I am an engineer, technology manager and entrepreneur with a broad experience that ranges from hands-on technical HW and SW research and development to business leadership and product management. I am curious by nature and attracted by challenges and difficult problems. In my career I have been equally enjoying being an engineer, a creative thinker, a manager, a strategist, a company director and board member, a thought-leader and an international speaker.
Always up to learn, teach, inspire and be inspired by talented teams and interesting businesses that foster innovation and are aligned with my values and happy to advise and mentor early-stage and growing start-ups whenever I can. Feel free to reach out to discuss!
Professional Bio
After obtaining a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Electronics Engineering from Universita’ di Pisa (Italy), my first job was in Research at NXP Semiconductors (High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands) where I dealt with HW/SW optimisations, Embedded Architectures, Vector Processing and Algorithms Study and Implementation. Later, at Imagination Technologies (UK), and as part of the flagship PowerVR team, I played a key role in the design and development of several worldwide industry leading high-performance/low power Digital ASIC IP cores (GPUs) for mobile applications still used in most of the high-end smartwatches, smartphones and tablet devices on the market today (Apple, Sony, Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, etc.).
In 2013 I co-founded Vinaya Technologies, initially called Kovert Designs, a pioneering IoT company focused on holistic wellbeing and helping people to improve their lifestyle with consciously-designed wearables and SW products (more info here). As the only technical co-founder I have built the initial iterations of the product and then, as a Director, Board Member and CTO, went on to scale the business, the team and the technology from simply an idea to a 40 people company. Being recognised as one of the most innovative and interesting start-up in the UK and beyond, Vinaya has attracted the attention of media and investments world-wide. Aside the business, strategy and management responsibilities as a founder/director, I have headed up and steered the tech, R&D and product management and development of the company. I have hired and built my direct engineering team of 20+ talented researchers and engineers and managed all the following R&D areas: Hardware, Embedded SW, Software, Manufacturing, Production Automation, UX/UI Design, Product/Project Management, Mobile App Development (iOS and Android), Cloud, Data Analysis and Machine Learning. With my team at Vinaya we designed, developed and brought to market three HW wearable products and all the mobile and cloud ecosystem and algorithms around them. Aside from the R&D, our all-in-house approach extended to the complete management and set up of the Supply chain, Production line and Production Automation in Asia (China, Taiwan, Thailand). Requiring frequent travels to East Asia and Silicon Valley, an important part of my role has been in fact to select, set up relationships and supervise our suppliers and R&D/manufacturing partners. Moreover, I have been involved in a Dubai Government Accelerator and headed up the negotiation of a large pilot programme deal with the Dubai Health Authority.
In 2017 I have obtained a mini-MBA in Business Administration and Management, I have been involved in several entrepreneurial projects (Ligo Health, Seroware, Techntone and others) and, as a CTO in residence at Startupbootcamp IoT London, where I was an advisor and mentor for 9 IoT startups from around the world.
In 2018 I became Co-founder and CTO of Mothive, taking on a very hands-on role and leading in first person the technology effort to develop a widely accessible, easy to use and accurate and intelligent IoT ecosystem for the agriculture sector that allows to monitor and optimise food production and its supply chain while making them more sustainable and reduce waste. As of May 2019, Terraprima Group acquired and merged Mothive and Odyssey Sensors (an agri-tech business focused on delivery IoT products for livestock and aquaculture farmers) and I currently seat on its board as Director, Co-founder and CTO. During my time at Terraprima, I have been responsible to design, build, manufacture and ship various iterations of both Hardware and Software products and build a solid IoT infrastructure, while covering a both strategic and hands-on role within a very lean organisation.
Meanwhile, I continue to advise other startups through Seroware and run Techntone, a small guitar pedals company designing, manufacturing and selling directly to consumers worldwide original musical hardware products.
I am very passionate about learning new things and self-improvement. Here is a list of some of the professional courses I have taken up lately (the list may or may not be up-to-date).
As an entrepreneur, founder and technology thought-leader, I have been active in the London start-up ecosystem and a speaker at several conferences and events around the world including UK, Taiwan, USA, China, UAE, Denmark.
Track Record
Product Development: covered various roles from first developer to hands-off manager, responsible to design, built and manufactured various cutting-edge and complex Software and Hardware products
Technical know-how and love of learning: Broad and deep engineering experience from microelectronics to embedded systems and cloud computing and in-between. Throughout my career I have been constantly learning and developing new skills and technologies.
Team Building and People Management: a hiring manager for the last 12+ years, I’ve both strengthen and built multi-disciplinary teams from scratch attracting and nurturing talents and leaders.
Adaptability to different roles: played pivotal roles as board member, executive, manager and engineer in various companies from tiny startups to large multinationals.
Technology Leadership and Governance: developed from scratch several times over technology visions, strategy, organisation design and technology/product roadmaps and managed resources and budgets.
Business & Strategy: Founded various businesses, sat on various boards of directors, mentored start-ups and entrepreneurs, led and negotiated deals and supported fundraising, built financial models and owned various P&Ls.