The Entrepreneurs

Rip up the business plan

It’s 18.30 on a Wednesday in late August and the crowd on the fourth floor of London’s Aldgate Tower has a distinctly frantic atmosphere to it. Underneath exposed ventilation ducts and overlooked by screens reminding you of “meditation with Emma tomorrow” (well, it is a WeWork space), smartly dressed men and women clutch warm glasses of red wine as they anxiously make conversation. Everyone seems restless, circulating from one group to the next with brutal efficiency as they hungrily seek to connect with the right person in the room.

Is it a speed-dating night? Not quite, but it’s close. It’s an entrepreneurs and investors “meet-up”, part of a growing crop of events that provide space for people with ideas and people with money to meet, get a bit tipsy and, hopefully, strike it lucky.

Over the course of the night the 70 or so attendees patiently listen to three-minute pitches about a new proton therapy cancer treatment, a network of refilling stations for water bottles, machine-learning writing software for customer-service companies, a legal-technology platform for funding rounds and a computer program that instantly resamples vocal sounds as instrumental music. After it’s over, the room quickly reverts back to networking mode.

“Most venture capitalists in this part of the world are looking for million-dollar business-to-business companies,” says George Wright, with a sigh, as he scans the room. He is the 31-year-old founder of that voice program, Vochlea Music, and is looking for £200,000 (€222,000) as part of his second seed-funding round. “Angel investors are a different thing – let me know if you find any of those here!”

“There’s so much pressure to grow fast – we don’t want to raise too much too quickly or it won’t work,” says Richard Elmer. As the co-founder of Sipple he is taking on the bottled-water industry by building stations to refill on the go: the stuff from the tap is free or you can buy filtered and UV-purified water from 35p (40 cents). There are even Chilly’s-branded reusable bottles for sale in case you’ve forgotten yours. The firm has already raised £120,000 (€133,000) and is looking for another £75,000 (€83,000) to take it up until February.

Other than the cancer-therapy team, Elmer, a first-time founder at 44, is easily the oldest person pitching. He shrugs off the thought. “All the young people that get up are in technology. Anyone can set up something on a server from their bedroom – you need more experience to set up something bigger that requires infrastructure. I already work in a business; I can sit down at a table with 50-year-old plus investors. Age is an advantage.”

Who is the modern entrepreneur? This image of a middle-aged person running a relatively small-scale, slow-moving, do-gooding company feels a world away from the hoodie-clad, Silicon Valley technology whizz who’s focused on creating the next unicorn. Yet it is much, much closer to the truth of what the average company founder looks and acts like these days.

In the US, for example, that person is 42, according to a report in the Harvard Business Review. That figure rises to 45 when looking at the highest-performing companies (measured in staff growth). In the UK it’s 47, in Switzerland 39, Australia 42 and Japan over 45. You get the idea. (Perhaps less surprisingly, that person is also usually male, well educated and white – at least in western countries where data is gathered on the subject.)

These indicators are shifting to create a more diverse landscape but age is perhaps the least discussed – and therefore most surprising – part of the picture. “All of the emphasis when it comes to age is on the bad things,” says Wendy Mayhew, a 68-year-old serial entrepreneur who’s also a coach and speaker. Since 2016 she has run Wise – Seniors in Business, which provides support to those in her generation setting up businesses (Wise stands for wisdom, initiative, skills and experience). She also manages an awards ceremony called 50 Over 50. “I was asked to write an article on financing for older entrepreneurs in 2014 and I knew nothing about it. It’s only young entrepreneurs that you read about. I started researching it and realised it was the fastest growing group in the world but also the most underserved.”

She’s not wrong. As people work longer, want more from their professional lives, and the sanctity of lifelong corporate jobs fades, older people are striking out on their own. In 1996, about 38 per cent of entrepreneurs in the US were between 45 and 64, according to the Kauffman Index of Startup Activity. By 2016 that figure had climbed to 52 per cent. The same index showed that while the rate of entrepreneurship – how many new entrepreneurs there are each month – has declined in the 20-to-34 age bracket during that time, for anyone older it has risen. The European Startup Monitor found that between 2015 and 2016, the percentage of entrepreneurs aged 35 and older in the EU increased from 43.6 per cent to 50.5 per cent, with the figure for those over 55 nearly doubling.

With most major developed economies marked by ageing populations, it’s not a trend that’s likely to be reversed any time soon. “Nobody wants to talk about it but they’re all doing something and driving the economy,” says Mayhew. “I think senior entrepreneurship will become more pervasive.”

