Victoria Tollossa, MBA

Director of Marketing 

Illume

Founder & CEO

Mitchell Sandler LLC

Centre Law & Consulting, LLC.

Marketing Manager

First Edventures

Founder

IDL Entertainment Group

Co-Founder

Victoria Tollossa is a two-time founder, Grammy-nominated storyteller, and the creative force behind Illume — a personal branding agency helping executives and mission-driven entrepreneurs amplify their influence and visibility.

Blending business acumen and brand strategy, Victoria has helped clients secure funding from top firms, attract high-level talent, close multi-million-dollar deals, grow powerful social media platforms, earn industry awards, and land major speaking opportunities — not by chasing attention, but by owning their narrative.

Her work has been featured in Entrepreneur, Inc., Fortune, and Business Journals. She’s collaborated with both Fortune 500 brands and high-growth startups, including high-profile clients like Target, Ford, Seventh Generation and Bravo’s Real Housewives.

A trusted voice on storytelling, social media strategy, and the future of personal branding, Victoria is a frequent speaker, strategic advisor, and a fierce advocate for building businesses that reflect both purpose and power.

Victoria Tollossa

15: I recorded my first album.
16: Called Jive Records everyday for months (literally).
17: Got rejected by Jive Records.
18: Got into an Ivy League school, moved to NYC, heart of the music industry. 
19: Recorded more song, networked all over the city. The hustle was on.
20: Got rejected by everyone. Again.
21: I continued to practice, sing and dance... Every. Single. Day.
22: Met a big-time producer who gave me my first break.
24: Recorded more music, pitched all the record labels in NYC. This was gonna be it!
25: Got rejected by everyone — “We don’t get it, it’s just too different.”
26: Of course now I was now deemed “old” for the music industry, so I wrote for songs for others.
27: Moved to LA. Alone. 4+ writing sessions a week, grinding.
27: Launched an experiential marketing agency. A new lane.
28: Wrote a song that would later be nominated for a Grammy. Finally!
28: Also wrote 100+ songs that would never see the light of day. 
29: Got burnt out. Industry chewed me up and spit me out. Got out with low self esteem. Negative attitude. Totally jaded. 
29: Experiential marketing agency took off — 140+ team, huge clients.
30: Got pregnant and had my son.
31: Became a single mom. Everything changed.
32: Forced to exit the agency. 
33: Moved back east, lived with my mom. Did what’s best for my son.
34: Went back to school, got my MBA, moved out on my own.
35: Got a “real job” at a law firm.
36: Pandemic hit. Everything flipped again.
37: The struggle was real.
38: The struggle became even more real.
39: Quit corporate. Started a personal branding agency. A new chapter.
41: Scored a $10 million deal, sold the company and rode off into the sunset in my Maserati.

Ok… just kidding.
(About the last part, that is.)

We love to hear stories that resolve neatly at the end.
But real life doesn’t do that.

If you were hoping for a neat lesson, here it is:

The real win is NOT quitting.
It’s betting on yourself when the world says no.

So if you’re in the middle of your mess, your setback, your “I don’t know what’s next”…

Keep going.
The next chapter is still yours to write.

CEO @ Illume | Grammy-nominated Storyteller & Personal Branding Strategist for Executives

"Why do I need a personal brand? I'm not an influencer."
I hear this from execs all the time.

Ok fine, you're not trying to become TikTok famous.

But, I'm pretty sure you are trying to close deals faster, build credibility, and shorten the path to yes.

That’s exactly where a strong personal brand works in your favor.

A visible, authentic presence online creates familiarity.

Before a prospect ever meets you, they’ve already:

• seen your posts
• absorbed your insights
• connected with your story
• formed an opinion about who you are

So when you do get in the room, the heavy lifting is already done.
And the sales process accelerates.

Here’s how it shows up:

✅ Less time spent on introductions — your reputation gets there first
✅ Higher credibility — your content signals expertise
✅ Faster trust-building — people buy from people they feel they know
✅ Lower resistance — prospects are already warmed up
✅ Better-quality conversations — you’re treated like a peer, not a vendor
✅ Shorter sales cycles — recognized leaders get prioritized
✅ Stronger pricing power — trust increases perceived value

Personal branding is about leverage.

