How Licensing Beats Equity 10x

Hey there, digital warriors! ⚔️

One year. Twenty‑seven episodes. One hundred thirty investors, founders, and engineers. Fifty‑two unicorns studied from raw conversations, hard data, and real scars. We’ve mapped every layer of what makes extraordinary organizations, and now, the final piece falls into place.

Today’s guest, Fabio Lettieri, has spent 25 years mastering the invisible engine behind value creation: intellectual property and licensing. While VCs chase equity and accelerators spread breadcrumbs, Fabio builds empires through licensing. His model turns €2M into €100M in 24 months; without factories, without burn, without dilution.

This episode is the turning point. Europe’s best engineers are trapped in slow, risk‑averse systems that reward caution over courage. Fabio’s story isn’t just a critique; it’s proof that we’ve been solving the wrong scarcity. Talent, as the genuine ability to have extraordinary cognitive power, was never the issue. The real bottleneck isn’t just how capital flows. It’s how that capital gets used, often denying human upskilling, craftsmanship, and cultural evolution in favor of placebo blueprints and tools.

We close this first arc with the same mission we started: to expose what’s broken, show who’s fixing it, and invite those who dare to evolve.