It feels self-evident that there are more entrepreneurs today than there have ever been. Surely even the concept of entrepreneurship is a modern invention? Not quite. “In some ways it’s always been around,” says Joe Carlen, author of A Brief History of Entrepreneurship. “One could argue that if there are resources being exchanged between tribes or peoples, there is some form of entrepreneurship. Let’s go back to Mesopotamia, which most people consider to be the cradle of civilisation. Back then it was about developing trade routes. Trading spices with the Indian subcontinent didn’t exist and then some entrepreneurs made it happen.”

Most people define entrepreneurship as creating or organising something new in order to capture more resources. Back in Mesopotamia that meant spices; today it mainly means money. For some there’s an extra layer to the definition that includes seeking growth and impact, which excludes freelancers and smaller “mom-and-pop” enterprises. Either way, the core idea is the same and, as Carlen’s book details, for millennia has been a powerful driver behind the development of human civilisation.

Yet while it may not exactly be a new concept, more people than ever are doing it. The potency of entrepreneurship has been growing ever since Austrian political scientist Joseph Schumpeter argued, in the 1930s, that such innovators were key contributors to the economy. Several decades later the explosion of Silicon Valley – and its many world-changing products and services – cemented the idea.

“Up until the early 1970s, entrepreneurs were people who were seen as slightly sketchy and outside the mainstream because they didn’t have a straight job,” says Marc Ventresca, an economic sociologist specialising in the subject at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. “Part of the legacy of Silicon Valley, and our fascination with the technology world, is that 12-year-olds now say they want to be an entrepreneur instead of a firefighter. It’s become a recognised category of economic life and a plausible ‘career’. This is a big change.”

And things are still changing. Today being an entrepreneur is not just an economic activity: it’s also about engaging in some of the biggest challenges facing society, from the environment to healthcare and housing. “We’ve had an overly narrow view of someone making magic with technology,” says Ventresca. “I think we’re seeing a new era of entrepreneurship that is much more focused on solving problems for people. People like [PayPal founder] Peter Thiel and others are saying, ‘Surely we should be aspiring to more than another app to deliver pizza?’”

Cut to Lebanon, where a string of small-scale boutique hotels and guesthouses in carefully restored Ottoman houses host people looking to explore the country. All are run independently but bookings and their web presence are taken care of by L’Hôte Libanais. “Our mission is to help travellers get under Lebanon’s skin,” says Orphée Haddad, who founded L’Hôte Libanais in 2003 to promote slower, more sustainable tourism outside the big cities. “Each host, each piece of furniture and each homemade dish served at breakfast tell a story about Lebanon and its people,” he says. “We’re putting the spotlight on lesser-known destinations and making sure that residents are benefiting from the market.”

Haddad has succeeded in not just providing jobs and incomes for rural communities but also in helping to change the narrative around how to travel in Lebanon, making “going local” far more desirable. But it is also a business – and a profitable one at that. It has recently expanded into Syria, adding four hotels in Damascus to its roster, and is looking to grow in other “fragile” countries where it sees the opportunity to offer something different. “At the beginning we had an option of creating L’Hôte Libanais as an NGO or a company,” he says. “We chose a company because the goal was not only to do good things for the community but also prove that sustainable small-scale businesses can be profitable.”

If it feels like everyone is a social entrepreneur of sorts, that may reflect the way we now view our jobs: they need to be meaningful as well as providing an income. “There’s a general trend of people looking for purpose, either as an employee or by running their own business, and I see that continuing,” says Nicola Steuer, managing director of London’s School for Social Entrepreneurs. The school’s network supports about 1,000 people a year in the UK and internationally, and has helped launch or scale more than 200 start-ups in the past 12 months. It began 20 years ago in east London and has witnessed the growing interest in the field first-hand.

Steuer says that social entrepreneurs are also driven by that desire to find opportunities to trade, sell and generate profit but with one key difference: “The purpose that sits behind it. Social entrepreneurs want social and/or environmental change and they have decided that an enterprising approach is the best way to achieve that and sustain it.”

Another reason entrepreneurship feels more meaningful is because it offers freedom from the more structured world of a company job. “It’s enabling and ennobling at a personal level, you create your own destiny,” says Ventresca. “Entrepreneurs are people who organise the world according to what they care about and believe in.”

In many ways Jan Garde is a typical founder. He ended up in hospital three years ago and found himself staring at the ceiling for days on end, wondering whether his cosy executive job with Deutsche Telekom was taking him in the right direction. Now 37, he is in the middle of his first seed-funding round for his new Zürich-based company, The Embassies, which aims to provide high-end, dignified co-living options for over-sixties (full disclosure: Monocle’s parent company has shares in it).

