Enzo Paradiso: Built To Be Driven
By Alexander Cartigan – Chief Editor
McLaren 620R, Driven by Enzo Paradiso.
At 19 years old, Enzo is already learning something many entrepreneurs spend decades discovering: inheritance and independence do not have to be opposites.
Raised in Orange County and surrounded by the raw materials and chemical industry from an early age, Enzo grew up watching his family build businesses, navigate challenges, and create opportunities through persistence. Today, he owns Ultra Chem Group Inc., a distributor of chemical raw materials used by manufacturers across multiple industries.
The business was founded by his grandmother and later purchased by Enzo, making him not simply the next generation entering the family trade, but the latest custodian of an operation whose roots stretch back decades.
For someone so young, the decision to stay close to the family business might appear predetermined. Enzo sees it differently.
“Familiarity is a big part of it,” he says. Growing up around the industry gave him a head start, but it also exposed him to a business he found genuinely interesting. By his senior year of school, the possibility had become a decision.
This was what he wanted to do.
THE BUSINESS OF FAMILY
Enzo speaks frequently about his father, not only as an influence, but as a reference point for how he believes business should be conducted.
His company works closely with his father's business, an arrangement that could easily complicate the process of establishing an independent identity. For Enzo, the opposite has largely been true.
Being taught by his father gave him a foundation built around both knowledge and morals. The proximity has allowed him to learn lessons that rarely appear in textbooks, particularly the importance of investing time in yourself and taking responsibility for what you build.
Enzo Paradiso, standing by his car.
Working with family also means operating alongside people he trusts.
“That’s one of the most important things for me,” Enzo says.
His mother and father remain the two largest influences on how he approaches business, decision-making, and life. His father's advice is often straightforward: if you want the rewards, you have to be willing to do the work required to earn them.
That lesson becomes particularly relevant when Enzo walks into rooms filled with people twice his age.
Being a 19-year-old business owner inevitably brings skepticism. His approach is not to force credibility.
He lets the conversation do it for him.
Rather than attempting to prove himself immediately, Enzo answers questions, demonstrates what he knows, and allows experience to reveal itself naturally. It is a degree of restraint that contrasts sharply with the culture of performative entrepreneurship surrounding much of his generation.
His biggest lesson after two years of business ownership is even simpler.
“You are who you hang out with.”
A RACE CAR FOR THE ROAD
That philosophy of choosing your surroundings extends beyond business.
Cars have been part of Enzo’s world for as long as he can remember. His father introduced him to the supercar community and, in Enzo's telling, rarely arrived anywhere in something ordinary.
One car remains particularly vivid: his father's Novitec 720S N-Largo, a machine whose rarity left an impression long before Enzo had a collection of his own.
The Ferrari 458 Italia was another early inflection point. It was the car that turned childhood fascination into a genuine interest in performance machinery.
Enzo, and his McLaren 620R.
Today, however, Enzo's garage is anchored by something considerably more focused: a McLaren 620R.
His reasoning for choosing it says almost everything about the type of collector he is becoming.
Enzo had always admired owners willing to take Cup cars and GT3 machinery onto public roads. He did not want something that felt easily replaceable or readily available from a showroom.
He wanted something closer to a competition car.
The 620R became his answer.
“I wanted a race car on the road.”
McLaren 620R on the road.
What Enzo values most is its rawness. The car communicates the surface beneath it and, to him, feels distinctly removed from the more conventional road cars surrounding it.
More importantly, he drives it.
For Enzo, ownership without experience misses the point. The reward is not merely having a special car in the garage. It is accumulating miles, memories, canyon drives, conversations, and experiences.
That attitude places him squarely within the philosophy behind WORN & DRIVEN
The car matters because it is driven.
His ambitions are not modest, either. A KTM X-Bow GT-XR sits next on his automotive horizon. The eventual dream is a Pagani Huayra R.
THE WATCH THAT MATCHED THE CAR
The watch side of Enzo's collecting story developed later.
A Cartier Santos initially pulled him toward horology, while Roger Dubuis, particularly the Excalibur, expanded his interest in watches beyond simple utility.
His current favorite, however, is considerably more personal.
Enzo wears an Audemars Piguet with a vivid orange strap, chosen specifically because of how naturally it pairs with his McLaren.
The match was not accidental.
“The watch was definitely bought because of my car,” Enzo says.
There is something refreshingly uncomplicated about that answer. Collecting can become burdened by discussions of investment, scarcity, provenance, and market value. Enzo simply saw something that connected two of his interests and wanted to wear it.
The bright color also gives the watch personality in a category where he frequently encounters more restrained AP configurations.
But the most meaningful watch in his collection is not necessarily the most expensive.
That distinction belongs to a Philipp Plein timepiece gifted to him by his father, which Enzo describes as his first “big boy watch.”
Its importance has little to do with secondary-market value.
It matters because of who gave it to him.
Enzo, seated inside his McLaren 620R.
That distinction sits at the center of nearly every worthwhile collection. Eventually, the stories become more valuable than the specifications.
Enzo sees cars and watches in much the same way.
“A watch is an extension of your persona the same way a car is.”
Both have also become social connectors. A watch noticed across a restaurant or a conversation beginning around a car can introduce people who otherwise would never have spoken. Shared interests lower barriers, and relationships form around the details collectors recognize in one another.
WHAT COMES NEXT
Ask Enzo where he wants to be in ten years and the answer quickly moves away from cars and watches.
He wants a stronger business.
He wants a wife and children.
His definition of success is remarkably concise: a strong business and a strong family.
For a young entrepreneur surrounded by objects that can easily become symbols of achievement, that perspective is worth noting.
His advice to other young people considering entrepreneurship follows the same philosophy that has shaped his own early career: surround yourself with people smarter than you. Build a circle where you are challenged rather than validated.
And when doubt inevitably arrives, keep moving.
Enzo, stepping out of his McLaren 620R.
Enzo admits he has experienced plenty of it already. His conclusion is that making a mistake after giving something your full effort is preferable to never trying at all.
Work hard. Choose your circle carefully. Invest in yourself. Stay morally grounded, particularly when doing the right thing becomes inconvenient.
At 19, Enzo has plenty of road ahead.
That may be the most interesting part of his story.
The company is still being built. The collection is still evolving. There are cars he has yet to drive, watches he has yet to discover, and lessons that can only come with time.
For now, there is an orange-strapped AP on his wrist, a 620R waiting in the garage, and a family legacy he intends to carry forward on his own terms.
For Enzo, life is meant to be lived with purpose, and always driven forward.
Connect with Enzo Paradiso: Instagram
Photography by: Philip Luczak