Francesco Vitali: The Human Economy Starts With Become First
Los Angeles is a city that loves its illusions — but every so often, someone walks into the room who feels startlingly real.
Meeting Francesco Vitali, you understand immediately why he has quietly become one of the most talked-about figures in both tech and personal transformation. There is no performance, no curated persona, no attempt at mystique. Instead, what he brings is something far rarer in this city: clarity.
Just days earlier, Rent A Cyber Friend — the platform he now leads as CEO and Co-Founder — had been selected among the Top 200 most significant startups of 2025. For many founders, such news becomes a trumpet. For Vitali, it’s simply confirmation of what the world has been moving toward all along:
A return to humanity.
But the origin of the idea didn’t begin with him.
“It was Chris,” he says — referring to Chris Siametis, his closest collaborator for more than twenty years and the original founder of Rent A Cyber Friend. “Chris saw the loneliness curve rising long before the world admitted it. He understood that people needed an instant, human alternative to the endless scrolling and the emotional void of modern platforms. One tap — one real person, immediately, anywhere in the world.”
At first, Vitali resisted.
Then he saw something deeper.
“When I joined, I realized this wasn’t about a video call. It was about a new kind of value system — the Human Connection Economy. Chris brought the spark. My role was to build an architecture around it.”
What neither expected was that this work would ignite something even more personal — a philosophy that Vitali would shape into a book now available for pre-order: BECOME FIRST.
If Rent A Cyber Friend is the infrastructure, Become First is the internal revolution.
CLA: Your rise with Rent A Cyber Friend has been unexpected for many. Yet your book Become First feels like a deeper, almost philosophical extension of the same mission. How do these worlds connect?
FV: They connect at the same wound. People today struggle with two types of disconnection: one from others, and one from themselves. Rent A Cyber Friend solves the external part — it gives people a place to be heard, seen, acknowledged. Become First deals with the internal part — the silent ways we stop showing up for our own lives. To me, they’re twin projects. One restores presence between people. The other restores presence within the self.
CLA: The title Become First clearly carries dual meanings. Can you break them down in a way that goes beyond motivation and into actual human psychology?
FV: Absolutely.
The first meaning is behavioral:
If you want a certain quality in your relationships, you must model it first. Humans mirror the regulation they’re exposed to. If I want honesty, I need to speak honestly first. If I want emotional safety, I need to regulate my own reactions before I demand calmness from others. People follow the energy they encounter — not the one you lecture them about.
The second meaning is existential:
If you never place yourself first, you automatically choose second place. The world takes its cues from where you rank yourself internally. When you constantly silence your needs to maintain harmony, the world doesn’t interpret that as kindness. It interprets it as permission.
Psychologically, your internal hierarchy becomes your external reality.
So Become First is not about ego — it’s about self-placement, identity boundaries, and emotional alignment.
Sometimes the most radical thing you can say is:
“I refuse to live a life where I am my own afterthought.”
CLA: Rent A Cyber Friend’s philosophy seems to be reshaping how people view technology. What do you think the platform actually solves?
FV: It solves the crisis of presence. Social platforms taught us to simulate connection. RACF returns us to actual connection. It treats human attention as value — not data. When someone talks to you on our platform, you’re not building an audience. You’re being human with another human. That is rare today. And essential.
CLA: What comes next for the platform?
FV: Depth, not noise. We’re expanding Cyber Friend PRO, strengthening global authentication, and refining safe-space categories so people can connect without fear, exposure, or judgment. RACF is not scaling for spectacle — it’s scaling for responsibility. Every update answers one question: “Does this increase dignity for the user?” If the answer is no, we don’t build it.
CLA: And your book? What do you hope people do with Become First?
FV: I hope they stop abandoning themselves. Truly. We’ve normalized emotional self-neglect to the point where people feel guilty for meeting their own needs. Become First is permission — not to be selfish, but to be aligned. To stop outsourcing their worth. To stop shrinking. To stop living in emotional compromise. If even one reader begins to lead themselves instead of waiting to be led, the book has done its job.
As Vitali gathers his notes, nothing about him feels staged. His voice never rises for effect, yet every sentence carries the weight of someone who has spent years observing the cost of emotional silence — in others, and in himself.
Outside, Los Angeles glows with its usual mix of ambition and illusion.
But there is something distinctly un-illusory about Francesco Vitali.
He isn’t reinventing himself for an audience; he’s recalibrating himself for a purpose.
Before he leaves, someone asks him the inevitable question:
“What is Francesco like in his personal life?”
He smiles — the kind of smile that signals a line that won’t be crossed.
“I understand that Francesco Vitali is a public figure,” he says. “But nobody’s life will change by knowing what I do behind closed doors. That’s my balance. I’m extremely happy — and that happiness is not for sale to any magazine.”
It isn’t a deflection. It’s a boundary spoken with precision — the very essence of what Become First teaches.
In a city famous for reinvention,
he’s offering something far rarer:
self-restoration — and a roadmap for anyone ready to do the same.
More about his work:
www.RentACyberFriend.com
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3CHD929