“I definitely see this as a purpose-driven enterprise,” says Garde, who has wanted to tackle the problem of depressing old-people’s homes ever since seeing his grandparents in one. “Just because we get older doesn’t mean we don’t care about quality of life. It’s partly coming from a deeply egoistic place. When we say we want to make things better for tomorrow, we mean we want to make things better for us for tomorrow. But there’s also a huge gap in the market – there’s an opportunity there.”

Money, obviously, remains a major motivation. But for most entrepreneurs today it’s far from the only driver. “If you want to start a business you have to feel so deeply about that problem you’re solving and connect to that customer,” says Nidhi Kapur, the founder of US bespoke direct-to-consumer furniture company Maiden Home. “I want to create a tremendous amount of value for my team, my investors and myself. But having done that for a few years, I believe it’s not enough to get you through the challenges associated with early growth companies. It has to be something deeper and more emotional for you. That’s definitely a pattern I’ve seen among fellow entrepreneurs.”

Yet all the purpose in the world isn’t enough if the conditions in a country make it difficult to set up or scale a business. Entrepreneurship obviously happens all over the world, from the streets of India to the Côte d’Ivoire, and you can argue that more economically challenging countries engender more entrepreneurial approaches out of necessity. It’s true that if you’re solely measuring the quantity of start-ups then African countries tend to come out on top, as a project started in the 1990s called the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor discovered.

But there’s another way to measure countries: the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (Gedi), which seeks to look at the quality of start-ups by factoring in data about the country’s institutions, be it business freedoms, the ease of negotiating a contract or transparency. The results are very different. The top five countries in the latest ranking (2017) are: the US, Switzerland, Canada, the UK and Australia (see boxes).

“I think there are two things that matter for this index,” says creator Zoltan Acs, also director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy at George Mason University. “Does the country let you do it and are the people smart enough?”

Acs believes the world is operating at about 50 per cent of its entrepreneurial capacity, with countries such as the UK closer to 80 per cent and others such as Egypt, around 40 per cent. “So then the question is: what should lower-scoring countries do? Gedi says we should have fewer start-ups, more people working in factories, better education, better rule of law and better protection of private property.”

The only thing missing from this calculation, he says, is any discussion of technology and, as a result, he is working on a new index called the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem that will eventually replace the gedi. Yet the foundations he mentions for what allows larger scale, high-quality entrepreneurship to flourish are the same. It’s become a core area of focus for governments, most of which now have special policies in place to encourage start-ups, but it’s also increasingly important to established companies.

“A traditional corporation is [made up of] competing ecosystems,” says Philip Anderson, the Singapore-based director of business school Insead’s Centre for Entrepreneurship. “The one thing you need to do to beat the competition is attract the best entrepreneurs to your ecosystem. So even if you’re going into a traditional company, the ability to understand these entrepreneurs has become very important.”

As a result, companies are investing in what is being called “intrapreneurship” as a way of grabbing a slice of that entrepreneurial pie. For example, Unilever has The Foundry, which encourages collaboration with start-ups, and Deloitte has the Center for the Edge, which looks for fresh business opportunities. “If large companies do not find ways to foster this kind of entrepreneurship they will risk being trapped in a diminishing-returns business model,” says John Hagel, co-chairman of Deloitte’s Edge. “But fundamental transformation will be required. Leadership approaches will need to shift from a focus on having all the answers to focusing on framing powerful questions that can inspire others within the organisation to explore new areas of opportunity.”

It’s all part of the changing profile of the modern entrepreneur, says Hagel. “For decades we tended to think narrowly of entrepreneurs as people who were determined to build billion-dollar businesses with significant venture-capital funding. Now there’s a growing awareness that entrepreneurs may simply want to build very profitable small businesses with modest investment. There’s also that growing sense that large companies need it within their ranks to thrive in a rapidly changing world – this is no longer just about start-ups.”

The entrepreneur is dead. Long live the entrepreneur.

Best countries for entrepreneurship

1.
The US

Small businesses remain the backbone of US entrepreneurship. Half the private workforce is employed by about 30 million small businesses. However, President Trump’s nativist policies have hit entrepreneurship among immigrants, which has historically been a crucial economic driver. A start-up visa to attract global talent could help remedy this.

Best countries for entrepreneurship

2.
Switzerland

Switzerland boasts extraordinary levels of investment in research and design (two of our favourite things). Excellent universities and technical schools help, as do world-leading infrastructure and a high quality of life. Access to funding means it is relatively simple to set up a business. However, enhancing the perception of entrepreneurship as a career option would be helpful.

Best countries for entrepreneurship

3.
Canada

Small and medium-sized businesses make up half of Canada’s GDP and employ seven million people. Entrepreneurs can access CA$26bn (€17.5bn) of federal incentives, while prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Women-Entrepreneurship Fund is expected to double the number of female-led start-ups by 2025. Most federal funding still goes to cities so rural investment could be improved.

