Sementor

Sementor started in 2012, with a first edition focused on digital business, and has never stopped supporting people who have an idea but don't yet know how to turn it into a company. We don't think of it as a course: it's one step in the growth path of anyone opening a business, and its value lies as much in helping solid ideas take off as in stopping someone from pouring time and energy into a project that isn't ready yet.

The method is built on the Business Model Canvas, but what really matters is the people: mentors are neu [nòi] members and external professionals, and over the years our in-house expertise has grown so much that our own members are often the most effective mentors on the path. To keep participants committed without ever charging for the service, we introduced a small €50 commitment deposit, refunded to anyone who completes the programme.

The very first editions ended with public events with a sequence of elevator pitches on stage. But from the fifth edition on, we have revolutionized the final event format: no more traditional pitches, instead a dynamic networking evening, with looping videos and slides across different rooms, live music, and free interaction between participants. The closing evening also works as a small community crowdfunding: the prize for the winning idea is whatever the social aperitivo brings in.

Over fourteen years Sementor has supported more than 150 business plans, and some of Palermo's most recognisable social enterprises came out of it: Sartoria Sociale, Cuoche Combattenti, the deli-bistro Madoni-eat, the documentary-making collective La Bandita, the craft business Junkle. A relational network that's grown over the years thanks to partnerships like the one with Bocconi Alumni.

With the eleventh edition, between 2024 and 2025, Sementor was woven together with WoW – Working Women, focusing on women's empowerment and self-employment.

Sementor is entirely self-funded and runs on volunteering: a typical edition mobilises 8 hours of frontal mentorship, 12 hours of intensive workshops with 2-3 steady tutors, plus coordination time. It's the same principle behind everything we do — knowledge gets given away, on a logic of reciprocity, where ethics comes before technical matching.