Building digital legacies for Founders & CEOs | Founder of CURAT-D

I’m Aurelien, and I help b2b founders turn their personal brands into a revenue-generating machine.

My journey started 7 years ago when, at 15, I launched my first company, STRADA PARIS. I had no experience, but I had a vision. 

Fast forward a few years—while I was still a student in Boston—I made my very first LinkedIn post, and everything changed.

What started as a leap of faith turned into a business that helps founders build their personal brands, drive growth, and generate serious revenue.

In 2022, CURAT—D was born. 

Since then, we’ve partnered with 7-figure founders, signed high-profile clients (including one of Hollywood’s biggest names), and helped our clients close a $4M deal—all by using LinkedIn organic content.

Our mission is simple:

Help founders build brands that stand out and bring results.

At CURAT—D, we take a hands-on approach. We help you:

- Craft your unique story
- Grow your audience
- Build your authority
- Attract high-ticket clients

The best part?

It’s all done through organic LinkedIn strategies—no ads, no gimmicks, just real value.

We capture your authentic voice through simple processes like:

- Content calls
- Voice memos
- Raw thoughts you share, turned into content that drives engagement and results.

Our goal?

To take your brand to the next level and 10x your growth.

Outside of work, I’m always looking for my next challenge. I’ve traveled the world, spoken at events like The Metaverse Summit in Silicon Valley I watch every single Formula One Grandprix, and am always pushing myself to grow.

But my true passion is seeing my clients succeed. 

I’m here to help you turn your LinkedIn profile into more than just a social media account—it can be the key to unlocking your next big opportunity.

Curious to learn how?

Send me a message, and let’s talk about how we can elevate your brand.

Let’s make big things happen together.

Aurelien Scagnolari

This is the most emotional session I've ever filmed.

Meet Chloe Fabiani, the founder, trying to save 5 million animals from euthanasia.

She built Paaw, a pet adoption platform working with 3,000+ shelters across the US and Europe. Her mission deserves to be heard - but like most founders, visibility isn't her strength.

So she trusted us with it.

We asked for one hour of her time in a studio in SF, right next to her office.

But before she walked in, we did our homework:

→ Sent an onboarding questionnaire tailored to her audience and goals
→ Audited her entire online presence
→ Analyzed what people in her industry were doing

Everything related to her online presence was dissected by my team and I.

Then she walked in and gave us 60 minutes.

In that one hour, we captured everything she needs on her personal channels for the next 3 months.

That's 48 Assets.

For founders like Chloe, time is the constraint. But their stories - the real ones must be told.

This is why we built 48 Assets.

Founder at CURAT—D & 48 Assets | Distribution is personal now + insights on turning founders into their company’s most valuable distribution channel.

I just signed an exclusive studio partnership in New York City, and this one is a big deal for us.

New York is the main hub for 48 Assets. Most of the founders and CEOs we work with are based there.

So finding the right studio was probably the most important operational decision I've made for the business this year.

Ask a CEO to share something they've never said publicly, every detail of the environment matters.

That's what I found at Theorist. The space, the lighting, the way their team operates. It's built for the guest experience.

When a founder feels good on camera, they actually will deliver their best selves.

So we made it official. Theorist is now our exclusive studio partner in NYC. Every founder session we run in the city goes through them.

For us it means our clients get a consistent, premium experience every single time. For them it means a growing roster of high-caliber founders coming through their doors as we scale.

Shoutout to Asher Brooks and the entire team at Theorist Studios for building a studio that actually puts the talent first. This is just the start.

If you're a founder in New York and you've been thinking about building your personal brand, let's talk.

I slept in the cockpit of an A380 for four hours when I was a kid. There were no seats left on the plane, so my dad put me on the jump seat for a 14-hour flight to Tokyo. That's the kind of childhood I had.

My dad was a pilot. Since a very young age I was privileged to travel the world. Tahiti three times by seven. Every continent by 14. Peru, Tokyo, South Korea and so on. But more than the travel, what shaped me was what happened when my parents were gone.

When your parents leave for the other side of the world for a few days and you don't have a nanny, you figure things out fast. I had a little sister to take care of. What we were eating, bedtime, how much TV, what activities we were doing. I was a kid raising a kid. And that built something in me that no school ever could. My family was loving and trusting, but they also gave me the space to fail and make stupid mistakes. That combination of freedom and responsibility is everything.

