Rising from Adversity to Trailblaze the Future: The Incredible Journey of Tech Visionary Victorio Pellicano (Part Two)

Forbes Books presents the Startup Science Podcast with Gregory Shepard, brought to you by startupscience.io. Greg is an entrepreneur who has built and sold 12 businesses. He's a recipient of 4 private equity awards and is a featured TEDx speaker and Forbes author. Here's Gregory Shepard.

I'm back with AI entrepreneur and founder and my long-lost brother, Vittorio Pellicano. We've been discussing his movie, Like Light, That led him to found multiple companies, including a couple of AI companies, Adiana and Seraph. Vic, one thing I always tell entrepreneurs is the idea is an art, but the business is actually a science. Just like coding, right? There are certain integers that do certain things, and if you get them wrong, it doesn't make sense when you're writing code. Just like if you're writing a sentence, right? If you don't put an exclamation point or something like in there, it just doesn't make sense. So I'm trying to teach founders through this podcast and through our educational courses, and specifically this conversation with you, is that there are things that you can't get from the idea, and there are things that you can't get from science, which is what I call the handful: focus, drive, enthusiasm, discipline, and optimism. So how do you as an individual fight or walk through the turbulence and maintain focus and keep moving forward?

I think you got to admit to yourself, you're either today, you're either, you're either going to quit or you're going to go all the way in. Those are the two things. You don't do it halfway, right? And you can quit. There's no shame in that. Like, people give up all the time and Sometimes it's for the best, sometimes it's for the worst, but people do. And if you're gonna do that, do it. But whatever it is, I would just say you just get up every single day. And if you feel like it or not, you put everything you got into it. Like today, I woke up with a size 10 migraine. Like I'm 8 Excedrin deep into this day. And I've laid down on this couch behind me a couple of times with ice on my head for 15, 20 minutes at a spell. But I'm still getting it done because you know when I was a kid, I would stay home from school sick and my dad would call and say, "Hey, mow the grass," and I would be like, "What are you talking about? Mow the grass? I'm sick." He goes, "Your leg's broken? You know your hand's broken? No, like something works. You can do something if you're going to work out today. You know this, right? If you're going to work out today, something ain't feeling great. Something else is feeling fine. You know, and you just gotta every day pick." that, that area. If something ain't working, do the other thing, because there's an infinite amount of things to be done. Always, always. So you can feel like not doing something today, but then do something else. And all that productivity adds up, it adds up. And sticking to the routine adds up, getting yourself out of bed every day, going through the motions. It sounds silly. Some people are like that, right? I wake up at the same time every day, no matter where I am in the world. No matter what I did the night before, that's just how I'm programmed. And I get up and I do the same shit and it's boring. And I eat the same food and I have clothes that are 5 years old and I don't buy fancy cars and I don't, I'm not flying Instagram models around the world. I don't have gold teeth, but I, this is my flow state, man. This is where I exist. This is where I'm happy. That other stuff gives me anxiety, but I know this game and I know I'm good at it. And I'm just going to keep doing it. Like, the football analogy I'll make is, and it's, it's the, it's a, it's a Midwest football analogy as a SoCal guy, it might not resonate. But if you, if you hand the ball to the fullback and you get 6 yards on that play, I am handing the ball to the fullback every fucking play until somebody stops me. I'm not getting bored of winning. There is no getting bored of winning.

Yeah, that's brilliant. So let me ask you, with all of that said, how do you balance— I mean, you know, you've got 5 children, you're, you're a husband, you're a CEO, a multi-time CEO. How do you balance that? And what are your— some of your, I guess, biggest inspirations? You know, what, what inspires you to, to move forward in the world?

The thing I'll start with the end of that question, which is I— the thing that inspires me is frankly my kids and my family. And I told you I like to leave things better than I found them. And I intend— I, you know, my first thing was digging myself out of poverty and, you know, putting a big win under my belt and securing my family and my kids for a generation. And I, now that I have the opportunity I have, I would like to leave the world better. For them. To the extent that, that from my home office, to the extent I can move the world in a better direction so they grow up in a better world than I did, then I am going to die doing that. That's what inspires me is, is the opportunity to do that. And frankly, to talk to you and like your passion is for founders. My passion is for teens. We do a lot of work with some teen centers from our Pelicano Family Foundation. Because that's where my wife and I had our issues of homelessness and different things. And we think from a philanthropy perspective, they're overlooked because they smell bad, they have attitudes, they're mean, you know, they're, they're not cute. They don't make cute posters, you know, like, so we work a lot with those kids. And I hope a lot of them hear my story as a troubled kid. And they think, if this guy did it, like, there's no way I couldn't do it.

Yeah.

