DC

Daniele Calabrese

Rende · Phuket

Serial entrepreneur & executive. Thirty years in tech and digital across Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Managing Director · General Manager · CRO · VP Sales | AdTech · SaaS · AI

Upcoming talks: Unical, 2 Nov 2026 · IAMERS meetup, 4 Nov 2026

In short

Serial entrepreneur with four ventures founded or co-founded (Soundtracker, Streamago, Cloudnine.ai, and Marine Guru), with two exits. As an executive he has built and scaled revenue in adtech, SaaS, AI, and telco. At Taboola he owned about 60% of APAC revenue. At Cloud4Wi he opened six countries. He began at the World Bank, on telecom and privatization reform with governments and regulators.

Italian (EU) citizen and US Green Card holder.

P&L and quota. Go-to-market and market entry. Enterprise sales, public sector, and partners. Adtech monetization, SaaS, and cloud. Computer vision, generative AI, and natural language. Telecoms, regulation, and multi-country teams.

Results

  • $60M

    About 60% of Taboola’s APAC revenue, 40%+ year on year, with 70 people and 100+ publishers across 8 markets.

  • 15%

    Of Cloud4Wi’s global revenue in 2018, from market entry in six countries. Clients included Prada, Armani, Telecom Italia, Huawei, and BMW.

  • Two exits

    Streamago, 2.3M+ users and $2M raised, acquired by Docler in 2017. Soundtracker, 1.3M users and over 10M downloads, acquired by Sundays Music in 2015.

  • USD 2M

    P&L ownership as managing director and CEO, up to USD 2M.

Experience

  1. 2026 —

    Strategy Manager · MirAI

    Rende (CS)

    Business development, partnerships, and go-to-market for computer vision, generative AI, and physical AI. The operating plan that turns the technology into revenue.

  2. 2023 —

    Co-founder & Managing Director · Marine Guru

    Phuket

    Co-founded and ran Marine Guru, a boutique sustainable tourism and lifestyle company in Phuket: a PADI & Cressi dive centre (Dives Guru), a private sailing yacht charter (Le Figuier), an exclusive beach experience club (The G Beach), a luxury villa (The Hip House Villa) and two restaurants (Origines in the Beach Club and The Hip House Garden). Led strategy, operations, guest experience and brand across all businesses.

  3. 2019 — 2023

    Regional Director, APAC · Taboola

    Bangkok

    Revenue, partnerships, and publisher development across India, Korea, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. About $60 million a year, 60% of APAC revenue, 70 people, and 40%+ growth. More than 100 publishers, including Network 18, News Corp, Bangkok Post, and the leading publisher in Korea.

  4. 2017 — 2019

    Managing Director, APAC · Cloud4Wi

    Bangkok

    Opened the region for cloud public Wi-Fi and location analytics: Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan, and the Philippines. 15% of global revenue in 2018. Enterprise work with Prada, Armani, Telecom Italia, Huawei, and BMW.

  5. 2017

    Co-founder and CEO · Cloudnine.ai

    Washington and Bangkok

    A multilingual analytics startup for sentiment and engagement, built for agencies, public figures, and brands. Product, clients, and a team of ten across the United States and Europe.

  6. 2015 — 2017

    Co-founder and CEO · Streamago

    San Francisco and Cagliari

    A live-streaming app grown to 2.3M+ users and 130,000 daily livestreams, top 10 in major app stores. Raised $2 million and led about 20 people. Acquired by Docler (Luxembourg) in 2017. In 2016 he met Mark Zuckerberg at LUISS in Rome, as part of a group of 14 entrepreneurs.

  7. 2009 — 2015

    Founder and CEO · Soundtracker

    Washington, San Francisco, Cagliari

    The first location- and proximity-based social music network, with 1.3M users and over 10M downloads. Partnerships with Google, Facebook, Nokia, AT&T, Microsoft, and Amazon. Licensed 32 million tracks across mobile, web, connected TV, and automotive. Acquired by Sundays Music in 2015.