It reduces friction, increases trust, and drives revenue.

So if you’re a CEO, founder, or senior leader?

It’s time to step into the spotlight.
Share your insights.
Tell your story.
Build the connection before the first call.

Your bottom line will thank you.

Carlo Rivis

Innovation Discovery

Established and led "Innovation Discovery," an innovation-centric Strategy Think Tank. Offered expert consulting on cutting-edge technology concepts, applications, business development, and project management to corporates, start-ups, and professionals, streamlining their daily operations.

Turned a vision into a revenue-generating reality from the outset, forging an enduring legacy for Innovation Discovery.

● Founded and steered "Innovation Discovery," transforming it from vision to a revenue-generating reality, with a 4X revenue growth by the 2nd fiscal year.
● Established an innovation-centric culture that invigorated staff creativity and ideation, offered expert consultancy on advanced tech concepts and business strategies to empower Fortune 500 CIOs.
● Achieved 10+ industry accolades for groundbreaking innovations and leadership, due to championing introduction, development, and integration of transformative products/services, continually revitalizing offerings.

Chairman, Owner, Chief Executive Officer

A driving force behind Innovation Discovery's external synergies, molding relationships that spurred innovation and cemented market presence.

● Shaped key corporate decisions, spearheaded hiring and fundraising, forged strategic alliances leading to lucrative collaborations, and expanded the company's intellectual property portfolio through strategic initiatives and inherent innovation.
● Championed the ideation, development, and debut of market-shaking products/services.
● Smoothly integrated external tech and intellectual assets, revitalizing product line-ups.
● Kindled an innovation-centric ambiance, sparking employee creativity.
● Attained industry commendations for stellar innovation milestones.
● Cultivated global network of 10K+ industry stakeholders, including partners, financiers, and innovation aficionados.
● Expanded the firm's intellectual property reservoir through tactical partnerships

Head of External Innovation

INNOVIT - Italian Innovation and Culture Hub

Leading multi-industry programs for italian early-stage and scale-ups startups, designing and falicitating groups sessions, 1:1 meetings with mentors, networking and investors events in San Francisco.

INNOVIT is a technological outpost in Silicon Valley home to the world’s largest high-tech community. A strategic Hub for the promotion of the Italian economic, scientific, and cultural ecosystem in the United States. It is a place that inspires innovative entrepreneurial ideas and cross-cultural initiatives and serves as an accelerator for their international development. INNOV.IT’s goal is to create a powerful partnership between the American and Italian economic and cultural ecosystems, and ensure these Italian communities have a long-lasting presence in Silicon Valley.

Head of Program

carlorivis.com

In today's dynamic business landscape, while "innovation" is the buzzword, true pioneering remains elusive. Many Fortune 500 giants falter, not due to operational hiccups but an innovation deficit. But how many firms genuinely trailblaze in their industry, fortifying their future?

Carlo Rivis stands at this intersection, ushering both emerging and established entities through the maze of innovation. He crafts processes, accelerates ideation-to-execution, and makes tomorrow's vision an attainable present.

●  Crafted visionary strategies to turn ideation into actionable execution for both emerging startups and Fortune 500 giants, ensuring consistent innovation in a dynamic landscape.
●  Offering visionary coaching for leadership, tailored consultation to ignite innovation, comprehensive training for entities ranging from agile startups to industry leaders, as well as fostering growth and evolution for startups.

Advisor, Keynote Speaker

LvlUp Ventures

As a Venture Scout at LvlUp Ventures, a next-generation venture fund, I identify and engage with high-potential early-stage startups that are reshaping the future across industries like AI, SaaS, FinTech, HealthTech, Gaming, and Web3.

I serve as a bridge between visionary founders and LvlUp’s global investment platform, supporting the discovery of promising opportunities and facilitating their path through our curated investment process.

Our mission: back ambitious founders with capital, community, and an accelerator ecosystem to help them scale faster and smarter.

Venture Scout

Marcantonio Global

Identifying impactful and disruptive advanced solutions to be presented to the USA -  National Security Community for collaborations to boost the U.S. innovation journey!

