Riccardo Matera
CEO and founder of MailSenpai. Andria, Puglia, Italy. riccardomatera.it, linkedin.com/in/riccardo-matera
Profile
Entrepreneur and technician, I have worked for more than eleven years on the infrastructure that gets emails to their destination. I started as a server engineer, configuring SMTP relays and MTAs for bulk sending, and I learned deliverability in affiliate marketing, where millions of emails are sent every day. Over the years I have sent billions of emails to inboxes in almost every part of the world, following mailbox providers one by one, each with its own rules that change over time.
In 2016 I founded MailSenpai, the Italian email marketing platform, and today I also lead SMTP Senpai, the SMTP service for the automated emails of websites and apps, and DataSenpai, for B2B market testing. I personally look after deliverability and support companies and agencies with technical consulting.
Experience
Founder and CEO, MailSenpai
December 2016 to present. Andria, Puglia
With Octotech Solutions I launched the MailSenpai platform to bring to the Italian market an email marketing automation service on a par with the big names in the sector. I lead product, infrastructure and team.
- Scalable infrastructure for bulk sending and direct support in Italian
- Over 200 companies served, 4.7 out of 5 from 95 public reviews
- SMTP Senpai for transactional email, with REST API, CMS plugins and open source SDKs
- MCP server with 74 tools to use the platform from AI assistants
- Free email check tools for DNS records, blacklists, spam and headers
Email Deliverability Manager
December 2016 to present. Andria, Puglia
- Monitoring and reporting of bounces, complaint rates and provider feedback loops
- Real-time resolution of sending blocks, diagnosis of spam traps and blacklists
- Relations with mailbox providers and constant updating on industry technologies and rules
- Client training and workshops on email marketing and deliverability best practice
Senior Server Engineer, Octotech Solutions
February 2014 to present. Andria, Puglia
- Design and management of the infrastructure for bulk email sending and cloud services
- Configuration of high-reliability SMTP relays and MTAs for high daily volumes
- Administration of MySQL databases, DNS, hosting and mail servers
- Virtualisation, domain design and scalable architectures on cloud platforms
- Resolution of network, storage and operating system issues for always-on applications
Founder, DataSenpai
2026 to present
Market testing for B2B companies with the VERA Method, which delivers a reasoned verdict on a new offer in 30 days, run on MailSenpai’s sending infrastructure.
Projects
- MailSenpai
- Italian email marketing platform with automations, over 1000 templates and a block editor.
- SMTP Senpai
- SMTP service and API for the transactional emails of websites, apps and business software, with APIs compatible with 14 formats.
- MailSenpai MCP server
- 74 tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients, with OAuth, PKCE and explicit confirmation of important actions.
- Open source integrations
- Plugins for WordPress, PrestaShop, Joomla, Drupal and OpenCart, SDKs and packages for Laravel, Symfony, NestJS, Strapi and more.
- Free tools
- Email DNS checker, blacklist check, spam test and header analyzer, with public APIs for the DNS check and the blacklist check.
- DataSenpai
- B2B market testing with a GO, CORRECT or STOP verdict in 30 days.
Education
IT technician diploma (perito informatico)
from 2007 to 2012. ITIS Sen. O. Jannuzzi, Andria
- Cisco CCNA Discovery, Networking for Home and Small Businesses, from 2011 to 2012
- Cisco Networking Academy, supplementary course on network security
- Trinity College London, English Grade 5, level B1
- ECDL, European Computer Driving Licence
- Courses in Linux, Java, and HTML and CSS during my studies
Skills
Technical. Email deliverability, SMTP relays and MTAs, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI, IP and domain reputation, IP warm-up, feedback loops and bounces, Linux servers, DNS, MySQL, web hosting, virtualisation and cloud, networking and troubleshooting, systems security, REST APIs and webhooks, MCP servers and AI, automation, HTML and CSS, software development.
Marketing. Email marketing, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, A/B testing, marketing strategy and consulting.
Languages
Italian, native speaker. English, B2 in listening and reading, B1 in speaking and writing, certified by Trinity College London.