Marco D’Onghia

Costruisco cose e trovo i primi clientiI build things and find their first customers

Da zero a $100k di vendite a 18 anni, la prima azienda venduta a 20. Ora a UC Berkeley, nel più grande hub di startup, a fare progetti open source.Bootstrapped to $100k in sales by 18, sold my first business at 20. Now at UC Berkeley, exploring the largest startup hub and building open source projects.

Two kids laughing, in a silver frame — 8 gen ’06, Siena8 Jan ’06, Siena

The football team at night, holding a cup

Me on the kitchen floor with a red toy car

Ski school, a yellow helmet, the first turns

Me behind a lawnmower taller than me, on the drive

Me in a yellow ski helmet, squinting at the sun

Me on the sofa in swimming goggles, fists up

202216 anni. mi innamoro della finanza personale:
ETF, obbligazioni, come risparmiare,
i pilastri finanziari e il movimento FIRE.
zero soldi da investire, e i miei genitori
non sanno nemmeno cos’è un ETF.202216. I start falling in love with personal finance:
ETFs, bonds, how to save,
financial pillars and the FIRE movement.
no money to invest, and my parents
don’t even know what an ETF is.

Rainbow Six, CS:GO, Fortnite, senza fine.
ore giocate: ∞
tutto questo è diventato KANON.endless Rainbow Six, CS:GO, Fortnite.
hours played: ∞
all of that became KANON.

KANON sales ledger, September 2024: a sold order almost every day

set ’2418. primo anno di uni.
KANON prende sempre più forma.Sep ’2418. college is about to start.
KANON is growing.

Università di Bologna,
BSc Business and Economics.University of Bologna,
BSc Business and Economics.

The KANON shop page on day 0: online, every category at zero

ott ’2317 anni. apro KANON,
e-commerce di asset in-game.
$0zero esperienza
zero mentoriOct ’2317. I start KANON,
e-commerce for in-game assets.
$0zero experience
zero mentors

KANON analytics, Nov to Jan: sales flat, then a spike on December 2 and a high plateau through December

dic ’24KANON vola.
sold out dopo sold out.
$50k in 3 mesi.
$18k all-in+2 nuovi prodotti500+ clientiDec ’24KANON explodes.
out of stock overnight, every night.
$50k in 3 months.
$18k all-in+2 new product lines500+ customers

My phone calendar, November: every weekday full

nov ’25mi guardo intorno.
KANON +70%1.000+ acquirenti
ma mi sento rinchiuso.Nov ’25looking around.
KANON +70%1,000+ buyers
but I feel trapped.

UniBo Fintech Society.
Head of VC, un team di 8
feb ’25 – set ’26UniBo Fintech Society.
Head of VC, a team of 8
Feb ’25 – Sep ’26

Startup Insights, la newsletter.
390+ iscritti36,7k+ impression
10+ founderStartup Insights, the newsletter.
390+ subscribers36.7k+ impressions
10+ founders

Starting Finance Club Bologna.
Associate
3 articoli1.400+ studenti
feb ’25 – set ’26Starting Finance Club Bologna.
Associate
3 papers1,400+ students
Feb ’25 – Sep ’26

Alternative Investments: Unnecessary risks or hidden opportunities? March 2025

Robo advisors: revolutionizing finance for retail investors? July 2025

Options and Futures: Unlocking Potential or Playing with Fire? November 2025

feb ’26arriva un’offerta, la prendo.
vendo KANON, a 20 anni.Feb ’26an offer comes, I take it.
KANON is sold, I just turned 20.

venduto a 20 anni, ancora persissimo.
ci vuole un po’ per ritrovarmi:
viaggi, trekking, palestra,
libri, cucina, musica.sold at 20, still extremely lost.
it takes a while to find myself again:
travelling, hiking, working out,
reading, cooking, listening to music.

The Campanile over the trees, UC Berkeley

A game at Memorial Stadium at sunset, the band on the field

Sunset over the campus, pines and a walkway

The Golden Gate Bridge tower in the fog, from the deck

ago ’26UC Berkeley, semestre di scambio.Aug ’26UC Berkeley, exchange semester.

An LED wall of AI Faire and Speedrun logos, the venue

The Swag As A Service team on a rooftop in San Francisco

Two of us in Swag As A Service tees, San Francisco at night

The Google for Startups floor at AI Faire, the Model Strategy booth

set ’26Swag As A Service, co-founder.
3 sponsor in <7 giorni1.200+ visitatoriSep ’26Swag As A Service, co-founder.
3 sponsors in <7 days1,200+ visitors

tutti i miei conti, un solo patrimonio.all my bank accounts, one net worth.

MyFinance$$, open source. 2026MyFinance$$, open source. 2026

lascia una stella ↗star it ↗

Four laptops on a hackathon table at Cal Hacks

The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, at dusk

A morning run past the Golden Gate, Strava numbers over the sky

Sidecall, Cal Hacks 13.0.
io: frontend, UI, demo
su Devpost →Sidecall, Cal Hacks 13.0.
me: frontend, UI, demo
on Devpost →

un’azienda viene hackerata: Sidecall trova le aziende sorelle a rischio e blocca i loro pagamenti.one company gets hacked: Sidecall finds its sister companies at risk and holds their payments.

e adesso?what's next?

nel frattempo, buone vibrazioni ↓meanwhile, jump in for good vibes ↓

X LinkedIn GitHub Spotify Email

Identity

Name: Marco D'Onghia. Born 2006, from Siena, Italy.