The thing that stuck with me most was what my dad would tell me when he came home. I'd always ask him what happened on his flights because I was obsessed with planes and flying. And 98% of the time the answer was the same. Nothing happened. His crew did everything in their power to make it smooth. Pre-departure, takeoff, 10 hours at cruise, landing. Different airports, different countries, but always the same job done right.

Then there was the 2%. The days where he had to make decisions at 600 miles an hour where every minute is crucial. You lose an engine at 33,000 feet. What do you do? Where do you land? Depending on the country you're above you might not be able to. You have a passenger who needs medical attention. Do you divert and cost the airline tens of thousands of dollars? Or keep going and risk that person's life? Every decision has a consequence.

He would walk me through his decision-making process. How to stay lucid. How to act normal when the adrenaline is screaming. And the lesson he drilled into me more than anything: once you've made the decision, don't look back at it. Look back when everything is over. It might not have been the best decision. But it was your decision, based on everything you knew in that moment. Don't regret it.

I think about that constantly as a founder. The speed is different but the principle is identical. You're making calls every day with incomplete information and real consequences. And the worst thing you can do is freeze or second-guess yourself mid-flight.

Growing up as that kid taught me culture, freedom, and responsibility. But mostly it taught me that the best decision-makers are the ones who commit and move forward.

I never became a pilot. But I run my business the same way my dad flew his planes. Stay calm. Make the call. Don't look back until you've landed.

At 12, he was milking cows. In his 30s, he scaled companies to exits worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Here's how we helped Stu go from invisible online to one of the most credible voices in audience-first media:

When Stu and I started working together, his story immediately stood out.

He landed an interview with Jim Cramer that became his break into media.

From there:

→ TheStreet: Research Associate to VP of Operations & Product Development

→ Business Insider: VP of Audience Development, $400M+ exit

→ WWE: VP of Product Monetization

→ EVP Growth to COO then CBO at Barstool Sports

At Barstool, he helped to scale audiences from 50M to 250M+ and revenue from $25M to $250M. They exited to Penn Interactive for a final valuation of $660M.

One of the best operators (and minds) in media, and nobody knew his story.

When we connected, he was CEO of 10PM Curfew, reaching nearly every woman in America between the ages of 18-45 on a monthly basis across 60+ channels. He needed to attract premium partnerships and build awareness & consideration for the 10PM Curfew brand.

As I listened to his stories, it became clear: Stu is an "Operator First" leader. He sees opportunities others miss by looking past surface judgments and doing unglamorous work.

While others chase vanity metrics, Stu builds for audience-first durability.

We applied our 4-pillar extraction framework:

(1) Origin Stories

The farm discipline. Raising deer for tuition. The Cramer interview. Taking the Barstool bet.

(2) Operator Insights

Tactical lessons from scaling billion-dollar audiences. Like when Barstool generated $40M for small businesses during COV*D.

(3) Contrarian POV

Non-linear paths. Opportunities disguised as risks. Cultural reads over credentials.

(4) Proof points

Multiple exits, $1B+ combined. 10X revenue growth at Barstool. MASSIVE reach today.

The results:

→ Acquisition conversations from prospective buyers who found him on LinkedIn

→ Signed partnership deals directly from his content

→ Individual posts hitting 250K+ impressions and 500+ engagements

→ Positioned as a leading voice in audience-first media

Stu who went from milking cows at 2:15 am to scaling companies that exit for hundreds of millions.

Now the world gets to hear his story.

This is what we do at CURAT—D & 48 Assets. We find founders & CEOs (or they find us) with stories that deserve to be heard and get them out into the world.

The world's most capable people shouldn't stay invisible.

One of my client's best-performing posts got 324 likes and zero dollars. His worst-performing post got 37 likes and closed a $65k deal.

Most founders post about launches & announcements, hoping they'll blow up.

If every post is a product update you're training your audience to scroll past you. 

So here are the four types that actually drive pipeline, not just impressions.

(1) POV. Your contrarian takes. Beliefs that come from lived experience, not from reading the same article everyone else read. A real point of view filters. It attracts the right people and repels the wrong ones. I believe any business that takes personal branding seriously can make it their number one growth channel. Above paid ads. Above cold outbound. Above everything. A lot of people disagree. Good. That disagreement is what makes it a point of view and not a platitude.

