Founder
Sometimes you need to be the one to make the change. I co-founded VAULTED exactly for that: impact at scale!
Developed a deep-tech research breakthrough at ETH Zurich and built the company to bring it to market. Technology transfer, market validation, business model iteration, fundraising, team building, and international go-to-market execution. All in under three years.
Problem
70% of a building's mass is structure. Most of it is wasted.
Solution
Follow the force. Use geometry, not mass.
Business Model
Partnership model. Low capex, scalable
Traction
30'000 sqm in prime locations across Switzerland, Beligum and the UK.
Problem
Conventional concrete floor slabs are designed flat — not because that's structurally efficient, but because flat formwork is cheap and fast. The result is a system that uses three to four times more material than the physics requires. In a sector responsible for 40% of global CO₂ emissions, that inefficiency is a design choice, not an inevitability.
I wore every hat — and loved it.
Technology
ETH Zurich → VAULTED AG
Developed deep-tech IP from the lab and rebuilt it as a production-ready product. Developed the business model and tailored for low-capex, fast expansion.
Capital
Pre- and Seed rounds
Built the financial model from scratch and closed two funding rounds. Developed bottom-up unit economics, production scaling scenarios, and cash flow projections. Managed investor relations, board reporting, and governance from incorporation.
Team Building
Team of 10 · 5 nationalities
Hired and structured a cross-functional team across R&D, engineering, operations, and business development with no HR function and a lean budget.
Strategic Partnerships
2022–2025
Built the institutional and industry partner network to build the foundations for the scaling of the company across operations, go-to-market and R&D.
International Go-to-Market
Sales and operations across 3 markets
Designed and executed the international commercialization of products and services. Each market required customized procurement and licensing. Adapted pricing, certification, and local presence for each.
None of this was built alone. VAULTED is the product of an exceptional team who keeps making the company better and better. The results on this page belong to all of them.
Building things teaches you how to help others build. I enjoy working with deep-tech founders to help them express the full potential of what they're creating.
AI Endoscopic
FundedMedTech
AI-powered endoscopic diagnostics
An AI system for real-time endoscopic image analysis, helping clinicians detect pathologies faster and more reliably. I worked with the founders at the very earliest stage — before incorporation — and together we won the Innosuisse Business Creation competition.
3DSP
Research stageDigital fabrication
Binder jetting with geopolymers
A custom 3D printer that uses geopolymer binders instead of Portland cement — producing structural elements with near-zero cement footprint. I collaborated on the research during my PhD and helped translate it into a commercial direction.
Impact Build
Funded · Pre-seedDigital fabrication
Robotic low-carbon construction
A robotic system that prints prefabricated wall elements from excavated soil and quarry waste — no cement, no skilled labour shortage, 70% lower embodied carbon than conventional masonry. A sister spinoff out of the same ETH ecosystem.
“Francesco was with us at the very beginning, when everything was happening at once. He helped us focus our message on what truly mattered. I think he still misses the robot!”
Philippe Ganz
Co-founder, AI Endoscopic
“Francesco’s experience and continuous support have been key in helping me focus on turning my research into a real-world solution.”
Dr. Pietro Odaglia
Founder, 3DSP
“Having Francesco around at the start was a luxury, his experience in construction and technology surely sharpened our early strategy.”
Dr. Kunaljit Chadha
Co-founder, Impact Build
The technology is not everything.
I spent years building a technical background, but commercialization is a design challenge, not a science one. I underestimated how long that translation would take.
Hire for ownership, not credentials.
With a team of ten, there is no room for people who wait to be told what to do. The best hires were not the most qualified on paper — they were the ones who treated the problem as their own from day one. That instinct is hard to screen for and impossible to train.
Large partners are worth it — but they are never easy.
Working with big corporations gave us credibility, supply chain access, and institutional backing we couldn't have built alone. It also meant facing drastically different speeds, internal champions who moved on, and decisions made by committee. Managing up inside large organisations is a skill in itself.
You cannot pour from an empty vessel.
The hardest periods weren't the ones with the most problems — they were the ones where I had run out of energy to deal with them clearly. Learning to protect my capacity, not just my time, was something I figured out later than I should have.
Engineer
Designing landmark projects at Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) — operating inside complex, high-stakes systems from concept to construction across three continents.
Explorer
I have earned my PhD at ETH Zurich's Block Research Group, leading reasearch group in computational design and digital fabrication.
I'm looking for the next hard problem. If that sounds like yours — let's talk.
franaudo.com