Chapter 7 – Sunday Servers and Figments of Progress

Saturday, June 21 – Sunday, June 22, 2025 – Days 6 & 7

Milan had slipped into weekend mode—slower traffic, half-closed shutters, a city exhaling after the weekday grind. But inside Officina22, the lights were on, laptops open, and the espresso machine rattling like it was still Monday.

Leonardo sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by printed buyer requests and his own organized chaos—sticky notes, flowcharts, and a rough heatmap of part clusters drawn in Sharpie on a whiteboard torn from its stand.

Sofia entered carrying three coffees and a bag of pastries. "She's coming at noon," she said. "Don't be weird."

"I'm never weird," Leonardo replied, brushing croissant crumbs off a buyer funnel chart.

"You named a bug in the quote parser 'Giorgio the Betrayer.'"

"That's just accurate versioning."

Before Sofia could reply, the front door creaked open. A woman stepped in, wearing cargo pants, combat boots, and a gray hoodie with Keep Figma Weird printed across the back. Shoulder-length copper hair. Sharp eyes. A resting smirk.

Giulia Romano.

She held up a cappuccino and a half-eaten banana. "This is the panic factory?"

Sofia stood up and grinned. "This is Giulia. Giulia, meet Leonardo."

He stood awkwardly. "Hey. Thanks for coming on such short—"

"Let's skip the gratitude," she said. "Where's the mess?"

Leonardo pointed behind him. "It's more of an information landslide, really."

Giulia sat down on the floor next to it and popped open her laptop. "Alright. Show me the monsters you're hiding in your user flows."

1:47 PM – Officina22

Three hours later, Giulia had redesigned the intake form, color-coded the buyer dashboard, and mocked up a visual quote-tracking timeline that made Leonardo physically exhale in relief.

Sofia watched the two of them bicker over button placement like old friends.

"So you two are going to keep yelling about padding or...?"

"We're debating hierarchy," Giulia said.

"She's wrong about the CTA prominence," Leonardo said.

"She's right," Sofia said, already walking to the fridge.

But the vibe wasn't tense. It was alive. Focused. The kind of energy you only get when people believe in the thing they're building.

Sofia and Giulia kept bickering, I mean, working till 8 pm, then left Leo organizing his ideas.

Sunday, 8:42 AM – Officina22 (Closed)

Most coworking bars in Milan didn't open on Sundays. But as Leonardo and Sofia approached Officina22 with tote bags of panini, USB hubs, and backup chargers, the heavy shutters were already half-lifted.

Inside, Luca, the owner, was wiping down the bar with a rag and humming to Lucio Dalla. He wore a faded rugby jersey and a bemused smile.

He looked up as they entered.

"You two again? You know we're closed, right?"

Leonardo smiled sheepishly. "We know. We just thought we'd work upstairs."

"You think I didn't notice the espresso machine missing beans and the Wi-Fi logs showing midnight logins?" Luca raised an eyebrow. "You're building something. I respect that."

Sofia blinked. "So… we can stay?"

Luca gestured dramatically toward the back. The room upstairs is free. Wi-Fi's yours. Coffee? I'll fire up the machine—but you grind your own beans."

Leonardo grinned. "Deal."

As Luca disappeared into the back, he added over his shoulder, "You two better make this thing famous. Otherwise, I'm billing you in panini."

10:15 AM – Upstairs Workspace (aka The Sunday Sanctuary)

They set up base in the dusty loft above the bar: two battered desks, a cracked window letting in gold light, a tower fan oscillating like a dying robot. It was perfect.

On a shared Notion board, they began sorting the mountain of data generated by Lorenzo's viral post:

Confirmed buyer requests: 74

Duplicate entries: 9

Student spam: 6

High-priority matches: 21

Interesting edge cases: 3 (one involved a German company asking for aerospace bolts no one had heard of)

Giulia created a new user journey map, linking buyer intent to supplier matching logic, while Sofia built out the CRM stub they were still technically duct-taping together from Google Sheets and Airtable.

Leonardo drafted the MechVerona follow-up pitch. He wasn't aiming for flashy. He wanted precision: numbers, traction, trust.

3:29 PM – Espresso Break with Luca

Luca brought up three cups and leaned against the doorframe.

"So… what is it you're actually building?"

Leonardo hesitated. "A new way for manufacturers to buy and sell parts."

"That's vague. Sounds like an app."

"It's more like… infrastructure," Sofia said. "But invisible."

Giulia added, "It makes the right thing show up in the right inbox at the right time."

Luca sipped. "Still sounds like magic."

Leonardo smiled. "It kind of is. But behind the magic is about 400 tabs and sleepless nights."

Luca nodded slowly. "Well. If magic means I get paid when the espresso runs out, I'm on board."

He raised his cup. "To magic, and madness."

They clinked.

6:44 PM – Final Review

The slides for MechVerona were done. A simple structure:

Current Demand Metrics

Live Buyer-Supplier Examples

Projected Efficiency Gains

Pilot Scope Proposal

Tech Stack Preview

Team Slide with Bios, minus sleep photos

Sofia double-checked the contact info.

"Call is at 10 a.m. tomorrow. You ready?"

Leonardo looked out the window, the last sun rays bouncing off Milan's rooftops. "As I'll ever be."

Giulia was sketching a mascot for their onboarding flow: a small gear with eyes and a jetpack.

She showed it to them. "I call him Clippy, but for factories."

"I love it," Sofia said.

Leonardo grinned. "If this works, we'll 3D print him."

11:12 PM – Upstairs Whiteboard

They checked the numbers again:

Leads: 10 Confirmed: 3 Demo Pending: 2 Buyers: 74 Designer: Onboard CRM: Kinda ExistsNext Big Call: MechVerona – 10:00 AM Pending recalls: Turin-based 3D printing firm, DeBellis Inox, Officine Baldini – Ricambi & CNC

Mood: Pizza-fueled optimism Funding: €103.30 (Post-lunch splurge)

Beneath it, in Giulia's neat handwriting:

"Factories run on steel. Startups run on caffeine and chaos."

Sofia put on some music. Giulia curled up on the couch. Leonardo took one last look at the MechVerona deck, then turned off his screen.

The bar to them smelled like espresso and ambition.

They were building something. Slowly, imperfectly—but together.

And tomorrow, the real pitch began.

Day 7 complete.23 days to go.

[Late that night – Officina22, ground floor]

Long after the lights dimmed upstairs, Luca sat alone behind the bar, a book in one hand and his old flip phone in the other. It buzzed once, then he picked up.

"They're good," Luca said before Lorenzo could speak.

"I know," came Lorenzo's voice, calm but thoughtful. "Can you give them a room starting Monday? Something with a door. Close to yours."

Luca chuckled. "So I can spy on them, or so I can make sure they eat?"

"Both. And maybe… nudge them when they drift."

There was a pause.

"You were the one who nudged me, remember?" Lorenzo added quietly. "Back when I thought cappuccino foam was a business plan."

Luca smiled at the memory—the awkward kid in oversized shirts, doodling growth strategies between sips of burnt espresso at a bar where no one ever ordered food.

"Yeah," Luca said. "I remember. Fine. I'll keep an eye on your storm chasers."

He hung up, looked toward the dark stairwell, and muttered to himself:

"Let's see if these ones fly."