  8. 2000 — 2008

    Communication Officer · The World Bank

    Washington

    Communication with governments and regulators on telecom, power, water, and privatization in more than twelve countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, Bolivia, and Ukraine. An $8 million programme in Nigeria, and the $2 million World Congress on Communication for Development, with 900+ participants.

    Highlight: First World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, 2006). Led a US$2M budget, a 15-person team and six international firms, and coordinated 18 organizing bodies, a 24-member scientific committee, 45 sessions and over 200 speakers. Built the congress's digital systems: webcasting, a virtual press room and automated peer review. Co-edited the final volume (FAO, 2007).

  9. 1999 — 2000

    Early career

    Senior Account Executive, Antea Communications, Milan (IPO communication for IT clients). Parliamentary Counselor, Italian Chamber of Deputies, Rome (EU and Finance committees). Researcher, Hellerstein and Associates, Washington DC (DSL market research).

Studies

  • 1999

    MA, International Affairs

    The George Washington University, Washington

  • 1998

    Graduate certificate, Public Diplomacy

    Italian Public Diplomacy Institute, Naples

  • 1997

    Laurea, Political Science, 110/110

    Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples

The Naples degree was on a full scholarship.

Certifications

Languages

Italian, native. English and Spanish, fluent. French advanced, German intermediate, Arabic and Thai colloquial.

Beyond the office

  • Cooking, the passion behind Marine Guru’s two restaurants: Origines in The G Beach and The Hip House Garden.
  • PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) and Elite Instructor; ISSA Inshore Skipper and Inshore Sailing Instructor.
  • Avid runner: races include the Army Ten-Miler in Washington DC, half marathons in Bangkok and Phuket, and 10K races in Bangkok and Phuket. Ten years of yoga practice.

Talks

  • Poster for the talk Annie Hall (Io e Annie) at Unical

    Unical · 2 Nov 2026

    Annie Hall (Io e Annie)

    A personal journey through my relationship with artificial intelligence, from Lagos and Soundtracker to a team of AI agents that now work with me every day. Like Woody Allen's film, a love story that asks what stays human when technology becomes a life companion.

  • IAMERS · 4 Nov 2026

    IAMERS meetup

  • IMF / World Bank · 2014

    IMF Youth Dialogue

    Panelist, IMF Youth Dialogue 'Inclusive Growth and Entrepreneurship through Education, Innovation and Passion', IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings, Washington DC, 2014, alongside Taliana Vargas, Kalpana Kochhar (IMF), Gulalai Ismail and Patrick Ngowi; moderated by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (HuffPost Live).

    Watch the panel

Publications

  1. Strategic Communication for Privatization, Public-Private Partnerships and Private Participation in Infrastructure projects, Calabrese D., World Bank working paper, March 2008.
  2. Comunicación estratégica para el desarrollo agrícola: El caso del Programa Nacional de Tecnología y Formación Técnica Agropecuaria en Nicaragua, Bruni M., Calabrese D., Santucci F. M., World Bank working paper, February 2008.
  3. Environmental policies and strategic communication in Iran: The value of public opinion research in decision making, Calabrese D., Kalantari K., Santucci F. M., Stanghellini E., World Bank working paper, January 2008.
  4. World Congress on Communication for Development: lessons, challenges and the way forward, Calabrese D., Mefalopulos P., Editors, The Communication Initiative, FAO, The World Bank, September 2007.
  5. Toolkit for Procurement of communication activities in World Bank financed projects, Calabrese D., Santi E., Podiue A., The World Bank, June 2005. Available in English, French and Spanish.
  6. “Strategic communication planning for a national system of protected areas, the Mexico case”, Calabrese D., Grenna L., Vidal R.M., in Communicating Protected Areas, IUCN, 2004.
  7. “From agricultural extension to Communication for Development”, Calabrese D., Santucci F.M., Working paper, workshop Effective communication between agricultural research, extension and farmers, Italy, 2004.
  8. “Strategic communication for the design and implementation of agricultural policies”, Calabrese D., Santucci F. M., Working paper, conference Agriculture and Rural development policies, Damascus, Syria, December 2003.
  9. Toolkit for Task Team Leader and Clients on Strategic Communications for Privatization projects, Calabrese D., The World Bank, June 2002.

Press