I grew up in Piacenza, which in 2000 was a school for mechatronics, precision engineering and automation. That international lead does not defend itself, and today it is increasingly hard to hold on to. To me, entrepreneurship means seeing the change and getting to work on building what comes next.

I come from two Canadian deep-tech start-ups and a period in applied research within the Emilia-Romagna High Technology Network. My journey as an entrepreneur is a young one: it only began in 2024. In this short journey there has been no single key lesson, no one turning point, but rather a steady daily grind. There is no handbook, no fast lane and no substitute for sweat, focus and stubbornness. We live in a world of noise, nuance, distractions and daily crossroads: you have to know how to say no, how to step back, and how to weigh facts rather than words, so as to stay focused on the medium- to long-term vision.

We bring together skills ranging from hardware prototyping to experimental research and statistics, through to machine learning and algorithms, to tackle the low efficiency and thin margins of our industrial fabric. At a time of great hype around artificial intelligence, AI for us is a tool within the process, not the product we sell.

That is why we developed Dabohn Stame. A local artificial intelligence model is only as good as the data it learns from, and in many plants that data does not yet exist or is scattered across machines, electrical panels and spreadsheets. Stame starts in the field: where information is missing, we develop the hardware required or specify what to buy and take care of its integration. Our models, developed in-house, run on site and turn that data into guidance for the people running the plant, without it ever leaving the company. Customers have a single point of contact, from sensor to decision: one platform for energy optimisation, prognostics (predictive maintenance), process control and document management, designed for the water cycle, industrial refrigeration, air conditioning and manufacturing processes.

We have grown without investors, funded by our customers and their word of mouth. We will open our capital once we have a track record, a product and a validated market.

I have two, both borrowed. The personal one comes from David Goggins: “I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.” The professional one is attributed to W. Edwards Deming: “In God we trust; all others must bring data.”

An industrial start-up has two needs that technology alone cannot meet: partners with whom to take solutions into the field, and the structure of a growing company, built on governance, management control and the ability to engage with capital markets at the right time. ELITE provides both. It connects you with companies and industrial partners that have real plants and real problems, and it makes you look at yourself from the outside, through the eyes of someone who might one day invest.