Best countries for entrepreneurship

4.
The UK

Ideal conditions for entrepreneurship in the UK are driven by the country’s digital sector, which has benefited from an increase in investment. There’s strong support for those who pursue their own business interests. More facilities that link entrepreneurs with academia and industry, such as Heriot-Watt University’s Global Research, Innovation and Discovery unit, would be welcomed.

Best countries for entrepreneurship

5.
Australia

Australia has one of the world’s most stable economies. Its citizens are some of the world’s richest and their readiness to spend indicates a ripe market for small businesses. However, government assistance only reaches 15 per cent of small enterprises. More state-led leniency on licensing and a shift away from the resource sector would sweeten the pot.

Meal deals

Bureau F – Vienna
Bringing the high life to the office.

Viennese design agency Bureau F consists of just three people but its office in the Austrian capital’s outlying 15th district is always bustling with activity. This is partly because the firm likes to meet its customers on home turf and, perhaps equally, because the team enjoy having friends over for a post-work barbecue on the building’s spacious rooftop.

“We invite every prospective client to the terrace for a coffee and, in the evenings, we like to kick back here with a bottle of wine,” says Philipp Stürzenbecher, who runs the bureau with his partner Fabienne Feltus and their other employees, including Katharina Chalupsky.

This communal space is also good for morale: the trio often discuss ideas over languid lunches. When too tired to cook, they order a takeaway from a restaurant downstairs. “The rooftop always gives you this feeling of escape and calm, especially with a view of the mountains,” says Feltus.

Reinhard Plank – Florence
In food, as in life, toppings are important.

A millinery and a kitchen might have more in common than is first apparent – certainly that’s what Reinhard Plank thinks. The South Tyrolean hat-maker built a base just outside Florence where, like a chef, he tinkers with the ingredients that go into his handsome headwear, including felt, lapin and wool.

Plank’s hats take their form through the application of heat and elbow grease – not unlike the process of cooking a meal. At lunchtime he and his team apply the same principles to the raw components that make up a meal.

Agrarian Kitchen Eatery – Hobart
If the staff love it, the customers will too.

As the final paying guests wind up their long lunch at Tasmania’s Agrarian Kitchen Eatery, the chefs are already preparing for the staff meal that follows. Head chef Stephen Peak and his team are grilling locally found guinea fowl over coals and roasting rooster in the open kitchen.

The late-afternoon meal is shared by staff at the restaurant, which is set in a historic former mental asylum north of Hobart. It is frequently an opportunity for ingredients and dishes to be trialled alongside new wine that is about to be added to the wine list.

But the staff meal here is much more than a tasting. “Eating together goes a long way to helping create the right mentality and building team spirit,” says co-founder Rodney Dunn. With the last rays of sunshine streaming through large windows, the team sit down to enjoy an unpretentious meal. A selection of natural wine accompanies the feast but the free-flowing conversation suggests that the group require little excuse to chat and joke with one another.

Cobe – Copenhagen
Opening the door to meet the neighbours.

Having embarked on the mammoth task of creating a masterplan for Copenhagen’s Nordhavn district, architecture studio Cobe decided to move its 150-strong office there to see how its vision is taking shape. Transforming the reception of its headquarters into a lively social space felt like a logical step. “We decided to do what we’re trying to make everyone else do: open the door to the neighbourhood,” says founder Dan Stubbergaard.

Throughout the week residents and architects gather around an oak table for informal meetings, snacks and strong coffee; on Fridays, after-work drinks sometimes develop into impromptu parties. Visitors can inspect intricate models of Cobe’s latest projects, peruse specialist publications or buy posters and planters for their homes. “It feels great to create such a space,” says Stubbergaard. “People are dropping by and smiling at me when I arrive at and leave the office.”

Here Design – London
Putting the products it creates to good use.

Much of what east London-based graphic-design studio Here Design does is about food. From packaging to branding, the team have worked on projects for the likes of restaurant Palomar and chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s dining spot Nopi. So it seems natural that lunch here should be a big deal.

The company’s ground-floor kitchen is used daily but every Friday it hosts a company-wide banquet cooked by a rotating roster of colleagues. The tradition began in 2006 during the early stages of the agency’s existence, when the three founders worked at partner Caz Hildebrand’s house. But as the business grew and moved to London Fields, a hip and foodie neighbourhood, the habit endured.

Catering for 40 people is no easy feat but doesn’t seem to be a chore. “This is my favourite thing about the job,” says senior project manager Olivia Rawlinson. A budget of £175 (€190) per meal goes a long way. Whether inspired by one of the recipe books the team have designed or a celebration in a staff member’s home country, menus change constantly; there have even been Midsommar and Thanksgiving-themed Fridays.

