Berytech in collaboration with the Italian Trade Agency in Beirut organized a meetup with Angelo Minotti, a serial entrepreneur in energy production and space propulsion. The meetup comes within Berytech’s mission to offer the right ecosystem for innovative entrepreneurs to foster their innovation in technology and entrepreneurship.
The Meetup
Minotti spoke of his past experiences sharing thoughts and learnings on the entrepreneurial journey to an audience of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts including Claudio Pasqualucci, Director of the Beirut ITA office, and Maroun Chammas, CEO of Berytech.
Lara El Khoury, Deputy Program Director at Berytech, and Sevag Babikian, Accelerator Technical Lead at Berytech moderated the talk in which Minotti discussed his transition difficulties from academia to the business world and the tools he sourced to crowdfund his startup idea.
“I decided to split out from university, to make my ideas real. I started two companies and now after two years we are a core team of 14 internal experts, collaborating with external research centers,” stated Minotti.
“Real life changes every instant, so it is not possible to define the growth with the same pattern of the years before, so what I am experiencing is the fact that you are obliged as an entrepreneur to be ready for everything, you need to learn everything day by day and work at least 16 hours per day, and you have to be ready for everything at any time,” added Minotti.
The discussion also covered the technical aspects of Angelo’s startups, the details every entrepreneur undertakes with researchers, and the time consumed on R&D.
“When you are building a product, there is a sweet spot when it comes to timing before you actually launch it, and from a technological point of view you always need to update your idea, and everything will be set. You always must stay at the top-notch when it comes to updating your skills and expertise, this is how you can see your ideas and projects are organized.” explained Minotti.
The event concluded with a networking activity, where startups had the chance to ask Angelo about potential collaborations between Lebanon and Italy in the field of energy solutions.
“Berytech is proud to meet with a great entrepreneur from the northern part of the Mediterranean, where we share a lot of commonalities. He has been through the journey which most of our startups are going through, but at the same time he has been through a different experience, so we wanted to be inspired by his entrepreneurial journey and know more about his different challenges,” stated Ramy Boujawdeh, COO of Berytech.
About Angelo Minotti
Angelo’s activities are primarily in Space Propulsion, Combustion, Fluid dynamics, Dual-Use Goods and Arms Control.
During his academic career, he has been involved in, and managed, dozens of national and international scientific research projects (NATO, ESA, EU, etc.) and has authored or co-authored dozens of manuscripts and 4 international patents.
He has had the chance to found MIEEG which is a highly innovative startup, developing a high-power miniaturized electric generator, powered by hydrogen and characterized by a revolutionary combustion chamber. The MIEEG patent, filed in nearly 50 countries, including Italy, China, and Hong Kong, answers to the need to extend the autonomy of the battery systems.
