It was 2017, a hot summer day in Milan, and I was invited to give a short presentation about my startup, Stoyo, in front of a group of Italian investors. Some of these investors had previously invested in Stoyo, and the others were part of the same investor club called U-Start. The club was created by some young guys who thought it would be a good idea to connect older guys, mostly members of wealthy Italian families, and their deep pockets with startups from abroad. 

If you ever get the chance to get Italian investors on board: Please do it! Not only do you get to spend some time in the most beautiful event locations, but so far I have only met Italian investors that have been extremely respectful, nice, and supportive.

So I found myself in such a beautiful event location and just like a couple of other startup founders from other European countries I was giving an update on how things were going for my company. When I got off the stage several investors I knew approached me before someone I didn’t know came to me. He said: “Hello, my name is Francesco and I am the manager of Nico Rosberg. He would like to meet you!” 

Five minutes later I had a WhatsApp from Nico on my phone: “Hi Patrick, it’s Nico. Do you have time to meet tomorrow in Cannes?” Nico won the F1 world championship in 2016 so in 2017 he was the reigning Formula 1 world champion. I was thrilled! He was asking for a meeting in Cannes because I was going to Cannes the next day for the annual advertising festival, the Cannes Lions, and he, appartently, was there as well. Nico asked me when I was available the next day and I said I had an “open slot” at 5.30 pm. (How much I hate this business bullshit lingo!) The truth was that I did not have a single meeting lined up for that day. But since I thought that fact would certainly not give the impression of a hyper-successful startup founder I gave him the very specific 5.30 pm. (A bit embarrassing to write this but I hope it’s entertaining.) 

Nico then told me that unfortunately, he would not be able to make it in the afternoon since he had to attend an event from noon onwards. The only time to meet was before 12. The problem for me now was that my flight was only meant to arrive in Nice at 11.30 am. Not going to the meeting was of course not an option for me so I opened my laptop and booked a rental car so that I can drive from Milan to Cannes the next day in the very early morning and make it to the meeting. Once again, to maintain my hyper-successful startup founder image, I told Nico that meeting him in the morning would not be a problem. I could shift a few things around, make myself available and we can meet at 11 am in a hotel lobby in Cannes. 

The drive from Milan to Cannes takes - depending on traffic - about five hours and while the first part is not worth mentioning, it gets beautiful once the road hits the seaside just outside Genoa. From there, the entire trip is at the coast and the views are spectacular. Cycling fans are aware of this since this is the very route of the bike race of Milan - San Remo. La Primavera is the first big cycling race every year in March and while it is an extremely boring race for the first 250km, the remaining 50km are both, beautiful for the scenery and frantic for the racing.

In Cannes, I had a difficult time finding a parking lot but since I was a bit faster than I had previously calculated I was at the hotel lobby a couple of minutes ahead of the meeting time. Do you know this awkward moment when you are at a meeting point ahead of time? What the hell are you supposed to do? Scrolling on the phone? Finding yourself a drink? Standing at the wall watching the other people? It’s awkward. But it didn’t happen to me that day. I walked into the hotel and there he already was: I went towards Nico, we said hi and seated ourselves in a cozy lobby booth. At that time, during the Cannes Lions, one if not the biggest advertising event in the world, the hotel lobby was buzzing. I unfortunately forgot the name but it must have been a popular hotel. While I was introducing myself to Nico, I noticed the legendary Global CMO of Procter & Gamble, Marc Pritchard, casually passing by.

I was a little bit nervous in the very beginning of our conversation, he was a global sports superstar after all. But that only lasted for a few minutes. I must say I was shocked by a) how humble Nico was and b) how excited Nico was about my startup, Stoyo. The whole conversation was about him asking me lots of questions. He wanted to know everything from me. And not the other way around. He was so excited and it felt like I was the world champion and not him. Wow. 

Nico is a sports star, recognised all around the world, born and raised in Monaco, he has been living his entire life in a very special bubble. Most of us can not even imagine the life he must be living. And yet, he somehow manages to stay humble, open-minded, keep a genuine interest in other people. I already wrote it but I’ll write it again: I was shocked. (In a positive way, of course.) We went on to talk for around an hour until he had to leave. Just before the meeting ended, he asked whether it would be possible for him to invest in Stoyo. 

I left the hotel lobby with a big smile on my face that day. Just 24 hours ago I landed in Milan to simply say a few words at an investor conference and now, a night in Milan, a scenic road trip, and a meeting in a hotel lobby in Cannes later, I had landed the current F1 world champion as an investor. 

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