Le 1 – Paris
From the dining table to the front page.

Every Monday the team behind French weekly newspaper Le 1 make a point of gathering around a table to share lunch. Together with retired journalists, correspondents who have returned from the frontline, poets and illustrators, they discuss the themes of upcoming issues to ensure that the coverage is as impartial as possible. “It was hard for us at the beginning but we knew we had to talk to people outside mainstream media, otherwise we’d be heading in the same direction as everyone else,” says artistic director Natalie Thiriez.

The grand feel of this Parisian flat in Pigalle might evoke images of bourgeois liquid lunches but don’t be fooled: the days of knocking back wine on a deadline – and in between – are long gone. That said, Thiriez does have fond memories of the staff canteen at Paris Match. “We prefer something healthier now – and we drink water.”

Warby Parker – New York
Weekly lunch reflects eyewear firm’s vision.

In 2010, Warby Parker shattered the eyewear industry. The company, which began by selling affordable glasses online, was among the pioneers of the then fledgling direct-to-consumer retail model. Today it has more than 90 shops and, earlier this year, the company was said to be valued at $1.7bn (€1.5bn).

Despite the firm’s growth – it now employs more than 2,000 people – eating together remains a part of life at its Manhattan headquarters. Every Tuesday the company has a meal catered for its staff. Larger headquarters often have their own canteens but they can come at a cost, preventing investment in businesses on the doorstep. But Warby Parker partners with nearby restaurants to devise its menus. When we visit, the food comes courtesy of Inday, Basu Ratnam’s Indian restaurant. Judging by the calm, convivial atmosphere, it has the recipe for staff satisfaction.

Back to school

So you want to start your own business and feel like you should go back to school for a bit first? The $1,000 question (literally) for many is: do you shell out for an MBA? While a formal business degree sounds impressive, opinion is split on whether it’s worth the money and there are a plethora of more tailored alternatives out there. If you’ve ever thought of starting a bakery, a furniture company or, well, any company at all, read on for a lesson from the schools that are giving you the tools to succeed at a fraction of the cost.

1.
Jolt
UK & Israel

Founded: 2006
Teaches: Finance, economics and marketing
Cost: £175 to £295 (€190 to €325) per month depending on number of classes
Best for: Anyone who wants to understand the nitty gritty business side of start-ups

It’s 21.00 in the basement of a co-working space in London’s Soho and author and executive coach Bill Jensen is giving out homework to his Jolt class. Sitting around a long wooden table, eight students scribble their assignment down in branded purple notebooks. “Find a disruptive hero mentor,” says Jensen over a video link. Someone “who breaks the rules faster than you do”.

Founded in 2006 by CEO Roei Deutsch, Jolt is an Israeli education technology start-up that earlier this year opened two locations in London. It bills itself as a business school for self-made people, offering an alternative to MBAs for the next generation of aspiring founders. “The workforce and learning need to go hand in hand,” says Nitzan Cohen Arazi, Jolt’s co-founder and chief revenue officer. “Learning should become a habit.”

Rather than pay tuition, students pay a monthly membership of between £175 and £295 (€190 and €325) for immersive classes at the London campuses. The company says that the whole programme should not cost more than £5,000 (€5,500) – a fraction of the price of a traditional business degree.

Attendees have already gone on to start businesses: current Jolt student Lotus Qi recently started Nishani, a sustainable office-clothes label for women. Qi started taking classes while she was still working at an ad agency. Jolts, which range from 90-minute sessions to longer mini-courses, are designed to fit around full-time jobs.

“When you start out as an entrepreneur you have to be jack of all trades,” says Qi. “Jolt offers entrepreneurs the option to get a general understanding of many areas of business so you can avoid making costly mistakes.” A class on social-media growth, for example, helped her prepare her online strategy, while a session on product market fit reinforced her business plan.

“A lot of the teachers are start-up founders so when you ask them questions, they really get it,” says Qi. The role of the teacher has changed, confirms Jolt’s Arazi. “It’s no longer, ‘I know and you don’t’ but rather, ‘How do I make this relevant to you?’”

For Qi the fear of starting her own business was alleviated by the practical skills she learnt; she quit her job in July to go full time with Nishani. “It helped prepare me for the emotional roller coaster that is entrepreneurship.”

2.
École Internationale de Boulangerie
France

Founded: 2005
Teaches: Organic artisan baking, business skills
Cost: €13,500
Best for: Anyone who wants to set up their own bakery or café

In their previous lives they were bankers, pharmacists, photographers and engineers. Now, in a training centre tucked away in the mountains of Haute Provence, they are watching teacher Matthias Arbion knead pumpernickel bread dough. He rolls it into a log shape, places it in a baking tin and covers it in clingfilm to let the sourdough rise. “You’ll see the result tomorrow,” he says before telling the students to go back to their work tables and repeat the process on their own.

