Mr Morini, could you tell us about your start-up journey? 

The NATURALSALUS project began in 2017 with an idea I had and then shared with three other partners. One of these partners is a pharmacologist. He owned a laboratory that produced high-quality nutritional supplements in-house in small quantities. Another partner is a doctor who specialised and worked in conventional medicine before specialising in traditional Chinese medicine. He has extensive knowledge and experience in this sector. And the other partner works in the commercial sector of the nutritional supplement industry, whereas I have managerial experience in large companies. Together, we combined the principles of Western herbal therapy and traditional Chinese medicine to develop products that could improve people’s well-being and help prevent common chronic illnesses. We developed an innovative process for extracting active ingredients from plants, which we patented. This process enables us to produce highly concentrated, plant-based active ingredients. At the end of 2017, I approached NOI Techpark with our entrepreneurial idea.

Why try to make your fortune in Bolzano and not elsewhere? What was the deciding factor? 

I’ve always believed that South Tyrol is the right location for a brand aiming to excel in the nature-positive, well-being and sustainability sectors. There’s never been a better place in Italy for an idea like NATURALSALUS. When I came to Bolzano, NOI Techpark had just opened. I arrived at this enormous campus and found an amazing concentration of research labs, innovation spaces and start-up facilities. I presented the project, and it was accepted into the Start-up Incubator. 

What happened next? 

In January 2018, I joined NOI and developed a business plan, drawing on over thirty years of experience I had gained from managing large companies with complex structures. However, the support I received from NOI was crucial for our success.

For instance, NOI helped us establish a collaboration with Professor Matteo Scampicchio from the Free University of Bolzano. He worked with us to scientifically validate and patent our extraction process. We began the practical work in July 2018 and set up NATURALSALUS six months later, creating formulas that blend Western and Eastern natural medicine philosophies. Some really interesting products came out of this, which we launched in mid-2019 to instant acclaim. 

The positive feedback came not only from customers, but from investors too. 

That’s right. We were selected as one of thirty EU projects to present at the annual European Business Angels meeting in Brussels. This was our first opportunity to showcase our project to a potential investor audience. Another valuable experience was Matching Day in Geneva, where we met with local and multinational companies from the pharmaceutical and food industries. Funding from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano was also crucial for developing the project. Thanks to this funding, we were able to register two patents, one in Italy and one in Europe, and launch our entire product line on the market at the end of 2019. 

How important was the support you received at NOI’s Start-up Incubator in developing your start-up? 

When I arrived in Bolzano, NOI Techpark was just getting started. You might say we helped each other. I was able to offer the other start-ups at NOI my 30-plus years of managerial experience. In return, I could count on the support of a local network thanks to my contacts with the Province of Bolzano, the Chamber of Commerce, the Free University of Bolzano, and research institutes. As a result, we had easy access to everything we needed to bring our project to life. The Start-up Incubator team organised some very useful training courses. Those behind start-ups often know their product inside out but aren’t aware of the framework required for a company to be successful. 

Success for NATURALSALUS came once you’d left the Start-up Incubator. Tell us more. 

By the time we left NOI in 2021, we were already in touch with two large Italian pharmaceutical companies who had discovered our products and found them to be highly innovative. After a lengthy evaluation and validation process, we selected one of these companies as our partner, who then took over the NATURALSALUS project. For us, it was important that our idea and our brand remained intact, that there was international commercial development and that the connection with South Tyrol remained. 

Is that connection with the region and with NOI still there? 

Yes. Following the success of NATURALSALUS, we launched a new project also based in Bolzano called EGAVÌ.

Through this innovative start-up, we were granted a concession for the Bad Pedraces natural spring in Val Badia. In collaboration with Professor Raffaela Di Cagno, co-director of NOI’s Micro4Food laboratory at the Free University of Bolzano, we are carrying out highly innovative research and development on the spring’s microbiota and microbiome. I’ve also been part of NOI’s mentoring and coaching network for start-ups for a few months now. I really enjoy using my experience to support start-ups. I have always enjoyed doing this, even when I was at the Start-up Incubator. I have also been a business angel for over a year and am part of the Milan-based Italian Angels for Growth, one of Italy’s most important associations of start-up investors. Many major venture capital funds and leading business angel associations are based in Milan, making it a key city for innovation. I’d like to establish stronger links with Milan to promote innovation in South Tyrol.