INNOVACTION STORIES: ANDREA PASTINA, “I FAILED, BUT NO ONE CAN STOP ME NOW”

Andrea Pastina, 34, CEO at Pubster, the first app that offers you a drink, is working on his second start up after InnovAction Lab. His first startup may be described as a failure, but from that failure Andrea has learned so many things that brought him to fund a second company. This is his story.

“You have to do InnovAction Lab because you need it”. When Giulia Lucarelli came to my house and told me so I trusted her. Some friends of mine had been suggesting the same for at least six months, but Giulia had been a friend since high school and her call to arms was categorical.

Attending InnLab was like living a whole life in just four months. It was not only a breaking point, but also a slice of life with another life in the middle. A life that was the same as the one I have now, I just did not know it.

That life was extremely intense, tough and I had to play till the end. They say that brevity is the soul of wit, but the truth is that InnLab is a game that lasts until you have to play, and you never cease to have fun. They also say “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, but what happens during InnovAction Lab is a little bit different: when the going gets tough, the weak get tough.

After InnLab I did something that turned out to be a failure. During InnovAction Lab everything was cool, but then we left, we went on the market and we failed. From a personal point of view it was a real shock, a kind of initiation.

When I failed I never thought I had made any mistakes. I knew that was not the end. InnLab is the beginning of a path, and that path is with you also when you’re doing other things. It is something that all innlabbers have, in what they do every day, whether they have a startup or not.

I have talked to a lot of people who did not have a startup after InnovAction Lab, and still their lives got better. Because in those four months you get a self conscience that you would not get even if you went to Asia. And I know because I went there. InnLab transforms in action everything that was just potential, as Aristotle would say, and when this happens, a journey starts that does not end.

After the failing experience with Geomefree I founded Pubster. Today there are six of us, four of which are innlabbers. We raised 150.000 euro in two years. We have 15 investors and more than 100 clients, among which there are four big beer brands. Pubster is the first app that offers you a drink, and our aim is to get the whole world drinking. We are looking for 350.000 euro in order to tackle the Spanish market and other European countries.

Before starting InnovAction Lab I was a freelance who worked on development, analysis and IT security. After InnLab I did to two other people the same thing that Giulia had done to me. I am talking about my brother Marco and Martina Giustiniano. They both have a degree in Literature and they are now involved in an innovative project and a startup respectively.

Written by:

ANDREA PASTINA