The Qube APS

The Qube is an association formed by young people who have chosen the path of entrepreneurship in a startup or a University spin-off . The association finds Its origin in the will of the founders to support the processes of exploitation of research in science and technology as a tool for growth and competitiveness, with particular reference to new innovative companies. The name of the association came out from the Rubik's Cube, since the development of a business idea is similar to resolving the Rubick's cube, with a lot of "Pivoting" decisions. The Qube was born in a desert area and the first events were created to raise awareness on the issue of self-entrepreneurship. The Qube has been developing a 5-year plan of activities and four levels of community's involvement: Awareness phase - activities of dissemination and inspiration on the topic of enterprise (e.g. Kublai in campo, Libera Summer School, Startup-Just do it and Business-Angel – Just Do It). Contamination Phase - creation of meeting, networking and co–designing events in order to increase the level of diversity of the group. In this phase I brought to Lecce global formats like Startup Weekend (e.g. Startup Weekend Lecce) and new invented formats like Upperò, Kill Pitch and Botteghe High Tech. Incubation phase - support to startup projects through a co-working space, tutoring and mentoring with a specialized training focused on the needs of the incubated startups. Evolution phase - support the startups to the access to the market or financial sources through presentations, speed dates and networking events. The achieved results are: - Increase of the number of The Qube’s community to more than 30 members. -Support to 18 new projects (e.g. Vinoled, Zemove, Optogenix, Mos3, Roomsalad, Beecode, CercoAlloggio2.0, Tourango, MeBookToo, Fablab Lecce, IslandofHost) -Achievement of about 1M€ through Public - Private investments in the startups of our community. -Discovery of new school talents and Digital Champions (e.g. Antonio Scarnera).