The Story Behind My Business

Silently, last month, my little business turned two.

It officially began on January 4, 2023.

But if I think back, the real journey started in 2020.

When I moved back to Italy from Ireland, I worked as head of sales.

Around that time, I started casually consulting for Italian startups, primarily for free and with my CEO's approval.

One of the most important projects was Buddyfit, where I helped build their first B2B sales team.

That experience gave me the first view of what Inscaler would become.

We set up a CRM, defined a sales cycle, established goals, and hired team members - all while I worked nights and weekends. And I loved it.

After Buddyfit, more startups, such as Rebrandly, for which I helped hire its Head of Sales and a few others, reached out.

However, a pattern emerged silently: they were all under €5M ARR, lacked sales leadership, and needed help building their first sales team.

After my time at Boom, I joined Shippypro as a fractional VP of Sales. Three months in, we saw such excellent results that I went full-time.

The first three months were impressive: We doubled MRR, revamped the sales team, and built OKRs and processes.

We were flying.

I wanted to stay fractional, but the bond was strong, and their offer was hard to refuse, so I went full-time in October.

Unfortunately, misalignment and poor decisions led to our parting ways on December 22, 2023, three days before Christmas.

Losing a six-figure salary that close to the holidays was tough.

Financially, we were fine, but it was challenging, trust me.

I spent ten days with my family, reflecting and resting, knowing I finally wanted to launch my own business.

During the holidays, I dove into solopreneurship content, took Justin Welsh's courses (I highly recommend them!), and started building in silence.

On January 2, 2024, I flew to Calabria - my parents' home - to reset.

Sometimes, there's no better place to start over than where you grew up.

Then, January 4, 2024 - my father's birthday.

At 5 PM, alone in the house, I launched matteopapaluca.com.

Built in two days on Squarespace, it was life.

I grabbed the free version of Screencastify and recorded my first video:

"Matteo Papaluca, VP of Sales on Demand, was born."

At the time, I didn't even know what fractional meant.

A couple of months later, my friend Daniele messaged me: "Your business already has a name - fractional."

Fast-forward to today:

• We're on track to cross $500K in revenue by June 2025 (solo business)

• We've helped nearly 100 startups.

• What started as a solo business evolved into Inscaler, a fractional sales leadership agency helping startups under $5M ARR.

• We've since added Mats to the team and are bringing on more talent to serve even more founders.

• We've started this year with the first waiting list, which is already booked out until May.

I couldn't be happier with how this story turned out.

It gave me a profitable business, the freedom to work wherever I want and a place to learn daily from brilliant founders and teams.

Most people think I give to my clients because of what most consultants do, but to be honest, I get more than I give.

I get their energy, passion, struggles, and willingness to learn and make it through. And I'm blessed to be in that position to see them growing and witness that growth.

And I'm blessed to be in that position to see them growing and witness that growth.

I'm beyond excited about what's next.

I promise to keep improving and build the best fractional sales leadership agency for early-stage startups.

Thank you again for reading this far, and until next time, see you on the other side.