About Giacomo Balli

I have spent more than 15 years where business and technology meet: turning ideas into products, making difficult decisions, and seeing firsthand what happens when strategy and execution diverge.

My background combines formal business education with firsthand experience building, launching and running technology businesses. Since 2010 I have launched more than 100 apps, and I was one of the first app developers Apple featured.

I speak the language of owners and of engineers. I understand what owners need from technology, what engineers need to deliver it, and where the two perspectives diverge. My job is to make sure the technical decisions serve the business, not the other way around. Today I bring that to owners and founders as an independent advisor, one consequential decision at a time, and again when the next one comes up.

I have been on both sides of the table

I have worked with founders, owners and teams at Fortune 100 companies across automotive, healthcare, ecommerce, publishing, events and manufacturing. I have also built and run my own products, from mobile apps to web platforms and specialized software services. Working across that many industries shows patterns that are hard to see from inside one business: the same mistake in a new costume, and the same opportunity sitting unused.

That taught me that the hardest technology decisions are rarely about technology alone. They come down to the business problem, the competing incentives, the assumptions nobody questioned, and whether the expected outcome justifies the investment.

Sometimes the right answer is to build. Sometimes it is to buy. Sometimes it is to simplify the process or abandon the project altogether. Knowing the difference is where experience matters.

The question behind the question

An owner weighing a six-figure software project might ask me to evaluate a vendor's proposal. I will do that, and I will also ask whether the proposed solution addresses the real business problem, whether a simpler alternative exists, and what would need to be true for the investment to pay off.

Owners usually ask which vendor to hire, whether it can be built, and what it will cost. The more valuable questions sit one level up: whether to hire a vendor at all, whether it should be built, and what would make the money worth spending. Often the most useful advice comes before anyone discusses how to execute the project, when the question is still whether to pursue it.

Why independent judgment matters

When an owner weighs a technology investment, most of the people involved see it from one side. The agency wants to build. The vendor wants to sell. The internal team may want more people. Even well-meaning experts lean toward the solutions they already know.

None of that makes their advice wrong. It means someone should look at the decision without a stake in the outcome. I do not sell software, take vendor commissions or pursue implementation contracts, so my compensation does not depend on which solution you choose. My job is to understand what you are trying to accomplish, test the assumptions behind the proposal, and help you reach a decision you can defend.

An operator's perspective

I still build and run my own technology products. That keeps me close to what strategy presentations tend to leave out: development trade-offs, launch problems, operating costs, distribution, and the consequences of decisions that seemed reasonable at the time.

AI is making software cheaper and faster to build. That is a real opportunity, and it also makes it easier to invest in the wrong solution. When building becomes cheap, knowing what deserves to be built becomes more valuable, and so does spotting the product, channel or revenue stream a business already has the pieces for.

Browse the apps and services I have built →

MBA · Master's in Luxury Management

Beyond work

I live in San Francisco, I am originally from Italy, and I spend much of my free time on a tennis court.