[Case 03]
Building AI Platform -89% Analysis Time
Fin-Tech / AI Automation
Designing and Building Italy's First WhatsApp-Based Utility Switching Platform
As Venture Builder at Founders Factory, I took a validated hypothesis and turned it into a fully working AI-powered product in six months — handling market validation, UX design, frontend development, API integration, AI system design, and founder recruitment entirely end to end.
Live Product: risparmier.ai ↗ (evolved post-handoff by founding CEO)
[Industry]
FinTech,
AI Automation
[My Role]
Venture Builder — Market Validation, Product Strategy, UX Design, Frontend Development,
AI Integration, Founder Recruitment
[Platforms]
Framer, WhatsApp Business API, Gmail OAuth API, Custom AI (Bill OCR & Analysis)
[Timeline]
6 months -
Aug 2024 to Jan 2025 Venture Studio: Founders Factory
AI system trained to analyse 700+ Italian utility bill formats in under 60 seconds
Full product designed, built and launched in 6 months — from hypothesis to paying customers
3 paying customers in the first week after launching WhatsApp onboarding — unit economics validated
3 paying customers in the first week after launching WhatsApp onboarding — unit economics validated
[The Challenge]
Italian Households Overpay on Utilities. Nobody Has Time to Fix It.
Italian households and small businesses consistently overpay on energy bills, but the existing solutions make switching providers more painful than staying put. Comparison websites require extensive manual input, offer no automated switching, and leave every decision to an already overwhelmed user — resulting in decision paralysis and missed savings worth thousands per year. Founders Factory handed me a validated hypothesis: AI can automate this entire process and remove every friction point. My job was to prove it, build it, and hand it to the right founder to scale.
[The Solution]
Three Steps. Zero Friction. Full Automation.
I designed and built the platform around a single workflow: upload your bill, get an AI analysis in under 60 seconds, and we handle the provider switch automatically with zero service interruption. The entire product — Framer frontend, backend API integrations, custom AI pipeline, and conversational WhatsApp interface — was designed and built by me within the six-month Founders Factory venture building sprint.
[Key Decisions]
[01] Market Validation & Research
Interviewed initial target segment — new parents looking to reduce household expenses
Validated that users wanted full automation, not another manual comparison tool
Pivoted to Italian SMEs after identifying stronger unit economics and higher bill volumes
[01]Validation & Research
Interviewed initial target segment — new parents looking to reduce household expenses
Validated that users wanted full automation, not another manual comparison tool
Pivoted to Italian SMEs after identifying stronger unit economics and higher bill volumes
[02] UX Design & Workflow Architecture
Designed the core three-step flow — Upload → Analyse → Switch — as the product north star
Built dual onboarding paths: Gmail OAuth for automated email scanning and manual upload as fallback
Added WhatsApp as a third channel after recruiting Lapo — a cultural insight that immediately outperformed
[02] UX Design & Architecture
Designed the core three-step flow — Upload → Analyse → Switch — as the product north star
Built dual onboarding paths: Gmail OAuth for automated email scanning and manual upload as fallback
Added WhatsApp as a third channel after recruiting Lapo — a cultural insight that immediately outperformed
[03] Frontend Development & API Integration
Built the entire frontend in Framer — designed and developed in one environment for maximum speed
Integrated WhatsApp Business API and Gmail OAuth API for seamless bill capture across all channels
Designed the custom AI pipeline for bill OCR across 700+ Italian utility formats — eliminating the manual bottleneck that made every competitor impractical
[03] Frontend & API Integration
Built the entire frontend in Framer — designed and developed in one environment for maximum speed
Integrated WhatsApp Business API and Gmail OAuth API for seamless bill capture across all channels
Designed the custom AI pipeline for bill OCR across 700+ Italian utility formats — eliminating the manual bottleneck that made every competitor impractical
[04] Founder Recruitment & Handoff
Recruited Lapo — an Italian founder with 13 years in Brazil — whose cultural insight directly shaped the WhatsApp strategy
Launched with 3 paying customers in the first week, validating unit economics
Handed off in January 2025 with a working product, validated demand, and a clear B2B scaling path
[04] Recruitment & Handoff
Recruited Lapo — an Italian founder with 13 years in Brazil — whose cultural insight directly shaped the WhatsApp strategy
Launched with 3 paying customers in the first week, validating unit economics
Handed off in January 2025 with a working product, validated demand, and a clear B2B scaling path
[Key Learnings]
0→1 speed matters more than polish
Six months from idea to paying customers. Built only what mattered — AI training, dual onboarding, conversion-focused landing page. Everything else could wait.
Distribution Insight Beats Design Insight
WhatsApp wasn't technically superior to Gmail — it was psychologically superior. Users trusted a familiar chat interface over granting email access. Small cultural insight, massive impact on conversion.
Know When to Stop Building
My job wasn't to scale it — it was to prove it could work and hand it to the right person. Recruiting Lapo and exiting cleanly in six months was as much a product decision as anything I designed.
[Outcome]
Validated, Built, and Handed Off — On Time and On Purpose.
In six months I took an hypothesis and turned it into a working AI-powered product with a recruited founding CEO, a live technical stack, and 3 paying customers in the first week after launching WhatsApp onboarding. The build covered the full product stack — UX design, Framer frontend, WhatsApp Business API, Gmail OAuth integration, and a custom AI pipeline trained on 700+ Italian bill formats — all executed independently within the Founders Factory venture building model.
