Key Highlights from Our Conversation:

The Acceptance Framework That Changes Everything

Marco's transformation began not with motivation or positive thinking, but with a year-long process of accepting what happened to him. "When you have these near-fatal crashes, you start asking why, why, why," he explains. "But then you realize there isn't a why. Things happen. Shit happens, good things happen. As humans we try to find meaning, but I was super sure it was impossible to connect the dots immediately." This acceptance didn't come easily—it took a full year after his first crash before he could emotionally process what occurred. "I never cried after the accident. I was just pushing and moving forward. But one year later, the exact same day of the crash, I was in Milan and I started to cry without any reason. I realized I was fully accepting the event." This framework of acceptance without immediate meaning-making has become central to how he approaches business uncertainty and failure.

The Integrated Life Philosophy vs. Hustle Culture

Marco explicitly rejects what he calls "the hustle America model" in favor of what he terms integrated living. "I'm a founder, I push, I strive, I grind, but I don't take the hustle America model as the main reference," he states. "I love my job, I love my people, I have very big ambitions, but this is not my life. It's part of your life in which you have family, sports, passions, friends." This isn't about working less—Marco works intensely when needed—but about intentional choice. "If there are waves, I will take three hours, stop at lunch, and go surfing. I know I could work those three hours, but I know in the longer run, if I do just work, I don't work well. It's diminishing returns." His approach challenges the founder myth that success requires total life sacrifice.

The Personal Board of Directors Strategy

Rather than trying to build everything alone, Marco has created what he calls his "personal board of directors"—four or five high achievers with different specializations who he consults every three months or when facing specific challenges. "Someone is more specialized in finance, someone more in product," he explains. Beyond this, he distinguishes between coaches ("help you grow from a personal point of view") and mentors ("help you grow on specific hard skills"). When he needs to launch products in three countries, he talks to localization experts. For acquisitions, he consults M&A specialists. This systematic approach to accessing expertise allows him to maintain high performance without burning out on problems outside his core competency.

The Mortality-Optimism Paradox

Counterintuitively, Marco's close encounters with death made him more optimistic, not less. "I found that people who had nearly fatal crashes are more optimistic, more balanced, they enjoy life more because they know nothing is for granted," he observes. This isn't about living recklessly—quite the opposite. "I'm 42, so I go surfing, but I'm much more cautious after these crashes because I have kids." Instead, it's about presence and intentionality. "These experiences taught me that you have to be present, that you have to live fully, with intensity. You have to live like every second, even if you read a book or watch a movie, but you realize you are choosing to watch a movie." This intensity of choice extends to his business decisions, where he's become more focused on what truly matters versus what merely seems urgent.

The Prioritization Muscle: What Not to Do

Marco identifies prioritization as "the single thing that has the most impact on your life," but reframes it entirely: "Prioritization is not deciding what to do but deciding what not to do." This is where most people get confused, he argues, because "no one wants to say no to anything because everyone wants to diversify." He references Warren Buffett's philosophy that "if you know what you're doing, diversifying doesn't make any sense." For Marco, this means saying no even when you could say yes, focusing intensely on core activities that drive real results. "I'm starting to learn to say no even more and having more focus. This is the filter to me—you don't have to do everything." This discipline extends beyond business strategy to personal energy management and relationship choices.

The Missing Piece: Therapeutic Support for Entrepreneurs

Despite having coaches, mentors, and his personal board of directors, Marco identifies therapy as the missing component in most entrepreneurial support systems. "In Italy we have very strange feelings about going to therapy—it's like you are sick, you have problems," he admits. "But you realize you don't talk to anyone about what you really feel, about your real problems, things you're even scared to mention to yourself because you feel ashamed." He completed ten therapy sessions a few years ago and found them "super helpful" for processing fears and desires he wouldn't normally voice. "You are not an entrepreneur," he emphasizes. "You are a person in which entrepreneurship is a super important part of your life, but it's a part. To make entrepreneurship work, you need to make all the other pieces work."

My Personal Reflections:

I love when people wake up from the amnesia most of us live every day and acknowledge what’s really important in life. For Marco it took 2 near-death experiences, and these brought so much wisdom into his life. To me, depression and panic attacks served a similar goal: “to wake us up”! After you are awake, you have no choice. You cannot unknow what you now know. You cannot unsee what you now see. There is no more willpower wasted on convincing yourself whether it’s ok to take some time off to go surfing, spend time with your family, or other beautiful things life offers us. You just do it. And almost magically, what happens next is we discover that we are even more productive when we get back on the PC. Because we decompressed!

I hope Marco’s story inspires you, it inspired me deeply! And especially makes you appreciate what life has to offer and realize we don’t necessarily need near-death experiences to accept. Happy new life to you too!