The Gentleman‘s Journal Podcast
Business
Federico Marchetti is the founder and Chairman of YOOX-Net-a-Porter. He grew up in Ravenna, an ancient town in Northern Italy, which is home to some of the most historically significant mosaics in the world. And Federico describes his career, in fact, like a giant mosaic — a long process of placing building blocks on top of building blocks, slowly working towards a grand design.
After an early career in finance, Federico hit upon the idea of a luxury e-commerce site in 1999, at the height of the Dot Com boom. Most people thought he was crazy for attempting to fuse these two worlds — but after cold calling Italy’s most famous venture capitalist, Federico quickly managed to get the idea off the ground — and the rest, of course, is history. Today, YOOX-Net-a-Porter is one of the biggest e-commerce players in the world, with customers in over 180 countries.
In a fascinating episode, Federico describes how Apple took some of its inspiration from Italian typewriters; why none of us will be using mobile phones in five years time; and how the next Coco Chanel won’t be a designer — but a programmer.
Special Episode! Inside our November/December magazine issue
How to turn sweat into gold
How to predict the future — Adam Ludwin of Captify
How to stand out from the crowd — Propercorn's Cassandra Stavrou and Ryan Cohn
How to succeed as the underdog — Anton Chirkunov of Wheely
How to reinvent yourself — David Spencer-Percival of Rosemary Water
How to conquer fear — Jason Fox
How to become a serial entrepreneur — Justin Byam Shaw
How to turn a passion into a business — Nuno Mendes of Chiltern Firehouse
How to find followers and influence people — Steve Bartlett of Social Chain
"If you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room" — Steve Varsano
How to start a bank at 26 — Vernon Hill of Metro Bank
British Manufacturing special — Crockett & Jones, Ettinger, Turnbull & Asser
Style and substance — Henry Hales
Will Dean – "The Mark Zuckerberg of Extreme Sports"
Fifth Anniversary Special – Harry Jarman
The unstoppable Paul Smith
The 25-Year-Old CEO – Ross Bailey
Print is dead, long live print – Nicholas Coleridge
Time is Money – Wilhelm Schmid
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