I Call Myself Iris
Marco Fermi builds Iris — an AI assistant that anticipates needs before he asks. She's too good. Drafted 2018, finished after ChatGPT made the bot believable.
- CEO · Maysoft
- Author
- Black belt
- Pizza maker
- AI
Four decades of building things himself.
Started Maysoft at 24 with a Chemistry degree and an MBA — no CS. Built SpamSentinel. Wrote novels about AI before ChatGPT made them believable. Fired a brick oven more than 5,000 times. Still chasing the next leap in productivity.
“I spent my early career bringing computers into businesses that had never touched one — and watched productivity surge and costs fall. Now I'm AI-enabling those same systems, driving another huge leap in productivity and savings.”
By the numbers
Founder. Novelist. Ember and enterprise.
1982MBA · Isenberg · Maysoft begins soon after
15 yrsSpamSentinel carried the business
5,000+Wood-fired pizzas since 2009
3rd tryBlack belt under Sensei Tabata
Story
From Colgate to code to Santa Barbara
Chemistry at UMass Lowell. Less than a year at Colgate-Palmolive. A decade consulting when PCs and networks first hit large organizations. Then anti-spam for Lotus Notes — and the credibility to talk about what it takes to keep infrastructure alive.
Career
Maysoft at 24
No CS degree. Consulting the early PC era. SpamSentinel in 2000. Now AI-enabling the same class of systems.
DojoKarate since college
Under Sensei Kazumi Tabata. Black belt on the third attempt — a standard that doesn't bend for anyone.
FireBrick oven, 2009
Built the oven himself (brother Steve on the arch). First pie cost a thousand dollars on paper. Worth every penny.
Books
An AI that goes too far. An enemy that lives inside.
Defeating the Enemy Within
Two decades of running a company, distilled. “If you don't attempt something, you have already failed.” Five-step process for the voice that says you can't.
From the feeds
Pasta, fear, and the man in the arena
Instagram
Pasta at home
You don't need to be Einstein to make great pasta dishes at home — bonus points if you're taking Giuseppe Crisa's hand-made pasta classes.
View on Instagram → LinkedInFear of Failure
Fear of failure is toxic — it brings all plans to a full stop. Face it the way a samurai accepts death, so you can proceed ferociously anyway. From Defeating the Enemy Within.
View on LinkedIn → X · @FrankPaolinoMan in the Arena
An ode to the creatives. Teddy Roosevelt's quote has been on Frank's desk for over 30 years: the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.
Read on X →Say hello