"Startups are a rollercoaster. Some days you feel like a king, other days you just want to be an employee. Every failure is a chance to not repeat the same mistake.”
Riccardo Sibani, an Italian living in the Netherlands, is the CEO of MegaYours, a startup focused on making NFTs scalable for millions.
“Imagine prototyping a car: the first design is expensive, but once you understand the market, you can industrialize it. That’s what we do with NFTs.”
With a technical and business background, Riccardo emphasizes the importance of being “polyhedric” as a founder. Able to build software, understand economics, and lead a team.
Entrepreneurship: Rockstars, Superstars, and Leading a Team
Being a tech-savvy CEO is a delicate balance. Riccardo reflects on the duality in tech teams, borrowing a metaphor from the Radical Candor framework by Kim Scott:
“In Europe we have a lot of Rockstars, engineers with deep expertise. But we’re missing Superstars: people who understand multiple areas, people who crave steep growth and the chance to drive big innovation.”
He identifies as a Superstar but admits that sometimes he would like to be more of a Rockstar, someone who can dive deep and master their craft while keeping the team steady. Finding the right team was key:
“I wouldn’t be doing my own startup if I hadn't found my two co-founders. It’s the most difficult part. And the most important.”
The EIT Edge
Riccardo credits EIT Digital with giving him the foundational knowledge and confidence to pursue entrepreneurship.
“EIT gave me the will to do more than just tech. It taught me to acknowledge that I can build another type of knowledge.”
His startup idea traces back to EIT’s first-year exercise of conceptualizing a startup, long before NFTs became mainstream.
“At the time, the tech wasn’t ready, so I put it in a drawer. But the seed was planted.”
EIT Alumni Unfiltered is a series by B. Olivari sharing honest stories from EIT alumni, exploring their journeys, impact, and how EIT helped shape their paths.
EIT Digital Alumni and EIT Digital are supported by the EIT, a body of the European Union