About me

I lead Crypto at Cross River. My mission is to close the gap between the 2.5 billion people who access retail banking services digitally and the 250M crypto users. I am building the technology that enables FinTech players to offer crypto-based products to their users.

Previously, I led product at Oasis Labs, creating the first scalable and privacy-preserving smart contract platform. The Network is now live in mainnet and it’s fully decentralized. I joined as the first non-software engineer employee and helped the team move from a research project at UC Berkeley to a 35-person venture-backed startup, raising $45M from a16z, Accel, Foundation, etc.

I also built/launched/managed products at Google, PayPal, AmEx, and P&G. I constantly analyze present and future trends to develop intuitions, which I then validate with data. Throughout my career, I have developed expertise in product, go-to-market, data, and engineering, both at large companies and startups, one of which I founded. I have aligned, led, and grown teams from 2 to 50 people.

As an angel investor and advisor, I look for ambitious teams that work to exploit the depth of their breakthrough insight. DeliveRex (acquired by JustEat) and Keyless (acquired by Sift) are a few examples. Some more recent investments include CloudWall, FreeTrade, Gumroad, Kift, and Asaak.

I am excited about companies building infrastructure layers to support complex and enormous markets, especially in FinTech.
If you share similar interests, I’d love to connect.

I started an offline advertising company when I was 24. That’s how I learned the rule of the 3 Ws: Wrong plan, Wrong execution, Wrong timing. If you get 1 out of 3 wrong, you’ll survive a few months; if you get 3 wrong, you learn (the hard way).

I live in Greenwich Village, New York and I am often in San Francisco, California. I hold an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas and Ms/Bs in Engineering from the University of Rome.

I also founded Berkeley StEP, a pre-accelerator that helps students get together and launch companies (150 so far; 10% of which received funding).

I believe in principles: integrity, honesty, loyalty, and reliability.
Family and close friends come first.
I am a rational optimist: I want to unblock limiting factors.

Some things I like:

  • engaging with people and situations that make me change my mind
  • challenging situations
  • digital and programmable money
  • coding and technical matters
  • twitter
  • hosting
  • reading biographies and explanations
  • djing and playing piano

My articles