Davide is the Founder and CEO of Xplored (est. 2008), a game innovation studio specializing in full-cycle development—from concept to release—of hardware and software IPs. He has extensive experience as a CEO and vision carrier in innovation-driven companies and has managed crowdfunding projects totaling more than $4M. His work spans gaming, extended reality (AR/VR), connected board games, smart toys, and videogames.

Xplored has researched and filed nine international patents related to technological innovations in the gaming sector—an achievement considered close to a record in Europe for this category. The company collaborates with high-profile global brands, including Hasbro, Mattel, Ferrero, Giochi Preziosi, Clementoni, and Ravensburger.

Davide brings senior expertise in business development, product management, product design, marketing & sales, and team leadership, with experience both in SMEs and multinational corporations. He co-founded his first company in 1993 and earned his University Degree in Business and Economics, with a specialization in Marketing, from the University of Genoa in 2002.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Davide is a versatile mind, always ready with a Plan A, B, or C. Since 2012, he has been a Senior Research Scientist at NASA and a Research Director and Fellow at USRA, a leading space and aeronautics organization tackling some of the nation’s most complex challenges through research excellence and strong university partnerships.

A long-time friend and host of the Silicon Valley Study Tour, Davide inspires students with his experience and vision.

Beyond NASA, he is involved in several organizations and startups, including Green Sands Equity, Sensorium TL, TreQ, Starlight Ventures, and Archon Drones.

Davide holds a PhD in Condensed Matter and Computer Simulation from SISSA, a PhD in Nanophysics from Université Grenoble Alpes, a Master’s degree in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He also carried out postdoctoral research in Condensed Matter and Quantum Information Theory at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Growing up as a first-generation low-income student in Italy, she developed perseverance, curiosity, and determination, which have shaped her journey. Valentina’s pursuit of excellence led her to study abroad in the United States, complete a dream internship at Pixar Animation Studios, and take on research roles at the University of Colorado Boulder and Caltech.

She is now Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computational Science at San Diego State University, where she continues to merge her love for Mathematics with cutting-edge research and teaching.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Emanuele is a seasoned technology entrepreneur and engineer from Genoa, Italy, with over 20 years of experience spanning hardware, software, and manufacturing engineering. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ermit, a company focused on developing cutting-edge technological solutions across industries. Emanuele holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science Engineering with a specialization in Robotics from the University of Genoa and is currently completing an Executive MBA at SDA Bocconi.

Before founding Ermit, he was the CTO and Partner at Pillo Health, where he led the R&D of an innovative personal medical assistant for home healthcare. His career also includes roles as Managing Director of Pillo Labs and researcher at the University of Genoa, where he contributed to several EU-funded projects in sensor networks, embedded systems, and robotics.

Emanuele is passionate about bridging engineering excellence with product innovation to create meaningful, impactful solutions.
In this webinar, he will share insights from his journey across startups, robotics, and digital health — and discuss what it takes to bring deep tech ideas from lab to market.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

With a background in Biomedical Engineering and a PhD in Human Space Flight & Space Medicine, Matteo has built a diverse career at the intersection of technology and business innovation.

From early roles at Thales Alenia Space to founding multiple startups as CTO, he has led groundbreaking projects in aerospace and consumer tech. Over the past nine years, Matteo has contributed to four aerospace projects, founded two startups, presented at CES Las Vegas, and had a product exhibited at MoMA New York.

With three patents, an academic impact of over 2500 citations, and an exit among his ventures, he brings proven expertise in R&D, team leadership, and go-to-market strategy.

Inspired by the legacy of Adriano Olivetti, Matteo merges visionary thinking with practical execution. Today, as CIO in the energy sector, he designs and leads high-impact innovation projects — most recently KeepTheSun, the first marketplace for second-hand solar panels and more. Startup mentor and a believer in human capital with a strong network across industry, academia and investment.

Matteo has been an LTF mentor for several years, always bringing his experience and playing an active role in the growth of our community.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Jeff is a PhD student in Computer Science and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Maryland, where he focuses on algorithms, big data, and decision-making under uncertainty—the kind of theory that powers today’s large-scale computing systems.

Before that, he earned his bachelor’s in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Genoa and completed his master’s at ETH Zurich. Along the way, he interned at top companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta, and at research labs at ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.

Jeff is passionate about sharing knowledge. He led the Google Developer Student Club in Zurich for two years and has been a teaching assistant for several courses. His journey reflects not just a love for science, but a strong belief in giving back and using technology to make a difference in the world.
Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey wher

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Graduated in Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin in 2012, Federico participated in 2 Silicon Valley Study Tours, in 2011 and 2012.

