TLDR (click to skip)
Who am I, in a few lines
Hi, my name is Andrea Urbani and I’m obsessed with building stuff.
Ever since I can remember I have wanted to become an entrepreneur. Don't get me wrong in my family there is no business owner... yet I have always had this dream.
At the age of 14 I started doing trading in my free time. Fortunately I soon realised all the scams behind that world and threw myself into e-commerce. Fortunately I soon realised all the scams behind that world too. See the pattern here? Anyway, I am grateful for these projects because they were the first rabbit holes I fell into and the first times I really delved into something outside of school subjects.
From there I started to get my hands on balance sheet and tried value investing. There was very little investing but I had a lot of fun on Excel and IR pages.
So throughout high school I was passionate about many things that led me to one common theme: becoming incredibly skilled at using digital tools.
That's why I launched my first newsletter where I talked about the tech tools I was using, which was read by more than 200 people every week (sounds small but put 200 people in a room and tell me what you think). The project was suspended because I decided to concentrate on my Youtube channel
What I’m working on
Actual work exp
You can find what I did on LinkedIn.
Here’s why I did it:
I joined an early stage VC fund as an intern during the summer of the first year of university because I absolutely love startups and I wanted to understand how to launch and scale them while having the chance to meet loads of founders and investors.
I can’t say I know what I should do with my own startup now, but I know for sure what I shouldn’t have to do :)
The following summer I then turned to the other side of the table and went on working in an early stage startup with huge potential and incredible founders to put some of those learnings into action. I was a sales rep in a very small team so it was great to see the impact I could have from day one both sales side and product side. I also lived in Milan during this internship so I had the opportunity to explore a new ecosystem.
Then I went where the product actually meets the people paying for it. At CommerceClarity I worked as a Forward Deployed Engineer, building alongside the client instead of presenting to them while carrying the account at the same time (€X00K ARR).
Three angles on the same thing: backing it, selling it, deploying it. I’ve never been far from the product, and never far from the people using it.
Side projects
Here’s the most interesting part:
Content creation
I see content creation as the only certainty, the only thing I know one way or another I will carry on regardless of the career I pursue. It's the best way to create an audience, which means more exposure to talented people and business opportunities.
I currently post actively on LinkedIn, on my personal blog and on Youtube.
Fun coding projects
I build things and put them on GitHub. The current one is Apex Live, an open-source Formula 1 timing wall that runs locally on your own machine. Python on the back, React on the front, and a SQLite mirror of every race ever run.
Past projects
Arcadia
Arcadia is a network of student associations dealing with venture capital and start-ups, bringing Italian students closer to the world of entrepreneurship and providing fast-track tasks for entry into the startup world.
Our goal is to reach every region in Italy. To date, we are operating in 9 universities and have more than 200 students.
I founded the club at my university which I ran for a year before delegating to a great guy. It has been an incredible experience to grow a club from 0 to 35 members (capped), give talks and share my vision with the team.
Now I am in charge of partnerships and operations for the whole Arcadia network.
Polo
Polo is the first Edtech platform designed for 🇮🇹 business students. In the platform you can find a Master, Career and internship navigator, plus an algorithm that estimate your chances of admission to certain master’s programs.
Argo
Argo is an invite-only community for business student where we share insights about our own journey and we level up together with monthly catch-ups, workshops and meet-ups.
Networking
With different types of people:
- really interesting people
- really technical people
- really entrepreneurial people
- really funny people