And whether they think that or not, they're right. And I hope a lot more of them hear it and think, you know, I'm not— my parents weren't lawyers, my parents weren't doctors. I don't have this great history. Right. And they're thinking, well, I'm nobody. I'm just some kid from a trailer park or some kid living in the ghetto or whatever. And I hope they hear this and be like, you know, this guy made it, you know, and look at all the shit that happened to him. I got a few better things going for me. If he could do it, I could do it because they really can. Because all it takes is somebody to outwork you and then, and then they make it.

Dude. Oh my God. I just love talking to you. I mean, so I read at a 4th grade level. I have level 5 dyslexia. I went to 5 high schools because I got kicked out of all the high schools. I tried to join the Navy and they kicked me out of the Navy because I was too dumb. And everybody used to call me the R-word, which I know I'm not supposed to say, but that's what I was called. And, you know, here I am hosting a Forbes podcast. I wrote a book. I totally agree with you that there is a huge component. This is the 2nd time this has come up. So if you're listening, please let this resonate with you. Working your ass off counts. It's just sometimes it's just raw horsepower, right? Don't you feel like sometimes it's just— it's just plowing, just raw friggin horsepower?

1,000%. That's all it is. I mean, there's no secret to it, right? And every day isn't a victory. Every minute isn't a victory. Every day doesn't feel great. And there's going to be moments where you're like, is any of it worth it? You know? And the answer I've never met anybody, Greg, maybe you have. You've talked to more founders and stuff than I have, but I'll say I've never met anybody who worked their ass off and was sorry they did.

100%. Yeah, man, you are the dopest dope. You are the bee's knees, man. Let me ask you a question because I learned this about you and I'm super into it. You have this influence of Taoism, right, in your leadership and your worldview. And I meditate like 3 times a day. I do yoga 3 times a day. You know, I'm like really into this and I'm like dying to hear your perspective on it because you're just a very unique vibration of energy and information. It's really hard to find that. A lot of people I interview, they're like, you know, big fancy people and stuff, right? But you and I, we're just like straight out of the streets. So I'm resonating with you and people probably hear the tone in this podcast a lot different than other ones because I'm talking to to my people. So congratulations, everybody, you get to hear a totally different deal here. But I want to hear about your Taoism and like what you do and how you run your day and how you sort of align yourself, you know, because there's so many distractions and surface noise when you're starting a business. There's just, it's constant, right? Like mosquitoes and flies everywhere in your head. How do you bring that into focus? And sort of neutralize the surface noise. And it sounds like you use Taoism. I just really want to hear about this because I'm just dying to hear about this. Please. Yeah, please unload on this one.

I appreciate it, man. I think probably like you, I don't know how you grew up in SoCal, but, you know, my background isn't exactly somebody who would, who would be a fan of the practice of it. I think I probably, like you, had to find something because the stress— when you're trying to do it the other way, it doesn't work. You're trying to push the world, you're trying to make it happen. And I think what I've learned is you have to let it happen, and the world is going to do what the world's going to do, and the only thing you can do is control your reaction to it. And just find that place where you're not reacting, and you're not thinking, you're not, you're not affected by it, right? Like, you can't control what other people say to you, you can't control what they say about you. But you can control how you react to those things. And so you control those things you can control. I guess I'll even take it back a step and say, You know, I was not— I wasn't a religious kid. I actually— my dad made a point to never get me baptized because he was like very anti-religion by the time he was older. I think a lot of people of that era kind of like, you know, the corruption of the church and the child abuse scandals and stuff. They just lost their faith altogether. So he said when I was old enough, I could decide what I believed in. And at some point, I did get fairly religious. And I actually got myself baptized when I was 15 years old. Like went through the sacraments, the classes, got baptized and everything. And I was feeling pretty religious. And after I was going for a while, I was talking to the pastor at my church. And this was the AIDS era, right? When AIDS was really, really bad in Africa. I know it hasn't gone away, by the way, anybody listening, I don't mean to downplay any current struggles with this. But there was a time in the '90s when this was a huge issue for everybody.

Like the COVID of the '90s.

