Federico Marchetti is a revolutionary innovator, a visionary who realized his dreams through the synergy between digital technology and Italian fashion. Born in Ravenna, after graduating from Bocconi University, he flew to America to study at Columbia Business School and grasped the incredible potential of the burgeoning internet. From there, he embarked on an incredible journey, culminating in the creation of the Yoox website in Italy, revolutionizing the world of fashion and consumer habits as people began to purchase high-fashion brands online.
The first and only Italian to create a “unicorn,” a startup capable of reaching and exceeding a valuation of 1 billion dollars, Federico shares in his book “The Adventures of an Innovator,” co-written with journalist Daniela Hamaui and published by Longanesi, the story behind creating a seemingly impossible dream.
Interview with Federico Marchetti
IWS: Federico, first of all, thank you for being here to share with us your “Adventures” as an innovator, the story of your incredible success, which is a great source of inspiration. Let’s start from the beginning of your book, where you reveal that “I and time function synchronously. We have appointments I can’t miss. Time has always fascinated me.” How important has and still is the perfect timing, the right moment for decisions, the carpe diem, for you?
Federico Marchetti: Time is a precious commodity, the new luxury. Many companies are rethinking their organization and experimenting with a four-day work week to give people extra hours for self-care, affections, passions, and pleasures. Having time and knowing how to manage it can really change the quality of life and especially makes you understand that we are not talking about an abstract entity but about concrete moments, sometimes memorable, sometimes not, but which nevertheless deserve awareness and attention. I have tried to be punctual at all the appointments in my story.
I could have postponed, waited, watched, but I never chose this path because I think opportunities knock only once, and you have to respond at that precise moment. I have always been sensitive to timing, the perfect moment to do something, and even more so to leave it. As I recount in the book, I chose the spring equinox of 2000, when selling fashion online seemed like science fiction, to found YOOX; I decided the summer solstice was the perfect day to open its online doors; I challenged the icy December of 2009, after the Lehman Brothers collapse, to list it on the Stock Exchange, and I chose Cyber Monday 2021 to leave my position as CEO. The right moment is a constant in my life, many things happened to me because I opened that door at that moment, on that day, at that hour.
IWS: Time is a great ally for those who know how to ride and even anticipate its rapid and impetuous waves. Your story particularly highlights your great ability to anticipate the times, to be the first. Do you think this is an innate gift, or are there “tricks” to sniff out the currents and get there before others?
Federico Marchetti: There are predispositions, but everything can be learned. As a child, I discovered how important it was to arrive first, to get all tens, to build a good reputation. Anticipating the times is one of the keys to creating a leading company: competitors watch you, try to copy and emulate what you are doing while you are already one step ahead and think of a further innovation to try and implement. Understanding the customers’ needs before they do means surprising them, satisfying them, making them loyal, making them feel the center of attention. If you are a pioneer in experimentation, you can also make mistakes, but when you realize you are in the right direction, the satisfaction and adrenaline are priceless.
IWS: We know that you are also passionate about art and design. For example, we were fascinated by the story of the graphic design of the Yoox website, deliberately sophisticated and balancing between ancient and modern. How much have aesthetics and art in general influenced your life and weighed in your choices?
Federico Marchetti: Aesthetics means many things: I love graphics, photography, art, fashion, and I am convinced that, for example, on a website, you must capture your interlocutor’s attention. Always. You must keep them glued to what you are telling, and care and aesthetics are a very strong magnet. Beauty is never too much. When I had to create the YOOX site, I asked myself: what requirements should it meet? I had some starting points: it had to be beautiful, agile, functional, inviting customers to navigate, to easily move from one product to another, but it also had to be fun and especially different from usual.
Those who arrived at yoox.com wanted to relax, dream, not just shop. I asked a Web Company for a project, but the proposed graphics did not convince me at all: it looked like Amazon. White pages with small, clipped products. The impact was banal, not at all engaging. I was looking for an alternative. I found it with a team of creatives who designed the site thinking of a Greek temple, with a goddess, an icon dressed in a desire, welcoming you into her environment. The ancient dialogued with the modern. The result was a mix of Silicon Valley and Italian-ness where creativity and beauty were an integral part of the technology. I believe it was one of the keys to YOOX’s success, its Mediterranean and warm aesthetic.
IWS: Reading your story, it’s evident how much your success is due to the great intuition of valuing Italian excellence. Italians do it better, in fashion (and as far as we are concerned also in the world of watchmaking). How important are the roots and the tricolor DNA in the path, even professional, of each of us?
Federico Marchetti: After finishing my MBA in New York, I realized that rather than staying in America, my dream was actually to create a company in my country. I was convinced that Made in Italy was a huge asset and wanted to tie it to technology. I started to connect some dots that I had focused on and considered indispensable: digital, Italian-ness, customer care, and speed. I thought about the sectors where we are strong, where Made in Italy is a pass and a synonym for quality and beauty, and I chose fashion. My competitive advantage was being Italian, living where fashion is created that the whole planet desires. I was a stone’s throw away from the artisans, the designers, the trendiest brands.
