Great stories of Italian entrepreneurship abroad testify how Italian creativity, that particular ability to combine creative intuition and commercial awareness, is much appreciated and sought after.
Paperlit is such an example, and a case of uncharacteristic excellence considering that it is achieved in a sector – the digital one and new media – where other countries are often more advanced. Paperlit is a total Made in Italy project, but undertaken by a team working on both sides of the ocean – Italy and Silicon Valley USA – creating that ideal link between the best of Italian culture and the best of Californian high-tech approach. A distinctive geographic area that, not surprisingly saw the birth of some of the most interesting companies operating in the digital high-tech sector. Founded in August 2009, Paperlit is a B2B2C platform that on one hand helps publishers to interface with the digital world in an efficient and cost-effective manner; on the other, it satisfies peoples need to find an increasingly convergent way to access media. With Paperlit, any type of editorial content can migrate to the latest mobile media: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, smartphone and web. Paperlit is therefore both a mobile and web publishing platform that achieves – simply – the ideal convergence for newspapers, magazines, catalogues and newsletters.
Paperlit was born from the instinct of Gionata Mettifogo, a serial entrepreneur, whom, on his CV has the start-up of four companies and a whole series of innovative projects for leading companies in the United States and Europe. He founded his first business at just 17 and has since continued to specialize in software design and writing. His previous projects include a line of software applications for Mac, the first digital TV set-top boxes, a of Java connectivity database start-up project – Connect Inc. (later sold to BEA Systems / Oracle), a voice portal – Voceviva – purchased by Tiscali Spa, and a series of consumer software products for Microsoft Corporation.
We strongly believe that the revolution underway in Media represents an extraordinary opportunity for innovation. Paperlit is an existing response to this need – a technologically innovative platform that is user friendly and easy to implement for publishers. For this reason, together with Mario Mariani’s The Net Value, we decided to support Gionata in the development of Paperlit.