Partner

QRSimple

Established and led "QRSimple" a simple way to connect multimedia contents to any physical object with freedom and simplicity, transforming a simple QR Code into a multimedia suite.

Genuino

Genuino provides a tailored toolkit for creating Digital Product Passports, empowering brands to build trust with consumers and deliver engaging digi-physical experiences.

It merges the Digital and Physical worlds by combining blockchain technology, near-field communication (NFC), and IoT to enable product authentication, supply-chain tracking, and consumer experiences.

Advisor

StarDrive inc

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Revolutionizing space transportation with magnetic propulsion, transforming interplanetary travel, and enhancing defense operations.

Enphos

𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗛𝘆𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲

● Conceive and Deploy Deeds for Sustainable and Circular Energies and Societies
● Learning from Nature to Inspire Solutions Improving Human Environment
● Sharing Goals and Increasing Knowledge for Sustainability and Circularity

TechBricks

TechBricks is a Hard / Deep-Tech Venture Studio building solutions and disruptive ventures in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain/DLT, ioT, Drones, SatEO and other exponential technologies.

We work along with Corporates and several industries to design innovation approaches and solutions by managing the whole Innovation Management cycle, from design thinking, business planning, PoC up to production. 

We develop prototypes and MVP in our Venture Studio, where we use a reliable taskforce of technology gurus, product specialists, IP lawyers, Innovation Managers and Technopreneurs to quickly transform bright ideas into go-to-market scalable products.

As technology is at the heart of our processes, we foster Tech Transfer with the best universities and research centers to bring IP and innovations from the research labs to life in real markets and towards Venture Capitals. 

TechBricks also offers investment vehicles for Venture Capitalists and Hedge Funds to access a diversified portfolio of products and startups, which is yet vertical on Hard and Deep Tech with a full ESG investment focus.

Advisory Board Member

Visionary, Strategy & Innovation enabler | LinkedIn Top Voice, Influencer, Blogger, Speaker | Startup> Guru, Founder, Advisor, Board Member | Fortune 500 Trainer | Looking for Visionaries!

𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝑰 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒕, 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔.

In a world where technology evolves at lightning speed, I stand at the crossroads of vision and execution. With over 20 years of experience guiding inventors, startups, venture studios, and Fortune 500 companies, I specialize in accelerating innovation execution, turning complex ideas into effective strategies and roadmaps that make a meaningful impact. 

When we deal with innovation we have mainly two types of people: Visionaries & Experts!
➤ The visionaries are the dreamers, the ones who see a future others cannot imagine, but most of the time they lack effective strategies to make it happen.
➤ The experts are the masters of science, the ones with an extremely deep knowledge about what is possible today, but too tight to the reality to be able to envision a different future believing in the impossible.

This is why most companies today, are not able to innovate in the market.
➤ Corporates are full of experts who are unable to see outside their ecosystem believing in something different.
➤ Startups are full of visionaries, believing they just need the best technology to succeed in the market.

To succeed, you need a catalyst, a person able to believe in the vision and transform it into an effective roadmap to make it happen now!


𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑰𝑺 𝑾𝑯𝑶 𝑰 𝑨𝑴, 𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑺 𝑰𝑺 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑰 𝑨𝑴 𝑫𝑶𝑰𝑵𝑮!


𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐞?
I transform visionary concepts into market-leading solutions, with a strong focus on execution, impact, and sustainability. Collaborating with a global network of innovators, investors, and industry leaders, I only take on projects I truly believe in, driven by purpose and commitment.

If you're ready to push boundaries, harness technology, and build a lasting legacy through innovation, let’s connect. Together, we can turn innovation into a powerful force for change.

𝐌𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞
Ethics vary with environment, circumstances, and culture. For me, honesty, integrity, and respect for others are non-negotiable. Whether shaped by my upbringing, experiences, or worldview, these values define how I operate. I expect my partners and the companies I work with to reflect this life code.

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Victoria Tollossa

Carlo Rivis

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taplio

The Battle

Victoria Tollossa

Carlo Rivis

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Victoria Tollossa's LinkedIn Performance

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