(2) Origin. Your story. The one thing that cannot be replicated. Your tech can be copied. Your pricing can be undercut. But nobody else grew up the way you did, failed the way you did, had the specific combination of experiences that led you to build this company. Origin content requires vulnerability. Going back to moments that weren't glamorous. But when it's specific, detailed, and honest it creates a connection no amount of product marketing can match.

(3) Vision. Where you see things heading that nobody's talking about yet. What shifts are you noticing that the market hasn't priced in? When a CEO talks about the future of their industry, people listen differently. It's not commentary, it's a signal. And a vision post from six months ago that turned out to be right? That compounds into credibility no product announcement could ever build.

(4) Proof. Case studies, client wins, specific results. This is the one you can't post solo. If all you share is proof you become the guy at the party who only talks about himself. But balanced with the other three, proof becomes the closer. A proof post might get 30 likes. Low engagement by vanity metrics. But it books calls. 30 people see it, 3 reach out, 1 closes. That post just generated real revenue. I'll take that over 500 likes and zero pipeline every time.

Your POV will make you respected. Your Origin will make you trustworthy. Your Vision will get attention. Your Proof will make you money. Stack all four, and you have a real content engine.

One of my clients closed a $4M deal from a LinkedIn post. The story behind had been sitting in him for 15 years. He just didn't know it.

I've spent 2.5 years extracting stories from 40+ founders and CEOs. And every single time the same thing happens. These founders can pitch you their company at dinner and you're hooked. Magnetic in person. But ask them about a failure that rewired their brain or a moment that changed their trajectory and they freeze. Not because the stories aren't there. But because no one has ever asked them the right way.

I think about my own story. My dad used to travel to the US for work and every time he came back he'd say "that place is full of opportunities, full of ambitious people." At 14 I convinced my parents to let me spend a year in Denver, Colorado. That year changed everything. I discovered entrepreneurship, started devouring books and content about building something from nothing. Came back to France a different person. But for the longest time that wasn't a "story" to me. It was just something that happened. It took other people pointing it out for me to realize it was my origin story.

Most founders have a version of that. A moment that redirected everything. And they're sitting on it without knowing. Because when you're sending emails at 2 AM and waking up stressed about what happened overnight with US clients while you were asleep in Europe, the last thing on your mind is "what's my best story?" Your job is to keep the machine running.

And that's exactly why the world's most capable founders stay invisible. Their best stories stay trapped in their heads while generic content speaks on their behalf. Less qualified voices dominate. And that's not just a content problem. That's a trust problem. Stakeholders, investors, customers never actually know who they're trusting.

The best content creators online all share one trait. They've done the storytelling work. They've sat with their experiences and turned their failures into narratives and their weird childhood moments into connection points. Content becomes effortless for them because they can pull from a library of lived experience at any moment. Most founders haven't done that work. Not because they can't. Because they're busy building.

The work is simple. Sit across from a founder, go deep, push back, and say "wait, go back, tell me more about that." When it's done right they walk away saying "I didn't even know that story was in me."

Someone Googled you before your last meeting. Your LinkedIn loaded first. They made a decision about you in seconds. You have no idea what it told them.

Most founders have no idea what their LinkedIn is saying about them right now. They haven't looked at it through the eyes of someone who doesn't know them. They see it as a profile. Everyone else sees it as a first impression.

Think about it from every angle. You're an investor with 30 companies on your desk this month. You check the founder's LinkedIn. Is there a point of view? Evidence of thought leadership? People engaging with their ideas? Or is it a profile photo from 2019, a headline that says "CEO at [Company Name]," and the last post was eight months ago congratulating someone on a work anniversary? That tells you this founder doesn't take visibility seriously. And if they don't take their own visibility seriously, what does that say about how they'll position the company?

Same with hires. The best talent researches the founder before they apply. They're not just evaluating the role. They're evaluating you. Does this person think deeply about their industry? Do they have a vision worth joining? In a competitive market your personal brand is either a recruiting advantage or a recruiting liability.

Same with buyers. Most B2B purchases involve trust that goes beyond the product. The buyer isn't just buying your software. They're buying you. And before that conversation starts they've already formed an opinion based on what they've seen online.

