From product management to startup: how a sport-tech company built on mental endurance is born
7 August 2025Giovanna Bevilacqua, alumna of the Executive MBA – English Edition at Bologna Business School, shares the origins of Unlimitme and explains why, in both sport and business, it’s the mind that needs to be trained first—long before the legs.
There are moments when changing direction is not just an option, but a necessity. For Giovanna Bevilacqua, that moment came after several years in product management, when she decided to leave a permanent position to launch a startup. The industry? Endurance training, experienced firsthand and reimagined through the lens of digital innovation. Today, she is co-founder and CEO of Unlimitme, a sport-tech platform designed to transform long-distance training, starting from one key idea: performance is not just about numbers, it’s about building consistency, awareness and balance—day after day.
What inspired you to found Unlimitme, and what did the transition from manager to entrepreneur look like in practice?
It all started with a potent mix of frustration and caffeine—a classic recipe for any multitasking millennial juggling 15 apps, hybrid careers and existential crises throughout the week. At some point, I realised I no longer wanted to be stuck in roles that didn’t reflect who I was. So I left a stable, public, long-term job to build something of my own. That’s how Unlimitme was born: a self-funded project that forces me to manage my energy and resources with surgical creativity every single day. It hasn’t been easy. Today I’m a co-founder, consultant, strategist, and aspiring trail runner. This mix allows me to stay independent and keep the project alive without being held hostage by funding.
The Executive MBA was crucial: it gave me tools and clarity, helped me recognise my value—and without it, I probably would’ve given up after the first “no”.
How did the Executive MBA experience influence your entrepreneurial mindset?
It was a real turning point. It helped me reconnect with the ambitious version of myself that had gotten lost over time. The first big shift was in mindset: I learned how to break down complexity, imagine new scenarios, and identify the competencies I lack so I can find those who have them. That’s thanks not just to the hard skills—strategy, accounting, marketing—but to the method: case studies, simulations, group projects, and tight deadlines that leave no room for comfort zones. Then there’s the context: working side by side with people from vastly different backgrounds, nationalities and personalities taught me how to stay effective under pressure. If you can co-create a fintech startup during an international hackathon with a team that doesn’t speak the same language—literally or figuratively—you can definitely face the launch of a real startup.
The International Week in Silicon Valley left me with one lasting truth: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. That’s why continuous learning and adaptability are essential—even when the path hasn’t been built yet.
How is the world of endurance training evolving, and what role can a sport-tech startup like yours play?
Endurance sports are still the forgotten cousin of digital fitness. The people involved—typically between 35 and 60 years old—are often returning to sport after years of pause, seeking something almost spiritual in the process. Current platforms do a great job tracking data—Strava, TrainingPeaks—but if you’re seven hours into a rain-soaked mountain run, you don’t just need to know how many watts you generated. You need to have trained your mindset, your metabolism, your resilience. AI can be a game-changer, but only if used intelligently: not to replace experts, but to enhance their work, to personalize experiences, to integrate physiological data, and suggest daily micro-decisions tailored to each individual. We want to move beyond cluster logic, and speak to each athlete as a unique person. Because an algorithm won’t save you at the 30th kilometre—but it might help you avoid getting there in crisis. That’s the challenge of our time: building solutions that blend technology and humanity.
What advice would you give to someone considering an Executive MBA to strengthen an entrepreneurial project?
Let’s be honest: many start an EMBA for that one fancy line on the CV that magically attracts headhunters with C-level offers and stock options—without ever submitting an application. But what really comes is 200 slides of accounting at midnight, project work on Sundays, and a calendar in permanent overflow. If you do it just to “get ahead,” you might be disappointed. But if you do it to grow, to change perspective, and challenge yourself—then yes, it can be a powerful accelerator. It teaches you to think like a leader and to draw your own map instead of following someone else’s. It gives you a common language for the business world, trains you to think in terms of vision, strategy, value, and eliminates excuses.
And then there are the people: strangers who become mentors, colleagues who become friends. The true value of the EMBA isn’t just in the content—it’s in the relationships that keep supporting you long after graduation. And if you’re waiting for the “right moment” to start—know this: it won’t come. You have to create it. And the moment is now.
