From Zero-G to Startup Founder: Lessons from Gianluca Memoli and Metasonixx

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What can training for zero gravity teach you about becoming a startup founder?

For Gianluca Memoli, Co-Founder and CEO of Metasonixx, the answer involves curiosity, resilience and becoming comfortable with uncertainty.

In this Founder Friday conversation with Canopy Community Co-Founder Stewart Noakes, Gianluca shares his journey from physicist and aspiring astronaut to deep tech Founder.

Along the way, he offers some powerful lessons for first-time founders building an MVP, validating customers and preparing for investment.

From university research to deep tech startup

Metasonixx is developing acoustic privacy technology designed to reduce unwanted noise while maintaining light, transparency and airflow.

Its potential applications include offices, co-working spaces, homes, restaurants and, eventually, hospitals.

The research behind the business was available in 2018. Metasonixx was founded in 2019 before COVID disrupted the journey.

The company cracked manufacturing in 2023 and started selling into offices in 2024.

For first-time founders and early-stage investors, that timeline is important.

We often talk about startups as though there is a predictable path from idea to MVP, customers, investment and growth.

Deep tech can be very different.

Commercialising university research can require years of IP development, manufacturing, experimentation, customer validation and persistence.

Your customer becomes your boss

One of Gianluca's biggest lessons came during COVID.

Whenever restrictions allowed, he visited hospitals to test the technology.

As an acoustician, Gianluca expected people to ask about noise reduction and performance.

Instead, one of the first questions was:

“How can I clean it?”

That question captures something every first-time founder needs to understand about customer validation.

Your customer decides what matters.

You might have exceptional technology and years of research behind your product. But if you haven't solved the problem that prevents your customer from buying or using it, you don't have a viable solution.

As Gianluca explains, when you become a Founder, you suddenly have lots of bosses.

They're called customers.

This is why MVP development and customer validation should happen together.

The goal isn't to prove your original idea was right. It is to learn what your customers actually need.

Technical founders need to learn a new language

Gianluca remembers an early conversation with an investor who asked about customer acquisition cost.

He had no idea what she was talking about.

For technical founders, this can be a familiar experience.

You might understand physics, engineering, AI or another specialist discipline at an extraordinary level. Then someone starts talking about CAC, runway, margins, valuation or investment readiness.

Suddenly, you're learning again.

Gianluca believes this is one reason complementary founding teams can work so well.

A startup needs technical understanding, but it also needs the ability to connect technology with customers, commercial opportunities and investment.

You don't need to know everything before becoming a Founder.

You do need to keep learning.

Storytelling is a founder skill

Perhaps the most unexpected part of Gianluca's story is his passion for theatre.

He believes theatre has taught him skills that are directly relevant to entrepreneurship: using your body, controlling your voice, communicating confidently and telling stories.

These skills became visible when Gianluca presented at a Canopy Community Demo Night and became a People's Choice winner.

His message to other founders is simple: don't hide what makes you different.

For an early-stage startup, storytelling matters because there may not yet be much else.

Your MVP is developing. Customer numbers may be small. Revenue is emerging. Your investment round may still be ahead of you.

You need to help customers and investors see what could exist.

That isn't about replacing evidence with theatre.

It's about communicating the evidence and your vision in a way people remember.

Cash flow is part of the founder reality

Gianluca also speaks openly about one of the hardest moments in the Metasonixx journey.

The company came close to closing.

Startups can have strong technology, interested customers and significant potential and still run out of cash.

For first-time founders seeking investment, this is why investment readiness is about more than producing a pitch deck.

You need to understand what your next investment enables.

What milestone are you trying to reach?

How much money will it take?

What happens if customers arrive later than expected?

What can you change if the investment doesn't arrive?

Grow the Founder to grow the startup

Perhaps the most important lesson from Gianluca's journey is that building a startup also means building yourself.

Founders have to learn continuously.

Listen to customers.

Understand investment.

Manage cash.

Tell better stories.

Pivot when the evidence demands it.

And keep making decisions when there is no obvious answer.

That's where having the right people around you matters.

A Founder community can't make those decisions for you. But peer support, experienced mentors and other founders can help you learn faster and remind you that the rollercoaster is part of the journey.

At Canopy Community, that's exactly what we're here to do.

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