I think about someone like Greg Eisenberg. He shares incredible thinking around AI and startups consistently. If tomorrow he sells a service I'm looking for, I'm going to him first. Not because he's cheapest. Not because he's technically the most qualified on paper. Because I trust the guy. I've been following his thinking. I know how he sees the world. And that familiarity is the most powerful thing in business.

That's the whole game. Sales is trust. The product matters. The price matters. But none of it matters if the trust isn't there first. And trust isn't built in a sales call. It's built over time through showing up and sharing your thinking before you ever ask for anything in return.

The founders who treat their LinkedIn as a living representation of how they think have an unfair advantage no amount of ad spend can replicate. And the founders who don't? They're losing deals every day. Not because competitors are better. Because competitors showed up. Were visible. Were known. Were trusted.

Your LinkedIn profile communicates whether you're someone worth trusting. You're either building that on purpose or losing it by default.

Happy to judge your profile if want, put it below ;)

MBA in Entertainment, University of Southern California | Ex: Disney, JPMorganChase, KPMG, PwC

Fun fact: My LinkedIn isn't my resume. 

So don't come here looking to evaluate hiring me based on my LinkedIn. 

Or maybe you should look at my LinkedIn to realize I beautifully blend data and analytics with entertaining and educational storytelling. 

I always dreamed of being a television programmer. It never happened, so instead I live out my dream programming LinkedIn like my own TV channel. 

Over the past 5 years, I’ve logged 10,000+ hours on this platform. I’ve built a following of 100,000+ by programming my LinkedIn like my own TV channel. My content isn’t random. It’s strategic. Story-driven. Designed to drive real outcomes.

And it’s worked, generating $10M+ in deals for the companies I've worked. Read that one again. Not me, but my companies. The power of companies leveraging LinkedIn is the future of LinkedIn. 

In 2021, I launched a global  events company while working with a Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher startup, producing 40+ events in LA, NYC, Dubai, Paris, and London that drove millions of dollars in  revenue. I understand how to leverage LinkedIn so companies can drive real results. 

A few highlights:

-Closed a strategic partnership with CAA
-Raised $7M in funding for a Mark Cuban venture-backed startup
-Secured $4.13M in brand deals for one of the world’s top celebrities

My background spans banking (JPMorganChase), global advisory (PwC, KPMG), and a decade as CFO/COO in the luxury design world, managing 50+ people and overseeing $40M+ in ARR and $1B+ in real estate projects for icons like President Obama, George Clooney, and Cindy Crawford.

I’ve lived and worked in LA, NYC, and Dubai. I’ve built communities in tech, luxury, and now the creator economy. I’m obsessed with solving complex business problems through storytelling, partnerships, and scalable brand strategy.

Always open to meeting new and interesting people that love life, love to win, and love to make the world a better place.

John Kraski

Ben Affleck just sold an AI company to Netflix.

Yes. That Ben Affleck.

While tabloids covered his divorce from Jennifer Lopez, he was quietly building something.

In 2022, he started studying AI.

He admitted it scared him at first.

But instead of running from it, he did something most people wouldn't.

He built a company called InterPositive.

Not AI that replaces filmmakers.
AI built BY filmmakers FOR filmmakers.

Tools that protect the human side of storytelling.

No text-to-video gimmicks.
No "get the human out of it" nonsense.

Real tools for real creators.

This week, Netflix acquired the whole company.

Ben Affleck is now a senior advisor.

Think about that.

The same guy TMZ was photographing looking sad outside his house was simultaneously building technology Netflix wanted to buy.

The headlines you read about someone are almost never the full story.

Everyone saw the divorce.
Nobody saw the company.

That's how it works.

The people building something real aren't posting about it.
They're not seeking validation.
They're heads down, doing the work.

And one day, the news breaks.

What you're building in silence will eventually speak for itself.

How about them apples?!

Partnerships @ Dhar Mann, Forbes #2 Creator I MBA in Entertainment, University of Southern California

My favorite part of working for Dhar Mann?

Giving studio tours.

Because that's when the magic happens.

Yesterday, I had the chance to walk Lynnwood A. Bibbens, Chairman and CEO of ReachTV, through our 125,000 sq ft studio with 65 sets.

And you can literally see the moment it clicks.
People start imagining the possibilities.

Now here's why Lynnwood is so interesting.

He didn't just build a media company.
He built a distribution empire hiding in plain sight.

ReachTV reaches audiences across:

1M+ hotel rooms.
The top 100 U.S. airports.
5,000+ premium properties.

