He invented a network to offer commercial and financial opportunities to small and medium-sized businesses, an idea that sprang from a knowledge of the Italian business world and experience gained in international finance. Yet Brian Pallas, who at age 27 set up the Opportunity Network platform (which enables firms from around the world to anonymously post calls in search of interested business partners) believes that his previous experience as a scriptwriter on the Italian TV comedy sketch show Zelig has played just as crucial a role in reaching this point in his career, since – as he explains in the following interview – “working as a comedian is ultimately not that different from being an entrepreneur”.
How did you come up with the idea of Opportunity Network?
I come from a family with a small business background and I’ve witnessed firsthand the needs of small and medium-sized Italian firms. My experience at the Boston Consulting Group, on the other hand, helped me gain an understanding of what financiers are looking for. When I found myself at Columbia University’s Family Business Club, which brings together the future generations of family-run firms from around the world, I thought: these could all be potential customers for my father. That was how an initial network of around seventy people developed, which then evolved into Opportunity Network. Today, we connect approximately 3,000 Italian firms to our client base of 8,000 companies in total, with a service that is specifically designed for medium-sized businesses with a turnover of between 10 million and a billion euros.
What opportunities are Italian firms looking for?
If we’re looking at offers to sell stakes in a business, then Italian firms mainly have foreign buyers in mind. Of course, there are acquisition deals between Italian companies, but the prices paid by foreign firms tend to be higher than local market valuations. We must, however, dispel the myth of the Chinese buyer, given that – based on the statistics to hand – less than 1% of foreign direct investment in Italy comes from China. On the other hand, the opportunities offered by European firms are much greater since, thanks to their closer cultural proximity, they are less daunted by the Italian regulatory framework.
But even business opportunities are sought mainly with an eye to international markets. Indeed, the Italian firms that are part of our network have demonstrated their export proclivities: alongside obvious markets of interest to SMEs, such as the United States and Northern Europe, we are also starting to see a push towards the Middle East, Russia, and China, with the latter no longer seen as a country from which to make or buy cheap products but as an export market in its own right.
You have headquarters in London and a back office in Barcelona. Were you afraid to base yourselves in Italy?
We were set up as an American company, then we decided to move our headquarters to London, with subsidiaries in New York, Barcelona, and Dubai, together with local agencies in seven other countries. When we had to choose the city for our back office, we immediately thought of Milan, which we held in high regard and knew quite well. However, playing the devil’s advocate, we went out to see if there were other places capable of offering greater advantages to a company like ours. In the end, we chose Barcelona because, in addition to its lifestyle appeal, it provides access to much international talent, thanks also to the speed with which work permits are granted. In addition, for those with higher incomes intending to move to Spain, there is a very reasonable fixed tax rate applicable for five years. Finally, even the labor market rules strike the right balance between the necessary protection of workers and the flexibility needs of businesses. All these conditions exist in Spain now, but there is no reason why they couldn’t be replicated in Italy as well.
Was your time as a scriptwriter on Zelig just a side note in your career or a useful experience for your entrepreneurial work?
I must say that it has helped me a lot. I worked with comedians who performed in front of millions of TV viewers every evening. They were under a lot of pressure and had to find ways of controlling and managing it as best as possible: a situation, in short, that required considerable coaching. What’s more, it has to be said, rationality is certainly not one of the main attributes of comedians. So once you’ve dealt with a comedian, any CEO is a piece of cake. Besides, the job of a comedian is not that different from that of an entrepreneur. A good comic, if he or she does their job right, gets a laugh; for an entrepreneur, the odd clap on the back will do.
Brian Pallas began his career as a scriptwriter for the Italian TV comedy sketch show Zelig. At age 27, after working for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and having previously gained experience in the fields of private equity and investment banking, he established Opportunity Network. In May 2014, he received his MBA from the Columbia Business School.
