How do you know what Turin startups need if you haven't tried to really get to know them? A part of ToTeM partners - Club degli Investitori, SEI School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Turin Chamber of Commerce - in the past few months it has conducted, with the support of ESCP Business School, a research to survey the businesses of tomorrow active in the city with the aim of collecting useful information for the design and launch of initiatives dedicated to encouraging their development. The survey targeted a sample of 382 startups and SMEs with a high innovative and technological rate.

On 23 September the result of the survey was presented, in the frame of the OGR Tech powered by Talent Garden of Corso Castelfidardo.

Startup and startuppers

Most of the companies interviewed are focused on the development of products aimed at B2B market and one data is surprising: the majority of the CEOs of the startups active in the Turin area have more than 40 years going against the image, perhaps now a little stereotyped, of the millennial who had the idea of the century together with his high school classmate. Indeed, most of these figures already have a previous entrepreneurial or managerial background compared to their current activity. The data on the current development phase give value to the research carried out and its purposes: more than half of the startups and SMEs interviewed declared that they are in a moment of growth and expansion of the business through new hires, exploration of new markets and acquisition of new customers.

The relationship between startups and the innovation ecosystem

The local startups interviewed declared themselves an active part of the ecosystem of the city: they refer to the environment that surrounds them in search of the resources they need to be able to grow by returning a strongly positive image of our city context which “provides not only infrastructures (broadband, transport, etc…), but also human and social capital, with universities and innovation support places (coworking, incubators, accelerators, etc…)”.

In conclusion the report, although Turin place yourself fourth in the Italian ranking for the number of startups active in the area but with an average turnover much lower than the country average (median value of production of -38.5%, average production value of -30.4%), draws optimistic horizons towards synergies between the innovative ecosystem and those who want to do business in Turin and confirms that it is absolutely worth investing time, money, skills, energy and good ideas in our city.

Find out more about the aforementioned realities present in our ecosystem: