Carlo Cavagna
Partner · Los Angeles — leads media, entertainment & creative industries
“Most companies don’t fail in America for lack of quality. They fail because no one translated their story into terms an American buyer acts on. Translation — of purpose into initiatives, of vision into results — has been my trade for twenty-five years.”
A translator between markets — Carlo has spent his career at the exact junction our clients arrive at: companies whose value lives in creativity and intellectual property, needing someone who can turn what they are into something US buyers move on.
How Carlo works with clients
Retranslation: taking what a company actually is and re-stating it in the terms an American buyer acts on.
As Regional Director for the UK’s Department for Business & Trade, Carlo led the United Kingdom’s trade and investment relationship across the Los Angeles region, managing a team of up to 23 executives. Before that, as Sector Director for creative and media industries with UK Trade & Investment, he advised hundreds of companies and built dozens of business development initiatives — the pattern recognition that comes only from seeing that many market entries up close.
His operating experience runs through business development for Lionsgate’s video-on-demand venture CinemaNow and the US government’s International Trade Administration — both sides of the table, private and public.
Where Carlo meets the three client situations
Already here · entering for the first time · returning — the same craft, applied three ways.
Already in the US — and more to reach. A decade of DBT casework in Los Angeles included plenty of companies already operating here whose American story had gone quiet — revenue reasonable, ceiling invisible. Carlo’s craft is retranslation: taking what a settled operation actually is and re-stating it in the terms a deeper American channel buys.
Entering for the first time. New-to-market companies are Carlo’s stated specialism — hundreds advised across DBT and UK Trade & Investment, with particular depth where creativity and intellectual property carry the value. Pattern recognition at that scale is what compresses eighteen months of avoidable mistakes.
Returning after a difficult first attempt. A stalled first attempt is usually a story problem before it is a product problem — the wrong terms, the wrong audience, the wrong proof offered first. Retranslation is the repair, and it starts with the honesty to name what the first telling got wrong.
Beyond the work
Co-founder of PageCraft — screenwriting retreats, coaching, and a scholarship programme for underrepresented writers.
Carlo co-founded PageCraft with his wife Heidi — screenwriting retreats, coaching, and a curriculum that keeps expanding, including a scholarship programme for underrepresented writers. It is the same conviction this firm runs on: talent is everywhere; access is not.
Considering the US market?
Start with a conversation. We will listen, ask sharper questions than you expect, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. AXEL assesses fit before committing. The conversation is the first step, not the commitment.
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