Interview to Daniele Maria Caruso, CEO of 20 energy
What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
In our view, entrepreneurship is synonymous with the desire for change, research, intuition and courage. The desire for change relates to the choice of solutions, products and the market, to the company's approach and management. Research is part of change, both in terms of the solutions to be developed and/or adopted to then face the market, and the innovation to be made in the company's internal and external relationship patterns. In intuition lies the differentiation or the search for it, the non-standardisation. All this, especially in Italy, must be seasoned with the courage to face a market and a country unaccustomed to change and novelty, hence the courage to change combined with the courage to know that one must face an uphill road.
What is the biggest experience or lesson gained on your growth journey so far?
In our journey, the most significant lesson was to realise that the entrepreneur takes risks and loses or wins on his or her own skin, it is difficult to fix an error in setting up or a strategic one and, the market and the system, do not give you great opportunities to correct mistakes.
How is your company acting as a game changer in the landscape?
20energy is unique with a disruptive solution. We have chosen to tackle a market, that of innovation and energy in cleantech, which is extremely competitive and challenging. We have had a dream, which is to transform a problem, the traffic in our cities, into an energy resource, and we have invented LYBRA, the solution that recovers the kinetic energy and heat from the motion of vehicles in transit over it and transforms it into electricity. We are the only company that has developed the product and is at a commercial stage, unlike those who, having started with us, five companies about 6/7 years ago, failed to make the technical and commercial developments of 20energy. Today we are the first company in the world that is successfully conducting an experiment to recover kinetic energy from vehicle motion, in a motorway environment.
What Should Your Life Motto Be?
Courage and perseverance, until the initial dream is realised.
ELITE: the European network of private SMEs which accelerates the process to access private and public capital markets. Why it can be the game changing opportunity companies should consider?
Because the ELITE ecosystem is founded on the important pillars, in terms of names and specific weight, of leading national and international players, which provide the possibility of interchange and cooperation, while also giving access to a significantly important platform for programmes, networking and funding.
