Thursday, June 19, 2025 – Day 4
The sun rose over Milan like a glaring spotlight, and Leonardo Venturi woke up with a hangover of adrenaline and anxiety.
He hadn't slept. Not really. His mind kept cycling through Giorgio's conditions, the DeBellis Inox call, the Reddit thread, and that damned tiramisù. By 6:30 a.m., he was already at Officina22, hoodie on, eyes red, sipping his second espresso before the barista had even opened the cash register.
He stared at his portable whiteboard.
Leads: 5Confirmed: 1Demo Pending: 1Competitors: 1
It looked… small. Fragile. Like a house of cards waiting for a stray breath to collapse.
Sofia arrived at 7:12 a.m., wearing oversized sunglasses and a Milan Polytechnic hoodie that probably belonged to her brother. She dropped her bag and eyed him cautiously.
"Did you sleep?" she asked.
"I meditated aggressively," Leonardo chuckled.
"So… no."
He nodded toward the whiteboard. "We're behind. If we want to close three more suppliers by next Friday, we need a funnel. Cold outreach isn't scalable. We need something warmer."
Sofia collapsed onto the couch with a groan. "I hate the word 'funnel.' It makes everything sound like an e-commerce scam."
Leonardo ignored her and scribbled in his notebook.
Problems to Solve:
Supplier onboarding is too manual.
Buyer journey is still undefined.
We have no CRM.
PartBridge is 10 days ahead.
I miss my dad and I'm pretending I don't.
He stared at that last line for too long before blacking it out with his pen.
Sofia sat up. "Okay. I've been thinking. What if we flip the dynamic?"
"How?"
"Instead of begging suppliers, we get buyers to request quotes for hard-to-find parts. Then we go to the suppliers with a demand in hand. We don't sell the idea—we sell the transaction."
Leonardo looked up. "Demand-first onboarding?"
"Exactly. We bait them with actual money on the table."
"I like it," he said. "But we need volume."
"We need Lorenzo."
They exchanged a glance. Neither of them had dared to contact Lorenzo Vitale since Day 1. He was the reason Leonardo was even attempting this insane 30-day build, but also the one person who terrified him more than any investor.
"I'll call him," Leonardo said finally, a little bit resigned.
Sofia raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"No," he admitted. "But I'll do it anyway. We need to."
At the first ring, Lorenzo answered, "Morning, Leo. Join me at the location I'm going to send you."
Leonardo didn't even have the chance to say morning. "Did he block you?" asked Sophia, perplexed at Leonardo's expression.
" No..." Leo said, looking at her flubagsterd, "he did, he just said to meet him, and he hung up"
"OOHH, I like his approach! Go, go quickly," Sophia rushed him.
9:47 AM – Via Monte Napoleone, Milan
Lorenzo Vitale did not do phone calls, face to face he needed to see the body language of his interlocutor. He did espresso meetings at boutique cafés that served single-origin beans and charged €6.80 for a cappuccino. Leonardo found him perched at a marble table under an enormous parasol, flipping through a copy of Il Sole 24 Ore like it was his morning scripture.
He didn't stand when Leonardo approached.
"So," Lorenzo said, glancing up with his signature half-smile. "You're not dead. Good start."
"We've got one supplier almost live. A second call is scheduled today. And we found a competitor."
Lorenzo raised an eyebrow. "Already?"
"Small team in Verona. Less technical, more capitalized."
"It must be Gianluca! That Bas***d!" Lorenzo thought, "That's how it always starts," Lorenzo murmured. "What's your moat?"
Leonardo hesitated. "Predictive AI for procurement. Smart clustering. Aggregated buyer intent."
"Buzzwords," Lorenzo said flatly. "What's your story?"
Leonardo blinked.
"Why you?" Lorenzo pressed. "Why not the kids from Verona?"
Leonardo swallowed. His throat was dry. He thought of the whiteboard, the tiramisù, and his father's grave. And then he answered honestly.
"Because I need this to work. Not just for the market. For me and my Team." Sophia flashed in his mind, but went instantly back to reality.
Lorenzo studied him for a moment. "There it is."
He tapped his espresso cup.
"Fine. I'll share your buyer form with my LinkedIn. You get 48 hours, then i delete the form. Prove demand exists."
Leonardo nearly fell out of his chair. "Grazie."
Lorenzo stood. "Don't thank me. Just win."
3:03 PM – Officina22
The post went live at 2:17 p.m.
By 2:38, the buyer intake form crashed.
By 2:46, Sofia had rebuilt the backend in a rush, yelling for Leonardo to stop refreshing the database every five seconds.
By 3:03, they had 63 quote requests.
Not all were useful. Some were students testing the form. Some were trolls. But at least 25 were serious.
Sofia grinned. "You know what this means?"
Leonardo stared at the screen like it was the Holy Grail. "It means we have to fulfill these."
4:45 PM – Video Call with DeBellis Inox
The camera turned on. A woman in her mid-40s with rectangular glasses and a no-nonsense demeanor stared back at them.
"Signor Venturi, Signorina Baraldi. Thank you for following up."
Leonardo kept his voice steady. "We've received 25 new buyer requests in the last four hours. We believe at least four match your catalog."
She adjusted her glasses. "Are you suggesting a pilot run?"
"Yes," Sofia said. "Ten parts. Three buyers. Controlled test. We'll handle everything—categorization, matching, even the invoices."
The woman hesitated, then nodded. "We're intrigued. Send the SKUs and quote parameters. We'll respond by Monday."
After the call ended, Leonardo sank into his chair.
"We did it," he whispered.
"Two suppliers pending, sixty buyers warm, and a funnel that works," Sofia counted. "Almost feels like we know what we're doing."
Leonardo smiled faintly. "Almost."
10:19 PM – On the Roof of Officina22
Sofia found Leonardo sitting on the roof, legs dangling over the edge, sipping from a paper cup of wine someone had left in the fridge with his name on it, most probably the owner of officina22.
He didn't say anything when she sat next to him.
"I was 17 when I built my first inventory tracker," he said eventually. "For my dad's tool warehouse. The UX was terrible. But he used it every day."
Sofia stayed quiet.
"He passed away last week," Leonardo continued. "Heart attack. Out of nowhere."
Sofia closed her eyes. "Leo…"
He waved her off. "This whole thing? It's just me trying not to think about it. To pretend he'd be proud if I pull this off."
"He would be."
"You don't know that."
"I don't need to," she said. "I know you. And I'm proud of you."
The silence between them was heavier this time. Softer.
"You want some tiramisù?" he asked finally.
"You brought it up here?"
He nodded toward a container behind them. "Startup Fuel. Remember?"
She laughed, wiped a tear from her cheek. "Don't eat it all at once."
Midnight Update – Whiteboard
Leads: 8Confirmed: 2Demo Pending: 1Buyers: 63Competitors: 1Funding: Still €130.20
In tiny letters beneath it, someone had written:
Days left: 26Time to beat the clock.