Alessandro Savelli sold a stake in his D2C start-up Pasta Evangelists for £40m after just five years in business. Here are six of his start-up tips:
1. Just do it – As Savelli told the FT, “Move quickly and behave like every penny is your own money. Time is of the essence.”
2. Make some friends – The pasta supremo says running a start-up can be “lonely.” In conversation with not-for- profit GS1, he recommended finding “the right co-founders, it could make or break your business.”
3. Small is better – Savelli recommends being generous with equity – “My philosophy is that I'd rather have a small piece of a big pie.”
4. Play the fame game – Pasta Evangelists gave free equity to selected celebrities in exchange for promotion that helped build the brand.
5. Begin at the end – Have your end goal in mind from the very beginning and formulate every business decision around that.
6. Risk being wrong – The determined Italian freely admits that not all his business ideas have succeeded. But the good news is “you only need to be right once!”
Extract from Human Capital – Drayton’s business magazine