About myself
A Resume. Sort of.
Ok, let’s make it easy.
Elementary school easy.
My name is Matteo, I’m 26 and I live in Berlin. I run a digital agency with my partner Raz and I love to write content, create online strategies and stuff like that. As you can see from the few samples in this publication, I write about tech, startups, digital trends and about this mad mad world in general. Goes without saying, more articles are available upon request.
For my agency instead I mostly do copywriting, Social Media Content, review of landing pages and websites with the goal of delivering better the perfect message to the right audience.
Instead of writing a cold, perfectly on-point, with the right amount of lies CurriculumVitae, I thought it could be more interesting to tell you directly a bit about myself. For the short bullet version please head to the end and miss the fantastic story of this Italian guy living in a German world.
Early Life & Career
Born and raised in a beautiful little boring town amongst the Alps in the North of Italy, I moved to Milan first and Venice second for my Bachelor in Business & Management for Arts and culture.
In Venice I started working for Red Bull doing one of the most amazing, crazy, funny job a twenty year old could ever imagine of, being a Student Brand Manager for a such a company taught me so many different and valuable things about marketing, branding, events and communication in general.
Plus, I met a shit ton of really interesting people.
After couple of years though, all the fairy tales come to an end: my bachelor was over and for how beautiful Venice can be, it’s also small and cozy, so before laying back too much I decided to make a move.
The Dutch West India Company
From a small, beautiful and quiet 60.000 inhabitants Italian city, I moved to a huge, messy, dirty 12 million inhabitants metropolis in South India: Bangalore.
After a depressing month in a market research company, with my Mario english and lot of willpower to stay in the country without becoming brain dead, I landed a job at the biggest co-working space and startup hub of the city, Bhive. Here I started learning about the startup and work culture in India and noticed the many differences between our two Continents, giving me what for me was a unique perspective on things.
When my contract with Bhive was about to be over, I took off for a week and spent some beautiful days reading and thinking while sipping beer on a stunning beach in Gokharna, south of Goa: here I decided to don’t renew the contract and found the startup that I would shut down in Rotterdam one year and a half later.
First Failures
Along with a Technical Co-founder and a Mentor I started Skilla, a platform to connect students and people in their twenties to work on projects and startups with a skill, rather than CV, based approach. Yes, a startup to make startups. After 6–7 months of brainstorming, developing, failures and iterations, I moved to Rotterdam to launch our AI based chatbot.
Things of course didn’t go as planned, the market and the opportunity were there but we managed only to grasp it for a moment due to too many technical delays before dooming ourselves with different visions at first and fights then.
Working on Skilla, alone in Rotterdam, with the rest of the team around the globe but in the coziness of the city they chose, with constant fights and problems, became very unhealthy until the point I decided with my co-founder to close our laptops and go home. Best decision ever.
The Resurrection
Living and traveling for one year in such a different cultural environment, or to say it more honestly, in the most insane country in the world, has been an invaluable experience that completely changed my life. Before moving to Rotterdam, I spent some weeks in Berlin and Paris to see which one was the best market sto start from so we opted for Rotterdam, while in my heart I already knew that I would have moved to Berlin as soon as possible.
In the last troubled months of Skilla, I started collaborating with couple of companies on freelance basis to pay for rent and nightlife until I decided to combine effort with my dear friend Raz and start a digital agency, following my heart I then moved to Berlin
Current days
In this surprisingly warm German summer of twenty-eighteen, we’re still rocking the digital word and creating strategies for different kind of companies, from startups to corporates and individuals. Some times is great, some times you feel discouraged and scared about the future, but overall I still think having the freedom of choosing what you work on it’s worth every anxiety.
I realised few years ago how much I love writing and express my creativity through writing but it’s only since 2016 that I started creating more actively content for my company, my clients or for projects I work with.
Private Life
I live with my girlfriend in Prenzlauer Berg, in the heart of Berlin since last summer. I love this city every week more but I always make sure to hop to Venice, Rotterdam and Paris few times throughout the year.
Matteo Volani, Founding Partner of isac/volani.
mat@isacvolani.comWhat do I do best?
UX Copywriting, content creation, digital marketingAreas:
Marketing, UX, digital, startup, tech, entrepreneurship, social mediaExperiences Highlights
2017- present, Berlin
Founder, isac/volani
2015-2017 Bangalore & Rotterdam
CEO & Founder of Skilla
2013–2015, Venice
Student Brand Manager, Red BullFor more, you can check my LinkedIn Profile
