PRESKIGE
Before riding an e-bike with Eugenio and Gigi along the paths leading to the foot of the Punta Rognosa del Sestriere mountain, let us step almost ten years back, to the beginning of this enterprise. “In 2012 I became a National Alpine Ski Instructor. At the time I was 25 years old and still studying. It was then that some friends asked me for lessons, so I activated a Whatsapp chat to receive requests. In 2015, for the first time, I realised that this idea could perhaps be turned into a business involving other ski instructors” recalls Marsaglia.
Preskige ‘s initial concept was to create a sort of market place, bringing together freelance instructors and keen skiers.
There has always been a strong bond between downhill skiing and the Marsaglia family: Eugenio’s father was a coach, Eugenio himself is a former athlete, while his brothers Matteo and Francesca compete in the World Cup. “We moved from Rome for the love of skiing more than twenty years ago. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Law and Business Economics from Turin University and a Master’s Degree in Sports Management that I completed in Rome” says the winner of ReStartAlp 2017.
Preskige was founded a year before Eugenio took part in the training organised by Fondazione Edoardo Garrone and Fondazione Cariplo. “Thanks to a person who was skiing with me, I was able to submit a business plan to Alberto Emprin, who owns a consulting business for start-ups in Turin. He was the first person to believe in our project, and granted us a convertible loan that allowed us to design and launch the platform”.
Preskige was initially structured as a sort of club or social networkwith membership cards and content made available to users, particularly video lessons, with suggestions from the instructors: every client could book their lessons directly on the platform, choosing an instructor on the basis of their characteristics, qualifications, schedule, and availability to travel or work in a given location. “In most ski schools, senior member instructors normally work first – there is a sort of hierarchical order that does not always meet the needs of the client”. The experiment worked well during the 2016-2017 season in several resorts in the Vialattea ski resort (in addition to Sestriere, also in San Sicario, Bardonecchia, and Monginevro), in Limone Piemonte (Cuneo) and in Madesimo (Sondrio).
National Alpine Ski Instructor
National Alpine Ski Instructors are the elite of Italian skiers. There are around 150 of them (including many former athletes who competed in the World Cup), who also train all the ski instructors working in Italy. Their professional registeris updated every year.
Being highly specialised technical training staff, national instructors are entrusted with the professional training of ski instructors in Italy. National instructors make up the examination commissions for the pre-selection of ski instructor courses participants and are trainers in the courses themselves, as well in professional refresher courses. Instructors are trained by the Italian Winter Sports Federation Federazione Italiana Sport Invernali. and, besides being excellent skiers, they are also good trainers having teaching and public speaking skills. “Being a trainer, I have the opportunity to get to know the new ski instructors and understand whether any of them might have the right qualities to work with Preskige” says Eugenio Marsaglia.