He has been working at aizoOn Tecnology Consulting since 2012. As a director of aizoOn Australia, he led the acquisition process, from the buyer side from start to finish, of Horizon Consulting, a company in Sydney. He evaluated over 10 companies in the same sector and of similar size before committing to the investment.

However he supervises the work of Horizon together with the role of Director of Cyber Security Activities at aizoOn.
Since July 2024 he is President of ai.Esra Start-up with disruptive technology in cyber risk management.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Assistant Professor at University of Rome Tor Vergata, his research focuses on novel robot designs, developing enabling technologies for challenging tasks in industry and healthcare.

Matteo holds a BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cassino, Italy, and earned a European PhD in Mechanical and Biomechanical Engineering in 2019, with research stints at RWTH Aachen (Germany), the University of the Basque Country (Spain), and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan).
Since 2019, Matteo has been a Research Fellow at the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre in Manufacturing and On-Wing Technology at the University of Nottingham, UK.

An IEEE and IFToMM member, Matteo has won multiple awards, including the IFToMM Young Delegate Program Award and several best paper honors. He also mentors aspiring students through the Lead the Future program.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Edoardo Serra, originally from Turin, Italy, is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Stepful. Founded in 2021, Stepful offers accelerated training for roles like medical assistants and pharmacy technicians. The company’s mission is to create accessible pathways into healthcare through intensive training, addressing the shortage of skilled professionals.

Before Stepful, Edoardo worked at Apple, contributing to the international expansion of Siri. He was the first engineer to work on Siri in Italian, helping grow the team from 8 to over 100 members. His leadership showcased his ability to scale technology and drive impactful global initiatives.

Edoardo began his entrepreneurial journey at the Politecnico di Torino, where he launched his first startup. This venture led to two successful acquisitions, solidifying his reputation for innovation. His achievements laid the foundation for Stepful, where he continues to address critical challenges through technology and education.

At Stepful, Edoardo combines his expertise in technology and education to empower individuals and tackle the healthcare workforce shortage. By providing accessible and practical solutions, he helps create opportunities for people to enter a vital industry and contribute to its growth.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Gabrile is a (Scientific) Software Engineer for the CliMA project at Caltech in Pasadena (CA). At CliMA, they develop robust and accurate open-source models for climate modeling in Julia.

Before taking this role, he completed his PhD in computational astrophysics at the Astronomy Department at The University of Arizona in Tucson (AZ), where he was a NASA Future Investigator for Space Sciences. He worked with Vasilis Paschalidis on various topics in gravitational physics. He used and extended the Einstein Toolkit to perform dynamical-spacetime simulations. His PhD was awarded the 2024 Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

In 1999, Fabrizio moved to Silicon Valley, where he founded two startups: Funambol in 2002 and TOK.tv in 2012. These companies pioneered the model of the Liquid Company, with headquarters in Silicon Valley and engineering based in Italy.

After TOK.tv was acquired by Minerva Networks in 2019, Fabrizio became the Chief Innovation Officer of the company. In 2022, he returned to Italy, settling in Valtellina while continuing to work remotely.

In September 2024, Fabrizio launched The Liquid Factory, a Startup Studio based in Sondrio, aimed at multiplying the model of the "Liquid Companies."

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Francesco is a Medical Biotechnologist with an expertise in statistical genetics and computational biology. He is an Associate Professor of Bioinformatics at the Università degli Studi di Pavia where he leads the Computational Genomics Laboratory.

Francesco has a broad range of experiences within academia and industry. He has worked at UCL in UK, in Denmark at Aarhus University first and then in QIAGEN Digital Insight, and finally again in UK for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before moving to Pavia.

Francesco is always eager to build projects in his areas of expertise and is dedicated to advancing precision medicine and public health.
He has contributed to science policy expert groups and participated in initiatives for responsible innovation.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Francesca works in the healthcare sector. She is resilient and a risk-taker at heart, both in her professional life and in the sports she practices, which strengthen her bond with the wonderful Alps from which she hails.

She recently joined Syntropic Medical, a pre-clinical stage medical device start-up based in Vienna. She is involved in the day-to-day running of the company, working closely with the CEO on business development, market analysis, go-to-market strategy, and clinical operations.

Her contributions are crucial in bridging the business and medical aspects of this innovative solution for treating depression.
Francesca graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Padua in 2023. Her academic background provides a solid foundation for her role in a medical device start-up, combining her medical expertise with a keen eye for the business side of healthcare.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

In the last decade, Arjuna has worked in startups and big tech companies like Facebook, Instagram, Evensi, and TikTok, building and managing teams while structuring operations and company culture. His career highlights the importance of seizing global opportunities and continuous learning.

Arjuna completed his MSc in Udine, Italy, and began his professional journey working as an IT consultant for regional companies. He then advanced to a research position, receiving an Assegno di Ricerca at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Udine.

