Matteo Di Lisciandro

Co-founder @sponseroAI

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

i will never understand why founders in sf pay so much for giant signs in the air. spending that kind of money on completely untargeted ads is a nice way to burn cash but does this actually work?

#sanfrancisco #startuplife

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

most founders build on ego.
our whole team is on a shared journey to destroy ours.
the goal: see reality as it is, not as your ego needs it to be.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

a vc told me sports sponsorship is the last industry to be disrupted.
billion-dollar deals are still run on handshakes and whatsapp.
most agencies don't even have a crm.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@launch_llama @launch_llama I think you will love https://t.co/uMyW6MHyfq
I’ve created it for experiencing the Dolomites and alps with friends

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@DanGW_92 Let’s go!

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

the distribution paradox for emerging talent and grassroots clubs is that the audience trust is massive, but the operational friction to partner with them is too high for most buyers.

the moment you remove the paperworks and make verification instant, localized communities beat algorithmic ad spend every time.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

marketplaces spent 15 years begging supply to sit in an empty room.

now a buyer asks for something not in the database, and an agent finds, qualifies, and pulls it in live on demand.

the index gets built after the order

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

brands keep asking me for athletes they can actually sponsor.

not the ones with an agent and a rate card from 2019. the ones who train at 6am and still have a job.

the gap isn't money. it's that those two groups never meet.

talent isn't rare. being findable is.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

the problem with relying solely on ads early on is that LTV:CAC > 2 is almost impossible to maintain once you scale spend past your initial lookalikes.

the strongest early acquisition engine is usually embedding where your buyers already gather with built-in trust. you bypass the ad auction entirely and get durable distribution instead of renting attention.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

the moat in vertical tech has completely inverted.

five years ago the hard part was writing the software. today, any decent team can ship the product in 60 days. the entire game is whether you have proprietary access to the distribution channels where that niche already spends its attention and trust

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

slack freezes on huddles, drops notifications, and costs $15/seat, but zero teams churn because switching is too annoying.

consumer apps die if an onboarding button lags by 200ms.

b2b software really lets you ship bugs and collect ARR.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

the natural evolution for founder tooling is moving from passive SaaS dashboards to active execution.

founders don't want another database of contacts or another analytics screen to stare at. they want the discovery, outreach, and negotiation executed end-to-end so they stay focused on shipping

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@aashna_doshi2 @ycombinator the real issue with post-launch drop-off is that founders treat launch day as distribution, when it's really just PR.

if you don't have 2 or 3 repeatable channels lined up where your ICP already gathers naturally, the traffic spike is basically dead on arrival

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@VadimStrizheus an agent that runs ads 24/7 is still buying the same auction. you're just losing it while you sleep too.

the bottleneck was never clicking campaign faster. if the only people who know you exist are the ones you paid to see you, you don't have distribution. you have a bill.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@rashiumapathi most early-stage channel switching is just impatience disguised as agility.

if you haven't run at least 50 high-touch reps on a single distribution vector, you didn't test the channel. you just dipped a toe and got scared by the silence

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@vatsal_sanghvi most founders allocate that $100k influencer/ad budget straight to the usual suspect agencies and get generic reach
the real unlock is community where trust is already locked in. cost per high-intent lead is night and day compared to blanket paid social

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@tobymarshman @sama spot on. paid ads give founders a false sense of traction while bleeding cash on rising CAC.

the untapped middle ground between cold DMs and ads is community alignment

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

@Gaus450 because writing code is comfortable. distribution means getting told no.
what's wild is seed founders will pour $20k into meta/google ads getting 2% conversion, when sponsoring a local sport tournament or grassroots community puts them in front of an obsessively loyal audience

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

my co-founders are my friends first.

startups are up and down. when you're down, you hold onto a friend. when you're up, you celebrate with one.

I wouldn't do this with strangers.

[Matteo Di Lisciandro @matteo_dls]

was sailing recently and met a family who wanted to sponsor a young tennis player. they had the money, but no way to find her.

it turns out the biggest problem in sponsorship isn't a lack of capital. it's a lack of visibility. the two sides simply never meet.