Every year, thousands of new ventures launch with enthusiasm, yet only a small fraction manage to create products that people truly want and are willing to adopt. Very often, the difference lies in one essential principle: understanding the problem before building the solution.
Rome Business School recently welcomed its own alumnus, Emanuele Bianconi, Co-Founder of SQUP, for a session dedicated to the fundamentals of early-stage entrepreneurship. Drawing on his firsthand experience as both a founder and former RBS student, Bianconi offered a clear, honest, and structured overview of what it truly takes to build a startup from zero.
Launching a startup today is less about having a brilliant idea and more about learning whether that idea deserves to exist. This requires shifting from:
This mindset enables early founders to move beyond intuition and toward continuous validation, where success is measured not by how polished a product appears, but by how clearly it resonates with the people it aims to serve.
One message from the session was especially clear: a startup grows when it solves a problem that already exists, not one the founder wishes existed.
A meaningful, real problem is typically:
SQUP was born from exactly this kind of insight: a genuine need experienced by someone unable to enjoy a common product due to dietary restrictions. Starting from a real human frustration ensures founders build for real people, not hypothetical ones.
An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) isn’t just a simplified version of a product: it is, above all, a learning tool. Its role is to clarify whether people genuinely care about the problem a startup is trying to solve, whether they are willing to try the proposed solution, and what must be refined before investing further resources. Rather than waiting for the “perfect” release, founders gain far more by putting an early version into the world, observing how users behave, and letting real feedback shape the next iteration.
The SQUP experience showed exactly this: that progress comes from continuous refinement, from small but consistent cycles of testing and adjusting, and not from rushing to scale prematurely. Over time, this approach strengthens both the product and the business model, allowing the venture to grow on solid ground.
Growth happens only when several elements align: a team equipped with the right skill set, an internal structure capable of sustaining expansion, and timing that supports rather than hinders momentum.
When these conditions come together, a startup can move from early traction to durable growth.
“There’s a difference between being prepared and being ready: preparation informs you, readiness is navigating what can’t be predicted.”
— Emanuele Bianconi, Co-Founder of SQUP & RBS Alumnus
The session highlighted the importance of complementary skill sets, the value of joining incubators and expanding networks, understanding when monetization truly makes sense, and preparing for fundraising only once strong foundations exist. Investment becomes strategic only when a startup is ready to use it purposefully – whether for talent acquisition, brand building, or distribution.
At Rome Business School, the session offered students and alumni a concrete insight into what entrepreneurship truly requires today: intention, discipline, and the ability to stay in constant dialogue with the market. Far from the myth of the lone visionary, successful founders learn to navigate uncertainty with method, curiosity and a global outlook.
It is a mindset RBS actively cultivates across its programs, encouraging future professionals to challenge assumptions, test ideas in the real world, and let evidence guide their next steps. In this sense, innovation becomes less a moment of inspiration and more a practice — one that allows new ventures to take shape with purpose and respond to genuine needs. Through its training ecosystem, the School prepares emerging leaders to transform insight into action and to build businesses capable of creating meaningful, lasting impact.
