new model for creating start-ups with global ambitions from within Italy.

This is not a theoretical lecture, but the story of a journey made up of choices, risks, changes of direction, a few regrets and many lessons learnt the hard way. A journey that traces every stage of his experience: from his PhD to his early failures, from pivots to exits, right through to a reflection on how the answer to the brain drain might not be to move to Silicon Valley, but to rethink the places where great businesses can be born.

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