Why does what reaches the customer never look like what you promised?
It happens in every company with a team. It's nobody's fault.
The people who sell speak the language of the market: promises, positioning, closing the deal.
The people who build speak the language of what can actually be done, today, with the resources at hand.
They're two different languages, and they almost never meet before the promise has already been made to the customer.
And it's not a problem that fixes itself. If anything, the bigger the company grows, the wider the wall gets.
I speak both. I come from the technical side. I spent years turning what business and sales decided into something real.
I know the wall because I ran into it first.
I decide with dirty hands
I've tried more meetings. It holds for two weeks, then everything goes back to normal.
The wall comes down only with the right processes, built into the software your team already uses every day. Not with slides.
I always start from the business goal, then build it together with the people who'll execute it. Not alone, not afterwards.
Anyone who decides without getting their hands dirty finds out the details that matter only when it's already too late.
Anyone who executes without knowing why stops at the first doubt, and the project just sits there waiting for you.
Your team's trust is earned by getting your hands dirty (just enough) alongside them, not by giving orders from the top.
Three Companies
Three phases at opposite ends of what running a company can look like: from VC to agency.
What it is: a cloud phone system co-founded from scratch: venture-backed, where the only thing that matters is growth.
Results: raised 500k in VC funding, grew the product to over 1,000 SMBs, and led the acquisition by Wildix in 2018.
Setup: as CTO, built the end-to-end tech stack lean, down to a phone system you could activate in under 60 seconds with zero technical skills.
What it is: the cloud phone system relaunched after Voverc's acquisition: a multinational group, where the only thing that matters is the margin.
Results: grew it to over 1,500 SMBs, up to 2M in ARR, profitable.
Setup: as CTO and COO, ran the technical roadmap and operations for a full-remote team of over 50 people across 15+ countries, with an async-first culture.
What it is: property management for short-term rentals: a brick-and-mortar agency, where the only thing that matters is service.
Results: grew the portfolio from 0 to 45 apartments in 15 months, leading to the company's sale in 2025.
Setup: a hybrid model: a remote team for bookings and guests, a local team for cleaning and maintenance, with processes built to scale without scaling costs.
Word from people who were there
I'm Swiss and obviously love Swiss Knives. Excuse my sharp analogy, but it's by far the best I can find when thinking about Gabriele.
Having to deal with multiple skills in one single body and mind can often distract you from the goal(s) one would like to achieve. Well, some angels danced around him the day he was born, cause he's impressively laser focused on everything he does, and he just does it well.
Working with Gabriele is amazing, he's an outstanding leader with many skills in several areas; technical, product management, marketing, operations and above all, establishing successful relationships with people to achieve success.
I had an incredible journey during my experience with him at Voxloud, observing all the internals of a fast-growing company and having the possibility to give my maximum potential. Thanks for this amazing opportunity!
My behind-the-scenes, between sales and product
No sponsors. No automation.
I write when I have something truly worth sharing