July 15, 2009 – I found my new job AND the man of my dreams in the same day!
Corporate visit part duex! We had another set of corporate visits and the first was to a high end children’s clothing line called Monnalisa. We got to meet the founder and he was the coolest guy! We have been reading about these great entrepreneurs in all of our case studies and to actually see one in the mix was really encouraging. He started out telling us about how he traveled extensively as a young guy and was super rebellious and kind of lost until he saw the Mona Lisa. He said he sat there all day and watched all the people go by and (he started talking fast so I couldn’t understand fully) he wanted to make something or do something and he saw a need for nicer children’s clothing so he filled that need. He started out just buying pieces in France and London and replicating them for children (mainly girls), but when his wife came along ten years later she began to design the clothing and make it more unique which really launched the brand. It was a little weird that an older dude wanted to make little girls clothing, but he more so noticed the need in the market and combined that with wanting to make something artistic from what I gathered. He was such a fascinating and animated guy! Also, all of the clothes are machine washable, which I though was a huge selling point for this type of clothing. After hearing about the business, touring the production lines and taking pictures in his office with him, he took us to one of his guest houses where they house people coming in to buy the clothes. It was this beautiful estate slightly outside of Arezzo on a nice plot of land with a pool where people come, stay, and buy lots and lots of clothes. He took a couple of the guys from the factory to the estate in his Maserati and they enjoyed that quite a bit. He was such a great person for us to see. He had a lot of passion for what he was doing, great brand pride and vision, and is a true entrepreneur from the ground up. It was a great experience. They also have internships, which I am going to talk to some one about doing because I would love to be a part of the company and possibly open one in Dallas. They are looking at opening a store there, but want some one else to do the legwork. I’m interested to see what the legwork is and would be willing to put in the work to do it. This may be all poppycock, but it is fun poppycock. Piero, the owner of the company, wanted us to stay for lunch but we had to leave and go to the winery we were touring next. Salvatore Ferragamo Jr (original Ferragamo’s grandson) wanted to open a winery. He basically sunk $30 million into a winery that makes $200,000 in revenues per year. It was a very nice facility and very good wine, but an example of why third generation business owners typically piss away money and it was a good lesson in how to watch your costs and pay attention to the market for things, etc. It was also a good lesson in Italian wines and we got to try some good wines and had really yummy hors d’oeurves. Typically I’m more of a cabernet person, but their chardonnay was actually my favorite of the three wines they produce. My favorite part though, was Salvatore Ferragamo Jr coming out to greet us! He is a taller man with dark hair, blue eyes, tan, well dressed, probably too cocky for his own good, and had a little dog named Nikita with him. He was pretty much perfect. I got a picture with him. It was great! After a good little wine tasting we tipsily headed back to Arezzo. It was probably my favorite day so far. High end clothing and wine in one day? Heaven! I just love Italy.
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