Yeah. And I was talking to him. And I said, what about these kids that get AIDS, or their parents get AIDS and die? Because that was the thing, right? They were raising money for these kids whose parents had died from AIDS. And I said, what happens if one of the kids dies from AIDS? Do they, do they go to hell? The guy said, well, that's why it's important we get missionaries there. And we got to talk to them and bring them the word of the Lord. And I said, but you haven't answered the question. You know what I mean? Are the kids going to hell? And he was like, well, they can't go to heaven unless they hear from the Bible. And my logical 15-year-old brain— and you're very logical when you're a teenager, by the way, you're like, A plus B equals C all the time. Like, there's no fuzziness. And I was like, no fucking way is that true. No way. And then you know what I thought of after that, Greg, is I realized the only way— by that, by that logic, the only way to go to hell was actually to read the Bible. Because if you— they couldn't go to hell either, because they had never read the Bible. And then I thought, nah, this shit can't be right. And then I would call myself a militant atheist for 10 or 15 years. And then I got away from that because I realized I don't know everything right after you get through your teenager. And I would have called myself an agnostic. And then when I was running for any— a few years, the stress was getting to me. I was having all kinds of issues with my lower back, my pelvic floor, just carrying stress the wrong way all these years. And I found, I found meditation, I found yoga, I found, and I found the Tao is the first text I'd ever read that answered questions for me. And the answer seems to be there is no answer. And I love that. I find comfort in that more than I think a lot of people do. And just being able to control the things you can control and letting the world happen the way it's going to happen.

Yeah.

And just trying to zoom yourself out of your thoughts and your emotions, letting them all pass by, acknowledging them, not fighting them, and letting things just happen and watch it as if you were a bystander, has really helped me be a better leader, a better parent, a better husband, and I like to think a better human overall and not just reacting to my emotions, but Trying to acknowledge my emotions while controlling a reaction in a way that I hope is better than the way my alcoholic father did. Yeah.

Let me ask you a question because this— so this is when people ask me, they go, what is like the number one thing that I should do that you do that you think contribute the most? And I always say meditation. And they say, what? Why? And I say, well, because in meditation, the mistake is people think you're supposed to have blank thoughts. But really, you're just supposed to catch your thoughts, right? And the earlier you catch your thoughts, the earlier you can sort of control them, because we really don't have control over our mind because our thoughts just happen without us, right? And I find that when I meditate during the day, I can catch thoughts that are happening before I act on those thoughts or react to those thoughts. And it gives me the power over my day to control the direction that I put energy. Do you find that to be the case for you as well?

No, I think for me, what I find when I meditate is finding— thinking about my body, because my body to me is an afterthought to the people I'm serving, my kids, my family, my customers, my whoever. And my body is an afterthought aside from the workouts or whatever. I don't think about my body all day. And meditating gives me a chance to connect these things again. And remember that I can feel and that I, all these parts have, uh, are important and that to think about them and to focus my mind and breath into them just makes me reconnect everything and, and helps me reset mentally. And my, my thoughts aren't cleared at that point, but I'm controlling them because I'm saying, let's think about how your chest moves when you breathe. Let's think about breathing into this area where you're having soreness. Let's— so I'm guiding my brain and my body together, and it creates a unison for me that I lose touch with if I don't.

Oh, so cool. You're syncing.

Yes, yes, that's a good word. Yes.

Yeah, dude, that is so cool. I haven't tried that. I'm definitely gonna try that.

That's—

that sounds really cool. Let me, in closing here, I— man, I honestly like I have to tell you, I've been doing this podcast for 3 years. And you are by far the coolest fucking one I've done so far and the most fun. And that's, I think, is because we both came from this, like, I mean, I lived in tents for 3 years. And my parents did the same thing. They're like, look, my mom used to say, listen, if, if God sends you to hell for choosing the wrong religion, and there's 400 religions, then that's probably not a God. That's a dictator. Neil deGrasse Tyson told me— I met Neil deGrasse Tyson, which was awesome because I love physics and I'm super nerdy about it. So I asked him, I'm like, do you think there's a God? What do you think about that, right, from a science perspective? And his answer was so, like, epic. He said, first of all, if I say I'm atheist, then technically I believe in one less religion than you do, because you, you don't believe in all the 400-whatever religions that are out there. You just believe in one. And I don't believe in that one. So technically one less religion. And then he said, if there is a God, God is not all powerful or not all good. Because if you look around what's happening on a daily basis, then how could the God have not the power to fix it or not the desire to fix it if it's all powerful and all good? I just found that to be like, man, I sat down in my chair and I was just like, holy shit, man. I had to go home and smoke a joint just to like process this. I mean, it was like sort of when you were talking about when you saw AI and I was just sitting there going, holy shit, man, I gotta sit down for this a little while, you know, process this.

Yeah, I gotta let it sink in.

Yeah. But I also want to ask you this. So this is something that I know people are going to ask, and believe me, especially with you, because you're— you have an insatiable appetite for achievement and you have this insatiable appetite for just overcoming the things that seem to be slowing you down. Like, you don't walk through peanut butter like a lot of people do in their life, right? You just get it done. And so what does your daily routine look like? Like, when you get up in the morning, what is your process throughout the day? And so other people can hear, like, what a— what an overachiever— I hate using that word, but let's just say an achiever, uh, does in an average day. Somebody like you, a Friggin beast, right? So what does your day look like?

