The president of Sea Crowd, Augusto Vecchi and Luca D’Ambrosio, president of the Net2Web incubator and of The International Yachting Media, (of which Boatandboats is the english version) signed a collaboration agreement today.
Sea Crowd Srl is the first fintech Company in Europe to deal exclusively with sea and blue economy projects. Established in 2016, the company operates with the crowdfunding-based formula, ie raising funds to launch innovative projects in the nautical sector, promoting them through support campaigns or pre-selling campaigns, attracting the attention of the users with the economic convenience and the typical crowdfunding emotion. The harvested capital will then be used to start serial production.
The first project was to supply a new boat for La Spezia’s Canottieri Velocior 1883, a team that has about twenty athletes with intellectual disabilities. An atypical commitment, which has immediately tested the response of digital audience.
Also interesting are the subsequent proposals, this time focused on the blue economy. The best examples are the Zen Sail Style sailboat and the marine engine MPT diesel engineering
The latest project, currently in crowdfunding, is aimed at launching a fashion in the nautical sector: this is the Paracool, the good luck pepper like fender, of which we have already written a first article.
Sea Crowd Srl is very active and continuously receives new proposals, which are selected by an experienced team to evaluate its potential. The nautical crowdfunding will then be able to bring in innovative ideas that, in line with the agreement, the editorial board of The International Yachting Media will publish and spread to more than 200 nations worldwide through its international portals: Tuttobarche, Boatandboats e Todoslosbarcos.
“I’m confident that networking is crucial. The synergy that has been created with Net2Web and consequently with International Yachting Media is important because it is implementing the marine ecosystem. Sea Crowd has since long, started creating this by signing partnerships with major Financial Operators, Universities, Confindustria, Companies and The Liguria District of Marine Technologies. All this bring an added value not negligible compared to other crowfounding platforms.
The founder and creator of the success of Sea Crowd, Augusto Vecchi tells us
To create a platform it does not take long, it is sufficient to have a few tens thousands of euros to invest. But such a project cannot start from a day after day work and thinks that it works, you have to spend time, know how to build a compelling business model, take advantage of professional men to present it and marketing communications experts to spread it.
With the International Yachting Media network, we can also bring our proposals abroad and have more visibility. From our side we can provide preview news on exclusive projects, Tuttobarche therefore offers us the important support of its visibility. It turns out that you are the number one in Europe, if not in the world.
In addition, of being a high-level incubator, Net2Web is a partner in Lombardia with a loft dedicated to co-working for startups. For us it is very convenient, it is easier to give guarantees to those who ask us to have a reference in the area. If some customer needs information, we know we can rely on a serious and competent reality “…
As previously mentioned, Sea Crowd Srl pays particular attention to the blue economy. What are the ways in the near future in this area?
“We pay close attention to everything about innovation, not just on the blue economy. We analyze innovative projects in the nautical and naval fields, and we look forward to development throughout the industry. The latest data speak of a growth of the sea economy in general; hope that the positive trend will remain. “
When did you start the first project, what did you expect from the audience?
When we founded Sea Crowd Srl, we knew that the Italian market was premature for ethical and social initiatives, including pre-sales. In fact, in the perspective of promoting the more relevant projects, I have received 26 that require a total of about 4.5 million euros. Our technical board will have to finish analyzing them and seeing the projects considered profitable, to submit them to investors and partners financial corporations, venture capital companies and business angels who have already signed agreements with Sea Crowd. “
So if I had an idea to launch with crowdfunding, what features should it have to be taken into account by Sea Crowd Srl?
First, consider that today we are working with the pre-sale system. For donation projects, we have to meet with the ENEA leaders, with whom we are thinking of a marine environment protection project. In this case, it would be a donation. The pre-sales option is preferable to be directed to a youth target, which is undoubtedly more responsive to innovation and predisposed to payments through mobile devices. Further, it must also offer novelties, at a tempting price, to allow the launch of the product on the market.
In short, it must be an innovative project on boating, which costs little and represents a novelty. With the pre-sales, you can have an immediate feedback in the target. The Italian user is reluctant by nature at high cost that is why we recommend launching the 70% discounted product over what will be the price list once the item is placed on the market. “
To date, Sea Crowd Srl is the only fintech platform in Europe to deal only with nautical. The lack of competition is due to the market structure, which, if competitive, does not allow companies to survive, or to the slightest consideration of the industry by any competitors.
In the last few years, I have been dealing only with fintech and I have noticed that more and more startups are being created to propose vertical platforms, no more generalized but specialized. I had already created one in Switzerland in its field, now Sea Crowd is the first dedicated exclusively to the sea. Now we are the only players on the market, although I am convinced that we will soon have competitors. ”
Luca D’Ambrosio, founder of Net2Web and The International Yachting Media, also expresses satisfaction for the agreement. He will be the one who explain to us how the partnership was born:
“The agreement is born based on our mutual professional experiences, and we both have an important past in publishing and new technologies. We are also leader in nautical field, each on his own respective markets, we with The International Yachting Media, them with Sea Crowd, which is the only platform of the nautical sector in Europe, virtually they have no competition.
You on the contrary, have competition, and you have a lot…
“Actually, we do not have many competitors. On the technological field, on the content and diffusion point of view, we are ahead of our competitors of about 18 months. Of course, they are not sitting still, but we have in hand new developments that will be released before the end of the year and will allow us to further increase our distances. “
All companies involved in the partnership are committed to internet and have their success from online. Is this why the partnership is formed?
“Today the online, in our reciprocal sectors, is the only form of sustainable business that gives real prospects of gain. This in the publishing industry has been clear since the last 15 years, while in finance now you talk only about investing in innovative startups. This is demonstrated by the crowdfunding and the success of incubators, accelerators and investment funds specialized in this sector. Even business angels, perhaps the most careful investors of all, just want online for their investments. “
Luca, few years ago you have reached a major professional goal in innovation and in particular in the online. How much does the knowledge, or rather the expertise in the web, matter?
“Web 3.0 has lifted the skill bar, there is a big gap between those who say they work on the web and who really works. Although today it is relatively easy to acquire the basic skills to move the first steps in this world, the gap in knowledge required to complete successfully a projects is immense. The Technology Innovation Award you referred to was given to me for a web application that, consulting a semantic search engine, in a service that handled millions of requests per month, it returns relevant and pertinent results. It was on 2011 and we still used fuzzy algorithms. Today, Google and Facebook use criteria of relevance and pertinence to give traffic to the initiatives that deserve it, automatically discarding what they do not feel fit. Having real and solid skills in these areas is not counting, it is essential! “
On a personal level, if you wanted to invest in a Sea Crowd project, what would you choose and why?
“I have been sailing for twenty years and, until a few years ago, I was also delighted in high racing regattas. So it’s easy to guess why Zen Sail is my favorite project, they are really nice dinghy and I think they can have a good commercial return, especially abroad.”
