Alessandro Cillario and Stefano Onofri, co-founders and co-CEOs of Italian startup Cubbit, could easily spend all their time scaling internationally. Instead, alongside building one of Europe's leading sovereign cloud companies, they've invested heavily in something less tangible but equally important: Bologna's startup ecosystem.
Central to that effort is The Bologna Gathering (TBG), an invitation-only event they co-founded that earlier this year brought together more than 500 founders, investors, corporates and innovation leaders from Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Their belief is simple: successful startup ecosystems aren't built by governments or investors alone—they're built by founders who create opportunities for others while building their own companies.
Cillario genuinely believes that the world belongs to people who give, asserting:
“I've never really believed in the idea of "giving back" only after you've already become successful. Waiting twenty or thirty years, building a fortune and then deciding to help the ecosystem doesn't make much sense to me. During those decades you could have been supporting Europe, your city or your local startup community.”
