Nakama Logo

Leonardo Manfrini

LinkedIn Farcaster X GitHub

I'm Leonardo.

I explore frontier ecosystems - startups, crypto, network states, operator-led funds - and try to understand how new forms of innovation, capital, and power actually emerge. I'm not interested in trends. I’m obsessed with the symbolic layer of reality, the compounding game des Wirken aller und jedes. In what works before it has a name. Mankind always called this esoteric.

Tech is the new esoteric. That's why I'm so drawn to it and to edges with the highest standard deviation between geniuses and pirates. Intensely curious and determined. I practice MMA in a Dojo. I spent years in academic research on classical German philosophy (Hegel in particular), alchemy, Kabbalah, astrology, deep psychology, tarots and the comparative history of symbols and religions, and most recently I Ching. I practice some of those ancient disciplines. 🌘♋

Since childhood I've loved role playing worlds. That's why I love stories and I've been a nerd for RPG, LARP and niche narratives (cypherpunks games and sci-fi). I also enjoy pop culture, especially manga, with a soft spot for One Piece.

I operate to turn spirit into matter: finding and helping dark talent. Not just thinking about things. A modern alchemist perhaps? I write about it on Substack: The Alchemist's Wager.

Currently long-termer #20 at Balaji's Network School in Southeast Asia, but I like to travel the world and frequent the edges few can access.

What I actually do

I'm an emerging manager, independent frontier strategist, and advisor. Part of VC Lab's Emerging Managers Program (Cohort 20). Building Nakama, a high-velocity fund-of-funds focused on emerging micro-VCs and operator-led investment vehicles, designed for the network age.

I organize The Sovereign Stack for Network States in Marina Bay, Singapore, a gathering of capital allocators and operators focused on network states.

My work includes:

Background

Originally from Treviso (near Venice, arguably a proto-network state of the past), adopted by Milan for many years. Lived in Germany on the edge of the Black Forest. I speak four languages: Italian, English, Spanish and German.

In the past I exited a successful academic career (double PhD in philosophy with top‑1% honors) to join the startup world. Scaled Everli (European tech company) 5x in team size as Recruiting & HR Lead. Co-founded Impssbl (now Pensiero Inc.) a VC-backed startup in California that raised $1.3M and reached $550k ARR.

The Memeism Manifesto (2024)

One century after Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, Memeism reclaims virality as a sovereign tool of cultural rebellion.

→ Read the Manifesto

My Publications

  • Veneri plutoniche: il corpo desiderante e il mito delle origini [Plutonic Venuses: The Desiring Body and Myth of Origins], in: Minima Astrologica, Issue 10, La boîte a joujoux, Milano 2021, 107-117.
  • Il peccato originale come figura del conoscere. Studio a partire dal Manuskript der Philosophie der Religion di Hegel [The Original Sin as Figure of Knowledge. Study based on Hegel's Manuscript of Philosophy of Religion], Aracne, Roma 2021.
  • Mario Dal Pra e l’incontro con la «gnoseologia pura» di Giuseppe Zamboni [Mario Dal Pra and the Encounter with Giuseppe Zamboni's "Pure Gnoseology"], in: «Rivista di storia della filosofia» (Per i 100 anni dalla nascita di Mario Dal Pra), Franco Angeli, Milano 2016, 481-499.
  • El Sócrates de Hegel: héroe del espíritu y obra de arte trágica [Hegel's Socrates: Hero of Spirit and Tragic Work of Art], in: Sócrates, el enigma di Atenas, Editorial Universidad Libre, Bogotà 2015, 89-140.
  • La metafísica como ciencia especulativa: Hegel y el intento de construir un sistema de la vitalidad [Metaphysics as Speculative Science: Hegel and the Attempt to Build a System of Vitality], in: [H. Ferreiro, T.S. Hoffmann, A. Bavaresco eds.] Los aportes del itinerario intelectual di Kant a Hegel. Comunicaciones del I Congreso Germano Latinoamericano sobre la Filosofía de Hegel / Os aportes do itinerário intelectual di Kant a Hegel. Comunicações do I Congresso Germano-Latinoamericano sobre la Filosofia de Hegel, Edipucrs - Editora Fi, Porto Alegre 2014, 979-998.
  • Review of G.W.F. Hegel, Il bisogno della filosofia (1801-1804), [C. Belli, J.M.H. Mascat eds.], Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2014, in «Filosofia italiana», Issue 2 (2014).
  • Comunicare l’esistenza: una lettura «mimico-patetico-dialettica» [Communicating Existence: a «Mimic-Patetic-Dialectic» lecture], in: Communicating Existence: Singularity and its Languages. On the 200th Anniversary of Søren Kierkegaard’s Birth, in «Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica», Issues 3-4, (2013), 449-461.

My Hobbies

Imagine dragons where other spots just dots 🐉, Burger hunt 🍔, Football (Inter 🖤💙), Fantasy Football with my friends 🧙‍♂️⚽ One Piece with my favorite creators 🏴‍☠️, Electronic music 🎛️, Nightlife 🍸.

///

If you’re building something early, strange, or not legible yet, or need to decode dark forests and fractal frontiers, we’ll probably have an interesting conversation.

)))

If you are interested to index the network age and you are curious about the thesis, let's talk about Nakama.