IWS: In designing the Yoox site and its evolution, you have always put the customer at the center. Is it difficult to balance the two needs, on the one hand, to “break the rules” with revolutionary and not yet widespread ideas among consumers (such as online purchases of clothing at the time), and on the other, to pamper the customer by putting them first?
Federico Marchetti: No, it’s not. Especially if you are the number one customer of the site, if you try and test on yourself everything you propose to others. I was, am, and will always be a customer. When I created YOOX, I dreamed of a new, modern company that looked to tomorrow, that put the customer at the center of the world. I wanted those who connected to the site to experience things they had never experienced before, to know fashion as they had never imagined it, and above all, I wanted them to feel free. Free to enter the site, free to match clothes following only their imagination, free to set aside ten and buy only one or none. I insisted on the user experience, very trendy today: for me, it meant putting oneself in the customer’s shoes, entering their imagination, and making them dream. If you do business, you must know that that is your reference point.
IWS: Digital, with its speeds, lightning-fast hype, and immediate consumption, often risks sacrificing good taste (this happens, as far as we are concerned, also with watches), often falling into trash for its own sake. Instead, you managed to create a “digital humanism,” demonstrating that technology can go hand in hand with culture, aesthetics, and the pursuit of beauty. How did you do it?
Federico Marchetti: I have two souls that coexist peacefully. I believe in technology and a new humanism. My professional story has been accompanied by technology: I discovered it at its dawn, in the mid-nineties, and I bet on digital when no one in Italy believed in it. I love technology because I am firmly convinced that innovation passes through here. Then there’s my other soul, the one that looks at creativity, unpredictability, our ability to invent works of genius never thought of before. There’s the beauty of imperfection, failure, starting over. The name YOOX brings together the chromosomes of men and women and technology, and I believe in the close, friendly collaboration between machines, data, technology, and humans. Together we can change the universe. And improve it.
IWS: In the book, you recount that once, through the integration of YOOX with WhatsApp, a 140,000 euro watch was sold even before it ended up on the site. Do you think the watch market, although so particular, can establish itself on the web as has happened for clothing?
Federico Marchetti: Absolutely yes, in fact with Net-A-Porter we successfully launched the watch section among the first retailers in the world, and not only Richemont brands but many others, not least Hermès.
IWS: Fellini’s Amarcord is one of your favorite films, and in general, Amarcord could be a common thread in your life, referring to the importance of so many memories that have studded your life. In this regard, we are curious to know if there is a watch you are attached to and that reminds you of a particular moment?
Federico Marchetti: I like vintage watches, I have several. The one I’m wearing in the photo is a 1955 Calatrava with a black dial, which I am very attached to.
IWS: Digital and sustainability: what links these two worlds, which seem so distant at first glance? You stated in your book that the Green has been a guiding star that you embraced since 2009, with the creation of the Yooxygen platform, and that you continue to follow with many projects, including your involvement with the King of England, Charles: what can be done today in this direction?
Federico Marchetti: The first time I dealt with sustainability it was early, too early. No one really understood why we had launched such an ambitious and green plan. Actually, it was an advantage because starting earlier allowed us to make several steps over the years. As for my green journey, when I met Prince Charles – who was not yet King – and he asked me to do a project that united our two countries, we created a sustainable collection designed by young artisans who used data to create garments respectful of nature and customer needs.
From there, my collaboration with the Prince began, and he proposed that I chair the Fashion Task Force within the SMI. Together we have carried out very concrete and feasible initiatives such as the Digital Passport, which allows knowing the past and future of a garment, and we have dealt with regenerative agroforestry both in the Himalayas and in Italy. Recently, I spoke at the plenary of the Green Zone of Cop28 in Dubai to present a project capable of reducing the carbon footprint of the clothing industry, one of the most polluting in the world.
IWS: Federico, your book has been a great source of inspiration for us, your story is an incredible injection of confidence, a lesson on the importance of risk, work ethics, and imagination. What is the main message you wanted to convey by telling your incredible story?
Federico Marchetti: The starting point was to help girls and boys in Italy who often don’t see a future, to have confidence, to believe in themselves. I told my adventure to convince them that you don’t need to have saints in Heaven or a rich and powerful family to succeed; it’s better to rely on passion, determination, work, and find the right idea that works. But actually, beyond the young people, I addressed people of all ages who want to change their lives but don’t have the courage, to invite them to try, to turn everything upside down and start over with something that makes their heart beat. My story tells of a young man who dreamed of America, reached it, but then realized that he wanted to be an entrepreneur in his country because no other place would offer him the same opportunities. Mine is an American story Made in Italy.
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