After my handoff in February 2025, Lapo took the foundation into the studio phase, pivoted from B2C to B2B, and rebranded the platform as Risparmierai — which is currently live, serving Italian SMEs, and generating verified savings of €3,500+ per customer. That outcome isn't my chapter — but it's proof the foundation was solid enough to evolve into an entirely different market.
What this project demonstrates above everything else: I can identify a problem, validate demand with real users, design and build a working technical product, and hand it off cleanly — in six months, independently, from zero.
Live Product: risparmier.ai ↗ (evolved post-handoff by founding CEO)
Want to hear the full story?
I can walk you through the product decisions, the technical build, and what it takes to go from zero to paying customers in six months.
[Case 03]
Building AI Platform -89% Analysis Time
Fin-Tech / AI Automation
Designing and Building Italy's First WhatsApp-Based Utility Switching Platform
As Venture Builder at Founders Factory, I took a validated hypothesis and turned it into a fully working AI-powered product in six months — handling market validation, UX design, frontend development, API integration, AI system design, and founder recruitment entirely end to end.
Live Product: risparmier.ai ↗
(evolved post-handoff by founding CEO)
[Industry]
Fin-Tech,
AI Automation
[My Role]
Venture Builder — Market Validation, Product Strategy, UX Design, Frontend Development,
AI Integration, Founder Recruitment
[Platforms]
Framer, WhatsApp Business API, Gmail OAuth API, Custom AI (Bill OCR & Analysis)
[Timeline]
6 months-
Aug 2024 to Jan 2025
0→1 in 6 months — from hypothesis to paying customers
AI trained on 700+ Italian bill formats — analysis in under 60 seconds
First Italian platform to use WhatsApp Business API for utility switching
[The Challenge]
Italian Households Overpay on Utilities. Nobody Has Time to Fix It.
Italian households and small businesses consistently overpay on energy bills, but the existing solutions make switching providers more painful than staying put. Comparison websites require extensive manual input, offer no automated switching, and leave every decision to an already overwhelmed user — resulting in decision paralysis and missed savings worth thousands per year. Founders Factory handed me a validated hypothesis: AI can automate this entire process and remove every friction point. My job was to prove it, build it, and hand it to the right founder to scale.
[The Solution]
Three Steps. Zero Friction. Full Automation.
I designed and built the platform around a single workflow: upload your bill, get an AI analysis in under 60 seconds, and we handle the provider switch automatically with zero service interruption. The entire product — Framer frontend, backend API integrations, custom AI pipeline, and conversational WhatsApp interface — was designed and built by me within the six-month Founders Factory venture building sprint.
[Key Decisions]
[01] Market Validation & Research
Interviewed initial target segment — new parents looking to reduce household expenses
Validated that users wanted full automation, not another manual comparison tool
Pivoted to Italian SMEs after identifying stronger unit economics and higher bill volumes
[02] UX & Workflow Architecture
Designed the core three-step flow — Upload → Analyse → Switch — as the product north star
Built dual onboarding paths: Gmail OAuth for automated email scanning and manual upload as fallback
Added WhatsApp as a third channel after recruiting Lapo — a cultural insight that immediately outperformed both existing paths
[03] Frontend & API
Built the entire frontend in Framer — designed and developed in one environment for maximum speed
Integrated WhatsApp Business API and Gmail OAuth API for seamless bill capture across all channels
Designed the custom AI pipeline for bill OCR across 700+ Italian utility formats — eliminating the manual bottleneck that made every competitor impractical
[04] Recruitment & Handoff
Recruited Lapo — an Italian founder with 13 years in Brazil — whose cultural insight directly shaped the WhatsApp strategy
Launched with 3 paying customers in the first week, validating unit economics
Handed off in February 2025 with a working product, validated demand, and a clear B2B scaling path
[Key Learnings]
Speed matters more than polish
Six months from idea to paying customers. Built only what mattered — AI training, dual onboarding, conversion-focused landing page. Everything else could wait.
Context unlocks adoption
WhatsApp wasn't technically superior to Gmail — it was psychologically superior. Users trusted a familiar chat interface over granting email access. Small cultural insight, massive impact on conversion.
Know When to Stop Building
My job wasn't to scale it — it was to prove it could work and hand it to the right person. Recruiting Lapo and exiting cleanly in six months was as much a product decision as anything I designed.
[Outcome]
Validated, Built, and Handed Off — On Time and On Purpose.
In six months I took an hypothesis and turned it into a working AI-powered product with a recruited founding CEO, a live technical stack, and 3 paying customers in the first week after launching WhatsApp onboarding. The build covered the full product stack — UX design, Framer frontend, WhatsApp Business API, Gmail OAuth integration, and a custom AI pipeline trained on 700+ Italian bill formats — all executed independently within the Founders Factory venture building model.
After my handoff in February 2025, Lapo took the foundation into the studio phase, pivoted from B2C to B2B, and rebranded the platform as Risparmierai — which is currently live, serving Italian SMEs, and generating verified savings of €3,500+ per customer. That outcome isn't my chapter — but it's proof the foundation was solid enough to evolve into an entirely different market.
What this project demonstrates above everything else: I can identify a problem, validate demand with real users, design and build a working technical product, and hand it off cleanly — in six months, independently, from zero.
Live Product: risparmier.ai ↗ (evolved post-handoff by founding CEO)
Want to hear the full story?
I can walk you through the product decisions, the technical build, and what it takes to go from zero to paying customers in six months.