Adriana Crovetto — Entrepreneur & Investor — From door-to-door jacket sales in Uzbekistan to angel investing and AI creator commerce, Adriana reveals why resilience matters—but luck and relationships matter more than most founders admit. In this uncut conversation we discuss: • How elite swimming forged Adriana’s “excellence + discipline” founder mindset • The scrappy playbook: importing jackets from Uzbekistan and selling door-to-door across Europe • Why sustainable fashion marketplaces are brutally hard (cash flow, borders, returns, CAC) • What Adriana really looks for in a pitch deck (and why “no deck” can be better) • Angel’s House: how she screens deals, runs DD, and builds an operator-led investor community 00:00 - “They started at zero… I start at ten” (the ambition mindset) 00:49 - Adriana’s background: Swiss roots, international upbringing, early career moves 02:14 - From competitive swimming to entrepreneurship: resilience, discipline, maturity 06:07 - Swiss National Team & early international competitions (pressure + growth) 10:30 - Parents who built from nothing—and the “duty first” mentality 14:57 - 3 values that shaped her: excellence, discipline, resourcefulness 20:24 - First business: sustainable jackets, Uzbekistan production, learning passion vs. challenge 24:11 - $3k, a suitcase, and sales: door-to-door hustle + registering the company 26:58 - Fashion Week wins, scaling a “family business,” and the reality of brand-building 27:56 - Building a sustainable marketplace: dropshipping vs. wholesale, logistics, returns, CAC 31:02 - “We thought fashion… ended up in a warehouse”: the operational truth of e-commerce 41:29 - Exiting the marketplace & joining Partners Group: entering the investing world 42:13 - Angel’s House: deal screening, due diligence, skin-in-the-game investing 45:21 - The deal she passed on that later crushed it (and what it taught her) 48:54 - How Adriana evaluates founders + decks: team first, sector fit, price matters 51:43 - Deck length vs. speed: email/video/website as the new pitch—and tailoring to investors 56:58 - AI fundraising workflows vs. relationship building: where scale helps (and where it doesn’t) 62:32 - New venture: a creator commerce platform + chat interface (Shopify meets knowledge) 65:49 - Building software in the AI era: MVP traps, Cursor middle-ground, product taste 71:08 - Female founder realities: “bro zone,” sector differences, and why age can be bigger bias 89:00 - The controversial truth: effort ≠ outcomes, luck matters more than we want to admit 91:09 - Adriana’s planning system: yearly/quarterly/weekly + daily handwritten priorities 95:36 - Billboard advice: “You always have time for what you really want to do.” 📍 Follow Enrico: Instagram – @enricomayor TikTok – @enricomayor 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more. 💬 Drop your takeaway in the comments & don't forget to Like & Subscribe.