I appreciate that. I wake up between 4 and 5 in the morning, and I've worked with people in Europe and overseas in Ukraine. And by the way, I don't know if you've done a lot on that, but those people are still suffering so bad. And I know it gets drowned out in the news, but I know, you know, hundreds of people over there at this point, we've given a lot of money to those charities, but it's It's a shame. Anyway, so I wake up about four or five in the morning, and there's usually stuff from my European friends and people I know out there. So I start handling some of those, and I deal with that as I have my coffee. I'm answering some emails. I have a whole cup of coffee. My wake-up routine takes about an hour, and then I head out to the gym. I have built for myself in the garage. It's nothing fancy. It's like Bowflex, you know, adjustable dumbbells, some kettlebells, and a treadmill, you know, and a A mat, a floor on the mat. And, and I've got a space heater.

You look like a beast, man. Like, I wouldn't want to piss you off.

Thanks, man. I've got a space heater out there for the winter. Again, I try to not keep myself too comfortable. I do my workout, takes about an hour. Now half of it is stretching at this point and try to meditate at the end and stretch and let it all go. You know what just happened? And then I, and again, I'm working the whole time while I'm doing this, right? So on my sets and between sets, I'm answering emails and texts. Doing things, I sit down and then I go inside and I do put the phone down for about an hour. The kids are getting up, getting their stuff together. If I have time, I make them breakfast or drive them in. And then when I sit down for the day, I sit down to work for the day. And then I eat a big meal around lunchtime, and that's maybe the only time I eat that day. You know, sometimes I'll eat a light dinner, but that's about it. And then after work, right? Then it's kid time, me and my wife and the kids, running them around as best we can, whoever has time. And then at the end of the night, me and my wife will spend some time together, hopefully. Right now it's hard for her because she has— she's very, very pregnant. Our 5th one's coming in like 4 weeks. She's at the terrible part of the pregnancy, so a lot of rubbing her feet and making sure she's comfortable and got what she needs. Then once everybody else is settled, maybe I'll have a little bit of a gummy bear and sit down and relax a little bit. And the whole time, you know, I try to exist in this work-life flow state where I'm always working, but I don't let it bother me 'cause it takes 2 seconds to answer an email or a text, you know, as a senior executive. And it's not a big deal for me 'cause I'm always there. It's like in The Avengers when They're like, how do you just turn into the Hulk in the one movie? And he's like, the secret is I'm always angry.

Uh-huh.

And I think that's the secret is I'm always working, but, you know, it doesn't bother me because I'm just there all the time. And, and so that keeps everybody running smooth 'cause I never want anybody to wait on me for a decision that'll hold 'em up for weeks. So I try to get all that stuff answered throughout the day. Yeah.

Man, you are so cool. I'm really, really happy I got to talk to you just from a personal perspective. I just think you're a cool cat and I hope I can keep staying in touch with you. And I would like to talk to you about your AI project also. And also, I am, you know, I've spent, after I exited the last couple, you know, I went into politics trying to help with income equality, opportunity equality, and all the same kind of stuff that you're jazzed about. And also ESG, right? Making sure that, you know, there's a backyard for our children to play in. And I'm into that stuff too. And I think I'd just like to talk to you and, you know, just for fun.

So I would love that. I would love that, man. I agree with you. We got to leave this world better for the kids. You know, the generations before us did that for us. And we owe it to the next one. So, you know, it can't just be about sucking, hoovering up the money all over. It's got to be about leaving the world better. And I intend to do that, like I said, as best I can. And it sounds like you're— you've worked on that for longer than I have. And I would love the opportunity to talk to you more about that, the work you've done and what needs to be done and how to do it.

Right on, man. Yeah, I mean, we're all on this thing together. We're like, we're all in it together here. A lot of people forget that, like, because of politics and all the different religion and all these things that are really turbulent. It's like, look, the bottom line, we're all on this thing together. If we mess it up, it's for everybody, including the people that disagree or agree or whatever. It doesn't matter, right? So I'm down, man. Thank you so much for your time, your energy, and all of your wisdom. I'm really, really stoked I got to meet you. Thanks so much, Vic.

Thanks, Greg. It was an honor, man. I look forward to talking soon.

And that's it for another episode of the Startup Science Podcast. If you can, please leave us a 5-star review on Apple or Spotify. And if you have a moment, also write, review, and tell us what you think of the podcast. It helps me understand what I should be doing to help you founders. As a thank you for leading the changes in our world, I'm offering free access to the startup science platform Visionaries by Gregory Shepard, one-stop shop for founders. It has everything— the Startup Academy and Investor Match, our Grant Finder, Pitch Finder, and so much more. Go to gregoryshepard.com, just click on Visionaries and use the access code FOUNDERS, all capitals, for free access to the platform. You can check it out for yourself. I'll see you next time. Namaste, my friend.

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