“We give life to something; it’s a simple but satisfying pleasure,” says Kaëlig Desaize, one of the 10 students in the room. “I no longer wanted to sit in front of a computer all day.”

Desaize used to work at a bank but like his classmates, he has decided to embark on an intensive 645-hour training programme at the École Internationale de Boulangerie, or EIDB, to equip himself with everything he needs to start his own organic artisan bakery. The numeracy skills from his banking days come in handy though because the EIDB is not your typical bakery school: one fifth of the programme is spent in the classroom, where students learn the IT, accounting and management skills needed to run a successful business.

As a result the school’s courses are rooted in the real economy. “When you learn to make a new type of bread, you can’t do so without calculating its production costs first,” says Thomas Teffri-Chambelland, the director of EIDB. “We constantly move between the business and product side of things.”

Students need no prior baking experience to come here; the only entry requirement is to have an entrepreneurial project waiting to be brought to fruition. “We never move far from a student’s initial business idea and budget,” says Teffri-Chambelland. “Our job is not to say that starting a bakery with €500 capital is impossible – instead we give students all the tools necessary forfinding a model that works really well for them.”

After the three-and-a-half-month course, which includes a six-week internship at a working bakery, students leave the school with a fully fledged business plan, complete with financial projections, market analysis and a comprehensive product range.

Since the training centre was launched in 2005 more than 100 artisanal bakeries run by EIDB alumni have opened around the world, from bread-by-bike delivery services in Geneva to bricks-and-mortar shops in Bogotá. The degree-level course is taught in French but the school also offers shorter, one-week introduction sessions in English and Spanish, as well as tailored options and off-site masterclasses, organised in conjunction with the San Francisco Baking Institute and the Estella patisserie school in Tel Aviv.

“I looked at several schools in the US and France but none offered quite the same package as the EIDB,” says Camilo Holguín, a graduate who launched the Bogotá-based panadería El Brezo in 2017. “The course gave me a 360-degree understanding of the baking business. I learnt what it means to be a baker and an entrepreneur, which is crucial in my day-to-day job.”

3.
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
USA

Founded: 1950
Teaches: Arts and crafts
Cost: $1,500 (€1,400) for a two-week session
Best for: Anyone whose business involves a design or artistic element

An architectural marvel sits at the end of a winding coastal road on Deer Isle in Maine. Cut into the forest are 36 cedar-shingled buildings designed by modernist architect Edward Larrabee Barnes; they seem to float above the island’s lichen-and-moss covered floor, which slopes down to the Atlantic.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was founded in 1950 (it moved to its current location in 1961) without any set curriculum, teaching faculty or student body. Instead, every summer hundreds of students – from recent college graduates to retirees – descend on Haystack for two-week workshops in ceramics, weaving, woodworking, metalsmithing, glassblowing or printmaking. They are taught by a rotating roster of experts. “The most radical thing about this place is that its entire tenor changes every two weeks,” says Paul Sacaridiz, Haystack’s director since 2015. “It was never an attempt at a traditional school.”

When we visit, studios remain lit late at night as students finish their projects. Among them is Anna Krist, a Brooklyn-based office worker who sells her stoneware vases, jugs and planters online. “I daydream about doing pottery full time and I came to Haystack almost as a test,” she says. “If I have the ability to do nothing but this for two weeks, will I still want to do it? Will it still feel special?” The answer is a resounding yes, although striking out on her own remains an aspiration.

For more seasoned artists and craftspeople, two weeks of uninterrupted studio time is a gift. “In Chicago I’m getting pinged all day by my cell phone; I’m never fully locked into what I’m making,” says Dee Clements, a textile artist. Clements founded Studio Herron in 2010, making fashion accessories and home goods for clients such as retailer CB2 and Chicago’s Freehand hotel. But by 2017 she was feeling stuck in a rut. She came to Haystack to teach a class on rug weaving and ended up experimenting in its digital-fabrication lab and woodworking studio. “My whole practice changed at Haystack; it was an incubator for my ideas,” she says.

Many of the US’s most important craftspeople have come through Haystack; some as students, some as teachers, many as both. Among them are weaver Anni Albers, glass artist Dale Chihuly and ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu. It is a place where the rigidity of academic institutions dissolves, which is just as crucial for artists as it is for entrepreneurs.

In recent years school director Sacaridiz has seen a pattern at Haystack: more craftspeople are taking intensive workshops in place of attending graduate school, where a year’s tuition can cost about $50,000 (€45,500). By contrast Haystack’s sessions are a more affordable $1,500 (€1,400) and more than 150 scholarships are available. “For a lot of people, Haystack represents a possible next step,” says Sacaridiz.