In Ireland, Arjuna became the first hire at a startup, showcasing his ability to contribute to emerging companies. He subsequently joined Facebook, further specializing in his field at Dun Laoghaire.

Arjuna’s career in the USA included working at Facebook in Silicon Valley and Instagram. He pursued continuing studies at Harvard and Stanford universities, enhancing his expertise. His journey continued with a role at TikTok in Los Angeles, and he later moved to New York, becoming the first hire at Confirm.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

At Pinterest since 2018, with previous experiences at SAP, Google and Airbnb. She leads programs that ensure organizations reach their business goals through ongoing strategic initiatives. Her responsibilities include streamlining processes and resources to improve efficiency and effectiveness across projects and teams; ensuring that individual project objectives align with larger business goals; and working to mitigate and manage risk for an increased chance of success.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Alessandro speaks Mandarin, English, Python and C++. First-hand software engineering experience both in seed-stage startups ( Anyhelper, Shanghai ) and Big Tech ( Facebook, London ). Always walking off the well-worn path, looking for high-risk/high-reward opportunities. Bsc Computer Science Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Volunteer and Musician.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Innovation specialist with 10+ years experience in startup advisory and mentoring, open innovation best practices, international project management, data and research, data visualization, UI and UX.
Eclectic and passionate, hard-working, detail-oriented but with a keen eye for the big picture.
Pragmatic and effective manager, contributed to the success of multi-million € projects.
Guest lecturer at top universities (Sant’Anna Pisa, Insubria, UPO) and innovation/technology forums (Scale-Up Forum Seville, ESOF), always open to collaborations. Silicon Valley Study Tour 2010 Alumnus . Top graduate with honours. “You must fall in love with your work” his mantra.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Laura is an Innovation eager, thrilled by international working environments.
She is attracted by the technical world, as well as by the business one. Her main goal is to make these two worlds communicate by acting as a bridge to match their needs and foster innovation.

Her life motto is: “Experience as much as you can to be open-minded”. That is why, during her studies, she took part in several extra-curricular activities, like the Silicon Valley Study Tour and the Boston Study Tour 2022, as a team leader.

 Previous experience at CNH Industrial. Education: Master degree in Innovation Management in Trento University and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa; MBA at College des Ingenieurs.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

At Google Riccardo helps to shape the future of Personal AI and build solutions that are easy to use, always helpful, and accessible to everyone. Through natural interactions, contextual awareness, and human literacy – we have the opportunity to enable more people to have frictionless access to knowledge, boost creativity and productivity, and make things happen on users’ behalf.

Currently focusing on generative AI, LLMs, Bard, Assistant, Extensions, and enhancing AI capabilities.
Past professional experience at Microsoft and ZooX, Riccardo holds a Summa cum laude Degree in Design at Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Accomplished executive and entrepreneur with a proven track record of driving business growth and innovation. Currently in New York serving as CEO of Voxnest at iHeartMedia, leveraging extensive leadership experience to oversee strategic planning, operations, and revenue growth.
He helds a Master of Computer Engineering from Bologna University , where in 2015-2017 he was Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Rob is an innovative leader with 25 years of experience in the tech industry, dedicated to advancing cleantech digital transformation.
After the Engineering Degree at Politecnico di Torino, he was CIO at Comau and cofounder of aizoOn consulting technology, leading the USA branch.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Mattia has a strong experience in software engineering in different companies. He is passionate about working at the intersection of hardware and software, VR and AR. MSc in computer engineer at Università Politecnica delle Marche in 2014. Since 2017 at Facebook/Meta, and since 2021 he works as director of engineering at Instagram

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Luigi is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder of Data Masters, an innovative and fast-growing AI online school. Luigi is also an active investor and Venture Partner at BootstrapLabs, leading Venture Capital in Silicon Valley.
Luigi has gained experience in Web3, investing in the space in companies like Twig, and many other DeFi protocols.
Luigi graduated from the University of Napoli Federico II with a B.S. in Economics and obtained his Masters Degree in International Business from the Hult International Business School in San Francisco in 2013. He has lived in Spain, Ireland, and China during his career and is now based in Silicon Valley.
Luigi was featured in Forbes as one of the TOP 100 ITALIAN LEADERS UNDER 30 in 2018. He is also frequently invited to speak as a keynote and panel speaker on innovation, technology investing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence.
As a well-respected figure in the startup community, Luigi is actively involved in multiple startup programs as an advisor.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.

Alumnus Silicon Valley Study Tour 2017, Master of Science Business Administration Padua University 2018, SVST guide of CUOA MBA students in 2018 and 2019. Ismaele is Manager at Google Dublin since October 2021.

Don’t miss the upcoming sessions of Inspiration Valley, a virtual journey where you’ll hear the stories of Italians working in Silicon Valley and around the world.