Tommaso Di Bartolo

Tommaso Di Bartolo is a serial entrepreneur, startup investor, author, and an advisor to some of Silicon Valley's most renowned startup accelerators such as Google Launchpad, Draper University, and The Alchemist.

A Masters in Electronic Marketing from Bavarian Academy for Advertising and Marketing, Tommaso has built four tech startups from scratch and has two exits under his belt.

Tommaso is a frequent global keynote speaker at 10 default talks on topics including Future back innovation (his books), corporate innovation, and startup frameworks. 

He is also Metaverse Business Counselor at Forbes Business Council, and Founder Chairman of AlmaMeta.

He volunteers as mentor at BootstrapLabs, Mind The Bridge, the European Innovation Academy, The GSVlabs Pioneer Accelerator, and StartX. 

He is a faculty member at UC Berkeley running a class on entrepreneurship and serves the role of guest lecturer at Stanford University. His expertise in metaverse and NFTs led him to serve as a professor at Everyrealm Inc in 2022. He is also the Founding Board Member at SiliconVal.ly, an institute that helps "future-proof" traditional corporations, by applying transformative innovation systematically. 

Based in Silicon Valley, Tommaso speaks 7 languages, and is the author of "Navigating the Metaverse" and "Growth Hack Your Startup: How 'Creative Traction Methodology' Gets Innovators Traction”.

In his role as a philanthropist, Tommaso is the Chair of the ProteinX Foundation, a non-profit organization fostering next-gen proteins and sustainable packaging. He also hosts proteinX, a podcast series that is focused on next-gen protein.

Tommaso started his career as a Retail Sales Manager at Vodafone, and later at PSINet, a Silicon Valley-backed ISP serving Enterprise Customers globally. After his Master’s, Tommaso became interested in electronic marketing and founded Mail+Web, the first Managed Service Provider in Europe serving Enterprise and SME Security Cloud Services. The visionary leader developed a suite of Cloud Products focused on eMail and Web security.

In 2009, Tommaso founded SaaS Distribution in Munich, Germany, the first cloud service distribution platform for VARs and SIs in Europe, to capitalise on Cloud Services for SMBs, leveraging the power of local channel partners. 

In 2011, he founded Cloudplace Smart Commerce Platform in San Francisco, providing technology for businesses, communication service providers, and hosters, to implement easy and fast Cloud Service Brokerage.

In 2013, he founded swaaag in Palo Alto, the coolest video messaging app for digital natives. A leaderboard rewards top producers and the most interactive followers with visibility. 

Tommaso has played advisory roles as a Board member at txtsmarter, an easy-to-access, search, and archive platform, Handson.TV: Discover, Learn and Share Entrepreneurship, and LoadTap, whose workflow engine optimises user operation, saving their team hours of manual work each day. 

He is also a startup mentor at Draper University for startup bootcamp and crash course in business and entrepreneurship, Alchemist Accelerator, and Launchpad Accelerator, a program by Google to empower founders by supporting their startups through mentorship and equity-free support. 

In 2015, he founded Awesm Ventures to invest in blockchain founders that add utility to metaverse dApps. Its limited partners were the global leaders in industries such as Mobility [Maritime, Aviation, Railroad, Automotive, Logistics], Agriculture-Food-Beverages [Down, Upstream, and Supply Chain], and CPGs.

In 2017, he founded SiliconVal.ly Institute to help "future-proof" traditional corporations, by applying transformative innovation systematically by providing software + services to plan, run, and measure the innovation journey. In 2019, SiliconVal.y has impacted 3450 executives, across 274 corporations on 5 continents in highly regulated and fragmented industries such as Healthcare, Agriculture, Government, Maritime, Railroad, Aviation, Education, and Automotive.

His first book, ‘How To Growth Hack Your Startup: Creative Traction Methodology’, was published in 2019. In this book, he explains growth hacks for startups, beyond the conventional KPIs of success, in a structured, easy-to-run, three-step framework.

He founded ProteinX Foundation in 2020, a global nonprofit foundation focused on next-gen proteins, that fosters innovation to the food crisis. It brings entrepreneurs that are creating new animal-free products that are healthier, tastier, more sustainable, and fairer for everyone at one platform. ProteinX is a global nonprofit foundation focused on next-gen proteins, that fosters innovation in the food crisis. He also hosts the ProteinX podcast series to raise awareness for the same and bring together a collaborative effort from individuals, enterprises, innovators, and governments. 

In 2021 and all the way through July 2022, he became a member of Metaverse Strategic Alliances and Partnerships by Uplandme, Inc. where Silicon Valley-based top 5 NFT Metaverse Platforms collaborate. The Alliance is backed by leading investors such as Animoca Brands who also invested in Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs (CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot), and OpenSea. It has raised $18 million at a $300 million valuation for its NFT virtual real estate game, which is akin to Monopoly in the real world.

As a Professor of Metaverse and NFTs at Everyrealm Inc, he taught online courses for students under the flagship of Real Academy for industry professionals in Web 3.0 technologies. 

He has also co-authored ‘Navigating The Metaverse: A Guide To Limitless Possibilities In A Web 3.0 World' with Cathy Hackl and Dirk Lueth, to deliver a groundbreaking discussion of how to find the right opportunities in this fast-moving universe. The book offers:

• Data and market analysis to erase any doubt that the metaverse is the next big thing.
• Foundational knowledge about the metaverse, metaverse economy, Web3 technology, and more.
• The essential connection between metaverse environments, businesses, community, and digital products make the metaverse economy so powerful.
• A deep dive into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and how to make the most of these assets.
• Frameworks to help find, nurture, measure, and capitalise on innovation in the metaverse.

He has also founded AlmaMeta, a learning platform for non-professionals to unlock Web 3.0 business opportunities. 

Tommaso also contributes to Forbes Business Council as Metaverse Business Counselor. Some of his contributions to the section include:

The Three Phases Of The Metaverse helps businesses to understand the status quo so that they can begin strategising for the future. Others include: The Convergence Of URL And IRL: Establishing Your Business In The Metaverse, A Serial Entrepreneur’s Predictions For The Metaverse In 2030, amongst many others.

As a faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, he is the Lead Instructor for ‘Robotics and Autonomous Systems shaping the Industry 4.0’. In this course, he teaches students in engineering and other disciplines who seek a challenging, interactive, team-based, and hands-on learning experience in entrepreneurship and technology.

He also facilitates part time for ‘Build a Blockchain Startup: Decentralized Application (dApp) Development and Entrepreneurship’, Advanced topics in entrepreneurship and innovation for the next generation of the Internet that champions security, privacy, and openness all while creating an even more seamless experience. 

He is married, a father to two boys, and a passionate gourmet foodie.

Tommaso Di Bartolo's journey is enriched with knowledge, learning, and experiences. In a recent interview with Dinis Guarda, he said:

"Being from certain parts of the world and certain places gives you more challenging access. Never forget where you come from, it keeps you humble. But where you come from cannot limit where you want to go. I made my weaknesses my strength, I learned early on that in order for you to succeed you cannot just do, but you need to excel. This is in my DNA."

Sharing the idea that drives him to strive for excellence, he says:

"My current mission is to contribute to reducing the failure rate for innovation! I do this by helping corporates to systematically innovate & startups to capitalize in traditional industries."