20 Ideas to steal

1.
Meat Alternatives
Yenn Wong
Founder, hospitality company JIA Group

“I would invest in alternative protein or ‘clean’ meat. Though I’m not a vegetarian, the environmental impact caused by beef and other meat production is a problem too big to ignore. We are seeing more and more customers who are reducing their meat intake for health and sustainability reasons. I foresee this space growing exponentially in the next five to 10 years.”

2.
Supply-Chain Logistics
Molly Goddard
Co-founder, sleepwear brand Desmond & Dempsey

“We need modern communication tools between factories and e-commerce brands. I would invest in developing the systems that automate the ordering and manufacturing process, giving clear visibility on data and order statuses for both ends. If we can cut out all the back and forth in between placing orders and determining volumes, the whole process could become a lot more efficient.”

3.
Sport-Tech Start-Ups
Matt Taylor
CEO and co-founder, running-wear company Tracksmith

“I’ve recently been mentoring a handful of companies in the Techstars Sports Accelerator, based in Indianapolis. The process has really taken me back to the early days of Tracksmith: the excitement, the hope, the doubts. I’ll never forget how much of an impact it had to have people believe in my dream. I’d disperse my investment across a handful of these start-ups in the sports technology space. Those kinds of early investments can make a meaningful difference in getting some diverse entrepreneurs and great ideas off the ground.”

4.
Sustainable Initiatives
Taco Carlier
Co-founder, high-end bike company VanMoof

“There is only one place left to invest and that’s sustainability projects. I personally would invest in Follow This. It’s an organisation that buys Shell shares in order to change it into a sustainable company from the inside out. We need to get rid of the carbon economy as soon as possible.”

5.
Vintage Cars
Alain Marhic
CEO and founder, watchmaker March Lab

“I’d invest in a green Porsche 911 Targa from 1969. Porsche cars may be the best investment these days as vintage editions have a fast-growing price. That would combine pleasure and investment: the perfect match.”

6.
Cryptocurrencies
Andrew Peek
Co-founder,Toronto’s The Annex Hotel

“With the world approaching another era of quantitative easing I’m not sure I can put much faith in anything that isn’t an alternative to global currencies at this point. If you’re not comfortable with crypto then I would lean towards gold. That said, cryptocurrencies have many properties that make them a better store of value. If you can find a solid operation – look for experienced investors with deep networks in tech – then you’re likely to see greater upside.”

7.
Cannabis 2.0
Rebekah Hall
CEO and founder, soft drinks brand Botanic Lab

“I see cannabis as one of those once-in-a-lifetime industries; it’s much more than a trend. The heritage and history of cannabis, and intertwined societal stories, combined with the broad spectrum of recreational and therapeutic uses, make it a unique investment opportunity. My personal interest – and where I would invest – is in the branded end of the spectrum, where there is the opportunity to create cannabis 2.0 for the 21st century.”

8.
Authentic Brands
Simon Mottram
CEO and founder, cycle-wear brand Rapha

“Brands that go deep with a niche audience will have the authenticity and focus to win in the long run. Some of my current favourites that fit the bill are Noble Rot for wine drinkers, Glossier for cosmetics and Aesop for beauty products. If the purpose of the investment is to catch a wave and get a quick return I would look at any business that’s early into using cbd oils. If that’s too racy then men’s skincare is definitely having a ‘thing’.”

9.
Children’s Education
Ronald Akili
CEO, lifestyle and hospitality group Potato Head Family

“I would invest in a children’s camp based around instilling a sense of ownership in the environment. Using interesting and interactive sustainable design, the camp’s purpose would be to subtly ingrain mindful practices and sustainable thinking so that the children develop into environmentally conscious adults. Ultimately, if we invest in inspiring the next generation to be better than we are today, that is where the fundamental change that will protect our planet will come from.”

10.
Art
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten
CEO and co-founder, media and conference firm The Next Web

“Just like it made more sense to invest in bubble wrap when e-commerce took off, or shovels during the Gold Rush, my strategy is to look for what happens on the side of the current tech wave. I see potential in everything that’s the opposite of technology. The more we’re digitally connected, the more we’ll want to find a balance and complement our digital lives with analogue things. So invest in art – the more human, organic and random the better. Art will bring balance to the world.”

11.
Food That Travels
Tom Marchant
Co-founder and owner, The Black Tomato Group

“The ability to eat healthily – be it passing through airports or train stations, or actually on planes and trains – is abysmal. I would invest in businesses that create genuinely attractive, high-quality and healthy meals that have a long shelf life, making them ideal to be stored and taken on longer journeys. The consumer is becoming more discerning and health-focused so the interest and opportunity in this area will grow and grow.”