Plus digital, OTT, and mobile.

Oh… and they broadcast every National Football League (NFL) game.

Which means millions of people are watching their screens while waiting for flights, checking into hotels, or traveling across the country.

That's not just media.

That's attention at scale.

As we walked through the studio, we started brainstorming ideas around the World Cup and other global moments.

Because the best partnerships don't start in boardrooms.
They start when two people walk through a space and see the same future.

If you don't know Lynnwood A. Bibbens, you should.

He's quietly built one of the most powerful distribution platforms in modern media.

Trust me on this one.

My most viral post of all time?

It wasn't even on LinkedIn.

It wasn't even me.

Wait what?

Yes. I joined Threads a few years ago.

Started posting. After a few weeks, something weird happened.

I started going crazy viral.

One post did 4.1M impressions.

I was so excited.
I was finally a star.
I was now famous.

Until I started reading the comments.

"Loved you in The Office."
"You and Emily Blunt are couple goals."
"When is Jack Ryan season 5 coming?!"

One guy was genuinely pissed at me for canceling his favorite show.

The lesson?

Social media success isn't about building your dream community.

It's about building John Krasinski's dream community.

So now I have a Threads following that thinks I'm married to Mary Poppins and saved the world for the CIA.

Trust me and John Krasinski on this one.

A powerful reminder from Ryan Reynolds:

My favorite thing about LinkedIn is watching people who I have no clue what they do for work get 300 likes and 300 comments on every post here yet I see Fortune 100 CEOs and executives running billion dollar companies barely get 100 likes. This is why LinkedIn is so beautiful.

LinkedIn is the new Instagram.

I'm serious.

If I had to simplify my LinkedIn success into one thing right now, it's this:

Pictures.

I treat every image like a Hollywood one-sheet.

You know, a movie poster.

You've got less than 2 seconds to capture someone's attention.

Make it pop.

And yes, I see the irony of making a video post about pictures.

Trust me and Thomas Woodhams on this one.

I love you LinkedIn.

But why does this video continue to be the first thing in my feed?

I don’t even wear blush anymore.

Hope this helps.

A powerful reminder from Harry Styles:

The most ridiculous thing about LinkedIn is I’m worth $140M, have 47 million Instagram followers, and was in one of the world’s greatest boy bands, but here on LinkedIn this John Kraski guy has more followers than me.

Yesterday I took a picture in Beverly Hills. 

Didn’t edit it.
Didn’t filter it.
Didn’t use AI to create it.

Just me, my fingers, and my eyes.

Capturing a quick moment of beauty.

Refreshing to know us humans can still be creative without the help of robots.

Fun fact: typed this post without AI as well.

Trust me and Mona Lisa on this one.

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A powerful reminder from Taylor Swift:

The most ridiculous thing about LinkedIn is I’m worth $1.6 billion, have 280 million Instagram followers, and won 14 Grammys, but here on LinkedIn this John Kraski guy has more followers than me.

A powerful reminder from Ryan Gosling:

People like to blame the LinkedIn algorithm for everything going wrong in their lives. Their career problems. Their financial problems. Their marital problems. 

Meanwhile the algorithm is just trying to deliver stale quotes and generic motivational advice to your feeds. 

Leave the algorithm alone.

Work the comments like a DJ.

Stop posting and ghosting.

It doesn't work.

I have 119k+ followers.

And I still spend 5+ hours a week in the comments.

Not just on my posts.
On other people's posts too.

Most people think LinkedIn is a broadcast platform.

Post something clever. Walk away. Hope it goes viral.

That's not how this place works.

The algorithm doesn't reward your post.
It rewards your presence.

Think of it like a DJ at a party.

You don't just drop a track and leave the booth.

You read the room.
You adjust to what's happening.
You keep the energy going.

Your post is the track.
The comments are the party.

If you leave early, don't be surprised when people stop showing up.

LinkedIn is a reciprocal community.

To receive LinkedIn love, you must give LinkedIn love.

Trust me and Thomas Woodhams on this one.

taplio

The Battle

Aurelien Scagnolari

John Kraski

Followers

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Performance ScoreAurelien Scagnolari's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJohn Kraski's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Aurelien Scagnolari

John Kraski

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);}Aurelien Scagnolari's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJohn Kraski's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAurelien Scagnolari's LinkedIn Performance