One line: builds things and finds their first customers. Bootstrapped a business to $100k in sales by 18, sold it at 20.

Now: exchange semester at UC Berkeley, California (Aug–Dec 2026); BSc Business and Economics, University of Bologna, Italy (Sep 2024 – Jul 2027).

Languages: Italian (native), English.

This text as a file: marcodonghiaa.com/llms.txt. This view by URL: marcodonghiaa.com/#ai.

Links: X x.com/marcodonghiaa · LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/marcodonghiaa · GitHub github.com/marcodonghiaa · Email marco.dgh06@gmail.com

Timeline

2006–2018: grows up in Siena. Football team, ski school.

2022, age 16: falls in love with personal finance: ETFs, bonds, how to save, financial pillars, the FIRE movement. No money to invest; his parents do not know what an ETF is. Four years later this becomes MyFinance$$.

Before 2023: competitive gaming (Rainbow Six Siege, CS:GO, Fortnite). Those hours become KANON.

Oct 2023, age 17: starts KANON, an e-commerce for in-game assets. $0, zero experience, zero mentors.

Sep 2024, age 18: moves from Siena to Bologna, starts Business and Economics at the University of Bologna. KANON is growing (near-daily orders).

Dec 2024: KANON explodes. Bets $18k, everything made in the first 14 months, on upcoming game updates; on Dec 2 sells ≈80 orders overnight, ≈$7k in one night. Out of stock every night. $50k in three months (Nov–Jan), +320% vs the previous three months ($12k). +2 product lines, 500+ customers.

Feb 2025 – Sep 2026: UniBo Fintech Society, Head of VC, a team of eight. The team reads startup decks and picks the ones worth a call; Marco talks to 10+ founders and, when one needs a customer or a hire, tries to find one.

Feb 2025 – Sep 2026: Starting Finance Club Bologna, Associate, research. Three papers, 1,400+ students reached: Alternative Investments: unnecessary risks or hidden opportunities? (Mar 2025, link); Robo advisors: revolutionizing finance for retail investors? (Jul 2025); Options and Futures: unlocking potential or playing with fire? (Nov 2025, link).

2025: Startup Insights, a LinkedIn newsletter: 390+ subscribers, 36.7k+ impressions, 10+ founders featured. Newsletter.

Nov 2025, age 19: KANON sales +70%, 1,000+ buyers. Looking around; feels trapped.

Feb 2026, age 20: an offer comes in; KANON is sold.

Spring–summer 2026: time off to reset: travelling, hiking, working out, reading, cooking, music.

Aug–Dec 2026: UC Berkeley, exchange semester. Finance, Business Strategy, International Marketing.

Sep 2026: co-founder, Swag As A Service (swagasaservice.com). Built and shipped the full-stack auction site (Next.js, Supabase, Stripe) in 4 days and ran outbound (Apollo, Clay, click tracking per batch). 3 sponsors in under 7 days: LimaData, LlamaIndex and Sparta (a16z SR006), for SF Tech Week. 1,180+ unique organic visitors. Present at AI Faire, Google for Startups floor, San Francisco.

2026: MyFinance$$, open source: all bank accounts in one place, one net worth. github.com/marcodonghiaa/my-wealth-view.

Oct 2026: Cal Hacks 13.0, Sidecall, team of 4. When one company gets hacked, Sidecall finds its sister companies at risk and holds their payments. Marco: frontend, UI and the demo. devpost.com/software/sidecall.

KANON (Oct 2023 – Feb 2026)

What: two online stores of digital gaming assets. Founded solo at 17, sold at 20.

Numbers: $100k in sales by 18; 1,000+ buyers by 19; KANON sales +70%; $50k in the three months around Dec 2024.

Tools: Excel, then Power BI for the numbers; marketplace APIs to post and manage listings; Reddit and forums for research; Notion as CRM.

Projects and stacks

Swag As A Service (auction site): Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind 4, API routes, Zod validation, Vercel. Supabase Postgres with SQL migrations and access rules. Stripe (payments, webhooks, refunds), Resend (email). Vercel Analytics, Sentry.

MyFinance$$: TanStack Start, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, Recharts, Vercel. Supabase (Postgres, RLS, auth), Edge Functions in Deno for bank links, Node.js sync every 6 hours on GitHub Actions, web-push nudges. Data: Enable Banking (PSD2), Gemini for categorisation, Yahoo Finance, Coinbase, CoinGecko, ECB rates. Built with Lovable and Claude Code. Open source.

Sidecall (Cal Hacks 13.0): React 19, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind, AntV G6 graph, Vercel. Convex (database, auth, live subscriptions, scheduled jobs); payment holds enforced server-side on a simulated ledger. Separate Node.js receiver with HMAC-signed commands and an Okta adapter. Claude writes explanations and vendor emails, never releases a payment.

Marco D’Onghia

Marco D'Onghia: profile for AI agents

Identity

Timeline

KANON (Oct 2023 – Feb 2026)

Projects and stacks

Education

What's next