Red
My consulting firm: strategy, special-situations finance and scale-up for entrepreneurs and SMEs. From an operator, not from slides.
FounderSince 2024
About
Nicola Giunchi
My name is Nicola Giunchi, I'm 43 and I have spent the last 20 years building ventures in industries that have almost nothing to do with each other: used cars, e-bikes, marketplaces, financial software, consulting. I sold one company to Unipol Group; some ventures I started, grew and then closed or handed over to others, and some I am still running today. In 2026 I graduated in Economics and Management, enrolled at 41 and done in under two years, not because I needed the qualification but because I had made myself a promise as a boy, and promises are meant to be kept, including the ones you make to yourself.
I was not born an entrepreneur, I became one a mistake at a time, and that is still the part I enjoy: working out how something functions while you are building it, with real money and real consequences.
The ventures What I built,
What I built,
and how it went
Eight ventures over twenty years: three I am still running, one I sold, two were handed over to others and two I closed. Years and role for each of them, without rounding.
MenthorQ
US fintech SaaS: predictive models and market analytics made accessible. As co-founder and CFO I shape capital, board and growth.
Co-founder & CFOSince 2024
Running Dolphins
A company building AI solutions for SMEs. In 2026 I acquired a stake: the first building block of my venture-builder path.
PartnerSince 2026
UEEL
Proprietary e-bike brand importing from Cambodia.
Founder2024-2026
TenutaBene
A peer-to-peer marketplace for used cars. All the way to a Champions League TV spot on Mediaset.
Founder2022-2024
Autostimo
Italy's first online used-car valuator, irreverent in tone.
Founder2021-2024
Cambiobike
Italy's first e-commerce for electric e-bikes.
Founder2021-2024
Cambiomarcia
Used-car trading, reinvented. From zero to exit: 3 pivots, capital raised, acquisition by Unipol Group.
Founder & CEO2012-2020
Not all of these ventures were companies: some were initiatives born inside other companies, such as Autostimo, Cambiobike and TenutaBene. After the sale of Cambiomarcia to Unipol Group, in 2020, I moved to the other side of the table: three years as CEO and executive of one of the Group companies, which allowed me to develop those three initiatives.
Today
What I work on
Five trades, not five services. I learned them by doing, and they hold each other up.
01
Corporate finance and M&A
Valuations, capital structure, due diligence, getting a company ready to be sold. I learned this trade selling my own companies and buying into other people's, not from a textbook.
02
AI applied to actual work
I use it every day to build tools for myself and my clients: investment scanners, automations, scoring systems. I describe how on a separate page, including the projects I shut down.
03
Growth and changes of scale
The moment a company stops working the way it used to. I have been through it with small teams and with hundreds of people, and the hard part is never the plan.
04
The buyer's experience
In every company I have built it is the line I never cut, and not out of politeness: the cheapest acquisition cost I know is still a customer who comes back and brings another one.
05
Governance and boards
I sit on the board of MenthorQ and I sit alongside other founders on theirs. The useful part is not the meeting, it is having someone ask the awkward question before the market does.
Let's talk
Got something to build, or to sell?
Write me. If I can help, I'll answer. If I can't, I'll tell you.