NV Main Episode S4e12 - Main Show - Paolo Pio

Paolo is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Exceptional Ventures, early-stage Venture Capital firm based in London that invests in high-impact businesses focused on helping people live happier, healthier, and longer lives.

Prior to that he was the Managing Director for Europe at Joyance Partners, US VC firm investing in health and happiness startups. Paolo launched Joyance' European operations from scratch, invested in 25 companies across 9 EU countries, built a team of 8 world-class investors, attended and spoke at more than 400 events including the World Economic Forum and created a community of more than 1000 like-minded entrepreneurs and friends of the fund, promoting Health and Happiness along the way. This led to the fund being named among the most active EU VC by Pitchbook and one of the Hottest EU VCs by TechCrunch.

Paolo started his career at Cisco in Silicon Valley as Software Development Engineer, going on to become Technical Marketing Engineer and then Product Manager. He then moved to Switzerland to launch Cisco’s new SDN product line across EMEAR (Europe Middle East Africa and Russia) and later Asia Pacific, going from $0 to $300M run rate in less than three years. He is an Angel investor and serves in various startup boards and advisory roles. Paolo holds an Executive MBA from London Business School where he was recognized for excellence in asset management, and a Cum Laude MS Engineering degree from Politecnico di Torino. He is passionate about meditation, nutrition and exercise: he co-founded and runs a fitness training bootcamp in London, where he lives (www.urbantribe.life). Paolo speaks English, Italian, French and Spanish.