Why I started Ciao Builders, a community for people building in Italy
People building products in Italy almost always do it alone. Why I opened Ciao Builders, who it's for, who it isn't for and how it works.
In September 2026 I opened Ciao Builders, a community for people building products in Italy. It's free, it's small and we've only just started. The conversations happen in Italian, so this piece is mostly for Italians reading in English, or anyone curious about why it exists.
The video is in Italian. You can also watch it on YouTube.
The problem: in Italy you build alone
People building in Italy almost always do it alone. Not by choice, but because there's nowhere to be.
Questions end up in Telegram and WhatsApp groups nobody reads anymore. You write "has anyone used X to do Y?" and the answer comes three days later, if at all. The people doing exactly what you're doing, you meet once a year at a conference, and after the coffee it's gone.
So everyone repeats the same mistakes from scratch: the same wrong stack, the same channels that bring no users, the same wrong places to look for a cofounder.
Why me
Since October 2025 I've been building alone. I gained speed, and I lost one specific thing: pushback. Alone, you can sit inside a wrong belief for months without anyone touching it.
Until now my substitute was writing in public. It works, but it's one way: I talk, someone reads. What I was missing was the opposite, a place where someone doing the same thing tells me "I tried that, it doesn't work, here are the numbers".
Ciao Builders is that place. I wanted it for myself first, and figured that if I was missing it, someone else was too.
Who it's for, and who it isn't
It's for people who open the editor and ship. People who write code, even badly, who put something online and watch what happens, who iterate.
It's not for investors looking for deal flow, consultants looking for clients or people who want to watch. Nothing personal: a community is only useful while most of the people inside are doing the same thing.
How it works
A few rules, all there to keep it from becoming yet another dead chat.
- Free, no invite needed. You ask to join, I approve by hand. The filter only keeps out spam and bots, it doesn't decide who's good enough.
- Answer two people, then ask your own thing. The only rule that really matters. A community where everyone asks and nobody answers is a noticeboard.
- Real things, with numbers. What you actually use, what worked, what didn't, with which numbers. No abstract opinions about "the startup ecosystem".
- No inflated member counts. We just started and we say so. I'd rather have a few who write than many who watch.
What we talk about
The things builders need: stack and tools (I wrote about mine in my stack for shipping a product), finding the first users, finding a cofounder, using AI for real work, technical choices and products built in Italy.
The community lives on Skool. Everything starts from ciaobuilders.com: who we are, resources and the link to join.
FAQ
Is Ciao Builders free?
Yes. Joining is free. Manual approval only keeps out spam and bots.
Do I need to speak Italian?
The conversations happen in Italian, so yes, you'll get the most out of it if you do.
Do I need to know how to code?
You need to be building something and shipping it. Technical level doesn't matter, what matters is that you open the editor and put what you make online.
Where does the community live?
On Skool. The starting point is ciaobuilders.com, where you ask to join.
Guglielmo Vaccaro
Startup founder and solopreneur. I build products from zero, alone and with no investors. I share the process as it happens, mistakes included.
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