Inside MKE VMS: Fallucca on the three key relationships

Giacomo Fallucca’s business education began before he could tie his own shoes.

He was three years old when his father opened a bakery in Milwaukee. By the time he was a teenager, he was working long nights in the family restaurant, closing in the early morning hours and returning the next day to do it again. When the business shifted from restaurant service to frozen pizza manufacturing, he transitioned with it, formally entering the business alongside his parents.

“I grew up in that environment,” Fallucca said. “The benefit of that was I got to know everyone that my father dealt with: his attorney, his accountant, his insurance guy—all the folks.”

That early exposure shaped not only his career path, but also how he thinks about learning and leadership. Today, as CEO and Chairman of the Board for Palermo’s Pizza, Fallucca brings decades of operating experience to his role as a mentor with Milwaukee Venture Mentoring Service, working with founders navigating the challenges of building and growing companies.

At this stage in his career, mentorship is not an obligation. It is a choice rooted in personal philosophy.

“It’s part of my ethos to make a positive impact in the life of others. I would like to do whatever I can for whoever I can impact to help them on their journey of success, whether it’s personal or professional,” he said.

Fallucca is quick to note that mentorship is not only about providing answers.

“I don’t have all the answers,” he said. “But if I can assist in any way, share anything I’ve learned, that’s the reason.”

His approach to mentorship is shaped by how he learned early in his own career. Without completing a formal degree, he sought out people who were further along and learned directly from them.

“I’d sit down with them, and I’d have my notebook and I would just keep writing,” he said. “Learning from people is really a big deal for me.”

That experience led to a framework he still uses today: what he describes as the importance of three key relationships.

“I believe that people need to have three relationships in their life,” Fallucca said. “They need a mentor, a mentee, and a peer.”

Each plays a different role. Mentors provide guidance from experience. Mentees create opportunities to teach and reflect. Peers offer perspective and shared learning.

“I learn from the folks I mentor,” he said. “I learn from being mentored and I learn from my peers.”

Through VMS, Fallucca contributes to a structured, team-based mentoring model that brings multiple experienced operators together to advise founders. While he sees value in that approach, his own experience continues to shape how he thinks about effective mentorship.

“I like the one-on-one approach, frankly,” he said, noting that individualized conversations were foundational to his own development. “That’s how I prefer it. It was effective because it was one-on-one.” Even so, he continues to participate in the VMS model, bringing his perspective into a broader group of mentors who each offer different viewpoints.

For Fallucca, the impact of mentorship extends far beyond individual companies. He sees it as a tool that can shape the broader community if scaled effectively.

“I’d like to see thousands of people involved in this,” he said. “At every level, we could use it.” He believes access to mentorship can have a wide-reaching effect, envisioning everyone from students just beginning to explore their interests to professionals navigating careers and leadership roles having access to this kind of support.

“If we can develop a robust mentoring program, it’s going to impact such a wide variety of individuals,” he said. “Why not think big? If I was the mayor, I would want to make this a model for other cities,” Fallucca said. “Milwaukee’s killing it.”

That vision is already taking shape through Milwaukee Venture Mentoring Service, which brings experienced leaders like Fallucca together with founders of scalable, high-growth startups. As the program continues to expand its reach, it aims to connect more founders with mentors who have built, scaled and sustained businesses over time.