This is Day One
After 12 years building for others, I'm finally building for myself.
Hey, I’m Marco 👋
On the surface, I build digital products. But underneath, I’m building something deeper — a life guided by freedom, curiosity, and intention.
This is One Million Goal: Inner Game — reflections, principles, and thoughts from the solopreneur path.
“What if I had gone all in?”
That question haunted me for years. Even as I climbed the ladder, from developer to CPTO, it whispered in the background. Especially when I sold my side project for a good amount of money, after Apple featured my app three years in a row.
I built Ammesso.it in 2017 as a side project. It exploded through word of mouth until one in four medical school applicants in Italy was using it. Hit #1 in Education. Got featured by Apple three years straight. Then I sold it.
Most people would call that a success story. But one thought keeps returning: I treated it like a game. A hobby.
What if I had taken it seriously? Where would it be now? Where would I be?
The Moment Everything Changed
On January 1st, 2025, I asked myself a different question: “What if I finally gave myself permission to start?”
Not as a side project.
After 12 years building digital products for others (leading teams, growing companies, shipping features,…) I decided it was time to build for myself. To answer that lingering “what if” once and for all.
So I’m leaving my job. Starting from zero.
Well, not exactly zero. I have 12 years of experience, a brain full of lessons, and something that didn’t exist when I started: AI as my co-pilot.
Why I’m Doing This
The stories of other founders who shared their journeys - unfiltered, honest, real - gave me permission to try. Not just their victories, but their failures.
Pieter Levels fascinated me. Not the version making $3M a year today, but the one whose YouTube channel declined, leading him into depression. The one who, to recover, challenged himself to build 12 startups in 12 months.
His goal wasn’t money. It was learning and growing.
These founders shared openly, and their honesty gave me something invaluable: permission to try. Now it’s my turn to give that back.
The Anti-Hustle Startup
Let me be clear: One Million Goal isn’t about the money.
The million is just a milestone. The real goal? Freedom. Being the sole shareholder of my time. But even more than that, it’s about proving there’s another way to build startups.
I’ve spent years in the traditional startup world. I’ve seen the burnout. The 80-hour weeks. The hustle culture that glorifies suffering as a badge of honor.
I have a partner, Annalisa, and a 2-year-old daughter, Isabel. Three years ago, we spent six months as digital nomads across Southeast Asia before returning home for Isabel’s birth.
That experience taught me something: life is happening now. Not after the exit. Not after the next funding round. Now.
So I’m building differently. With balance. With transparency. With heart.
My approach is simple: learn fast, not just build fast.
What Success Really Looks Like
Giorgio Locatelli, the Michelin-starred chef behind London’s Locanda Locatelli, once said his success isn’t measured in stars or revenue, but in how many chefs he’s helped grow beyond him.
That resonates deeply with me.
A year from now, if someone writes me a simple “thank you”, telling me that something I shared helped them take the leap, solve a problem, or see a new possibility, that’s success.
The million? That would be nice.
The impact? That’s what matters.
This Is Day One
One Million Goal is the unfiltered story of how I’m rebuilding from zero… with 12 years of experience, AI as my co-pilot, and a mission to prove that startups can be built with balance, transparency, and heart.
I’ll share everything: revenue numbers, failed experiments, personal struggles, what works, what doesn’t. The real-time truth, not a highlight reel.
I don’t have all the answers. Hell, I don’t even have a clear roadmap beyond “learn fast and share everything.”
But that’s the beauty of it. You’ll see every challenge, every pivot, every small win and spectacular failure.
This is real-time entrepreneurship. No success story told in hindsight.
Just me, figuring it out as I go, sharing it all with you.
Ready to follow the journey?
Marco, this is so powerful! I've also grown tired of building for others. Well, I'm still doing it, right? But now, with the help of AI, I'm giving myself permission to do this quicker than programming everything from zero, and I'm having a lot of fun!
Marco, I genuinely can’t wait to hear updates about your project. I’m on a similar journey myself, so I’m certain that everything you share will inspire and help people like me move forward.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity, and best of luck!