About me

I love Product. I built/launched/managed products at Google, AmEx, and P&G. I am constantly analyzing present and future trends to develop intuitions, which I then validate with data.

Throughout my career I have experienced product roles that required go to market, analytics, customer interviews, field sales, and engineering skills. I worked in large companies and startups. I was a founder myself. I can align, lead, and grow teams from 2 to 50 people.

I am currently at Oasis Labs creating the infrastructure for privacy-preserving applications; 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.

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 (raised $3M in seed) are a few examples.

I am excited about companies building infrastructure layer 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 the Mission 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 (65, so far; 15 of which received funding).

I strongly believe in principles: integrity, honesty, loyalty.
Family and close friends come even before.
I am a rational optimist: I point at problems to solve them.

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 about someone else’s experience
  • djing, piano, and music production

My articles

  • Programming Data and Money: The Data Market Yield
    The ability to collect, store, program, and use data has brought connectivity, ubiquity, and intelligence to every modern application. The ability to represent and exchange money in a digital form is […]
  • Contact Tracing & Privacy: come risolvere il Trilemma
    Contact Tracing & Privacy: come risolvere il Trilemma Per un Italiano che vive a 10,000Km di distanza, non è piacevole assistere al conflitto interno tra stampa, cittadini, governo e imprenditori, causato dalla […]
  • Why Visa acquired Plaid
    Why Visa acquired Plaid Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash It seems clear that Plaid’s revenue potential is only a (minimal) part of the reasons behind the acquisition: the 2x price/valuation is probably […]
  • London DeFi Summit: Key Takeaways
    my presentation in the Main room on Tuesday London DeFi Summit: Key Takeaways Last week we sponsored the DeFi Summit in London; 300 DeFi enthusiasts, developers, fund managers, investors, and founders got […]
  • Privacy is critical to mass adoption of Open Finance
    Privacy is critical to mass adoption of Open Finance How Oasis Labs and the Oasis network can help expand adoption of DeFi and Open Finance Open Finance applications are primed to reinvent the […]
  • Life lessons I like or wish I knew before
    Life lessons I like or wish I knew before A constantly-updated list of life lessons I wrote myself or found somewhere else (in no particular order)…because…best teachers are not always found in […]
  • Relaunching the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association: introducing Berkeley StEP
    Relaunching the Berkeley Entrepreneurs Association: introducing Berkeley StEP By Luca Cosentino and Adam Brudnick The unlocked potential of UC Berkeley is astonishing. It doesn’t take long to be captivated by the basement […]
  • Data Scientist to Product Manager? It’s not a common path, they say
    Data Scientist to Product Manager? It’s not a common path, they say Why data science makes great product managers. You spent a few years crunching data, analyzing information, going deep on customers’ […]
  • Machine Learning: where to start from
    Machine Learning: where to start from The particular application of Machine Learning to business is becoming more and more popular. I guess what really convinced me to spend time on Machine Learning […]
  • The Brexit Dilemma. Who’s the prisoner?
    The Brexit Dilemma. Who’s the prisoner? 51.9% Leave doesn’t tell the truth. Neither do words from European and UK leaders. The irrational Brexit puts both Europe and UK in a prisoner’s […]
  • The importance of Mentorship and how to get the most out of it
    The importance of Mentorship and how to get the most out of it Mentorship has always been discussed as a controversial topic. Even though everyone acknowledges its importance, very few understand its […]
  • Meeting Customers’ Expectations
    Meeting Customers’ Expectations How can you exceed customer expectations? First you need to know what their expectations are. When it comes to expecting certain performance and functionality from your product or […]
  • Stay Simple — the 3Bs framework
    Stay Simple — the 3Bs framework The relationship report-manager is never obvious. 1:1 meetings generally create more questions than the one they answer, and it’s rarely clear what the right level of depth […]