After three years of professional experience in Mumbai, Chiara Ridelli and Francesco Capoli decided to start their own venture that puts people at the heart of the tourism experience and not a ‘hit-and-run’ logic. Today their team includes more than twenty people
Our greatest passion Travel. Since we were little, we have always set aside every savings for travel and discovery.” Clear And Francis They have been life partners since school: she has a degree in Law, is in economics. They have traveled between the world IndiaThe Middle East, thailand, Cambodia. After three years of professional experience, a MumbaiFor Francesco in consulting and for the benefit Clear As legal counsel, they decided to return to Italyin their hometown, a Lecoto open a startup company.
Claire Rezaili, who was born in 1992, defines herself as a “chronic idea generator”. After graduating from the Faculty of Law, she began working in the public administration at Italian Consulate to Mumbai. Francesco Cappoli The 31-year-old is a “nature problem-solver”: he has a double degree in management, his career following strategic consulting. “My job came from being able to solve other people’s problems as quickly as possible. Until I decided to make those problems my problem,” he smiles.
The idea of opening a startup from scratch, in Italyarriving at a specific moment, during a trip to Florence. “We wanted to enjoy it without the chaos of the city. With a map in his hand, a gentleman showed us a small shrine at the top Michelangelo square Francis remembers. As a good Florentine architect, he thought well not only of revealing it to us, but of accompanying us there and telling us of that different and wonderful facet of Florence. At that moment the light bulb went off.
Thus, after three years of professional experience prof MumbaiSlowly, the idea of devoting oneself to something else grows in the couple. Career prospects in India They were a lot interestinghe explains Clear. Francesco adds: “We developed both professionally and personally. But at that time, our idea became more realistic and we didn’t want to give up. We started not just dreaming, but painting.” Cicero On paper, we dedicate, for a year, any free moment we had.”
When everything is ready, you just have to decide where to throw it. Asia? Europe? United State? “We thought that if the dream is really to promote the area in which we are going to work, then we must necessarily start from home. Then we rode our bike Royal Enfield And we traveled a distance of 12,000 kilometers separating us from the homeland: from Mumbai to Leco“.
The goal was to launch the pilot project at the beginning of 2020. “Obviously, we didn’t expect one pandemicThe official launch was pushed back a year, shifting the idea towards the “only one A glimmer of hope That remained in the tourism market: proximity. “For the first three months during startup companies There are only Chiara and Francesco. Then we realized Possiblethan we needed a hand.” At the end of 2021, the team had ten people. Today there are 21 of them. “We will reach 35 by the end of 2023,” explains Francesco.
the life of CiceroAs is often the case with startups, it’s a real roller coaster. “We have already stopped counting the ups and downs, the unexpected satisfactions and SlipsThe platform offers 150 “experiences of closeness” in 13 regions of Italy, engaging people in the story artistsCraftsmen business men Or coaches who love their territory. Goal Francis And Clear It is to create a viable alternative to the “hit and run” streams of unified tourism, and to put people at the center of experiences as a source of narratives and their stories.
If the biggest challenge abroad is experiencing a different culture, without owning up to your strengths (“culture And family“), fair Italy The situation is reversed. “there difficulty It becomes a readjustment to old traditions and customs, immersed among people who have not been exposed to the same experiences and who struggle to understand the differences you wish to import. Italy – explains Clear – Unbelievably BeautifulHow often do they close and hesitate to change.
However, if we talk about startup companiesthe Privileges “In Italy they have nothing to envy to others European marketshe explains Francis. Not to mention some forms financing generalwhich “exceeded all expectations, so much so that now there are many foreign startups that have applied for our tenders because in countries such as GermanyAnd France And United kingdom There is nothing like it.” The real constraint lies in the capital market, which “must also be attractive to foreign money.”
Within ten years Chiara and Francesco imagined themselves at the helm of a project that became international. The initial idea was to take off Cicero in India (“An infinite market, ever-growing, but still immature,” they say.) Other European markets, not to mention the American ones,” would have made it accessible capital Easier.” Then, in fact, he won a race heart On the a reason.
“We said to ourselves that if we can make it work and grow Cicero In Italy, the largest part was performed. Italy is home, and therefore it is everything. We’ve spent our lives running away from here because the place was tight – they reasoned – and then we always came back because we couldn’t do without it.”
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