12.
Design
Isabelle Dubern
Co-founder, furniture website The Invisible Collection

“We have noticed a shift in the perception of collectible design over the past few years, with people investing heavily in particular designers, eras of design (ie, mid-century) and iconic pieces, such as Pierre Yovanovitch’s Asymétrie chair. These icons of design have been retaining value and continue to be in demand globally. If I had to invest I’d be looking at pieces like José Zanine Caldas’s iconic ZC desk, designed in the 1950s; or, in contrast, a piece by Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert, a rising young star who freehand-blows the most unique glass lighting.”

13.
Environmental Clean-Ups
Tony Papas
Co-founder, roastery chain Allpress Espresso

“I would invest in support of a campaign to clean the region where I live in southern Italy. Puglia has recognised it has a problem with the disposal of rubbish and the pollution of its beaches and landscape with plastic. As a citizen of the region I believe that a little bit of awareness could turn this dire problem around. Funding a carefully planned campaign may well make Puglia pristine again and set an example to other regions, or indeed other countries, on how to clean up their acts.”

14.
Isolation
Patrick Grant
Creative director,menswear line E Tautz

“A croft in the Scottish Highlands. Solitude and self-reliance might well be the only sane life choice.”

15.
Books
Carla Sozzani
Founder, concept shop 10 Corso Como

“I would invest in publishing. It is still an integral part of my life and something I continue to enjoy doing and sharing in a variety of ways. With a book, everything in your hand is there to present sensations of beauty and harmony through the touch of paper and the smell of ink. Books were supposed to die. They haven’t. They continue to grow because people still want them.”

16.
Independent Companies
Prue Freeman
Director, London-based café chain Daisy Green

“I would back independent businesses. There are some really interesting opportunities in our space, from artisan non-alcoholic spirits to thoughtful companies promoting more ethical sourcing and sustainability with the future in mind. There is definitely an opportunity to back some fantastic people who can really deliver change on a grander scale, which is especially important in light of the ever-increasing demand for transparency in supply chains.”

17.
Influential Science
Ara Katz
Co-founder and co-CEO, consumer health company Seed

“When I invest I define ROI as not just a return on investment but a ‘return on impact’. I would invest in synthetic biology, microbial technologies, ethics-based artificial intelligence and women’s health. Essentially, technologies and solutions that offer sustainable models and that have downstream impact beyond their direct customers or users.”

18.
Sustainable Clothes
Josh Wyatt
CEO, co-working space provider NeueHouse

“As a CEO I feel that we have a responsibility to put our corporate and personal dollars behind brands and products that address climate change and sustainability issues. I would invest in clothing brands and manufacturers that are integrating sustainability principles into their business strategies. Modern Meadow, Yatay, Bode and other entrepreneurs in this space should be rewarded with capital.”

19.
Local Artists
Petra Barran
Founder, street-food company incubator Kerb

“I would invest in some of the incredible homegrown talent coming out of New Orleans right now. New Orleans generated $9bn in cultural sales last year but the ones who create the juice that keeps its flavour flowing don’t see the benefit, and are instead used as wallpaper to sell the city. My money would go towards the collective House of the Young, which is creating content that takes back the narrative, empowers local artists and builds cultural and financial capital from within.”

20.
Better Funding Models
Kshama Fernandes
CEO, microfinancing company Northern Arc

“I would like to invest in a VC fund that promotes unusual pursuits that may not create immediate wealth but could eventually leave us richer. It’s not a new concept. Indian kings were known for promoting sculptors and musicians who got a dependable livelihood but the work itself belonged to the kings. European explorers enjoyed the patronage of royal houses that financed their ocean expeditions. We need ambitious venture capital that has a longer fund life and a wider investment thesis that goes beyond the obvious.”

The name game

First, a confession. I recently became the last person in the world to realise that The Beatles is a pun. It’s a weird one but I just never cottoned on to its incorporation of “beat”. It’s a revelation all the more embarrassing given that it’s my job to identify and understand the intricacies and subtleties of what makes a great name. Having come to terms with my mistake, I have decided that it represents something more than humble absentmindedness: it tells us something rather interesting about naming.

I would wager that most people don’t notice the finer points of a brand name. They won’t care where the words came from and they won’t think about etymology, mythology, psychology or any other ’ology that served as inspiration for the name. Does anyone (who isn’t Danish) know that Lego means “play well” or that Uniqlo is a portmanteau of unique and clothes? Does anyone out there really care that Nike is the Greek goddess of victory or that Ikea is an acronym of Ingvar Kamprad (its founder), Elmtaryd (the farm where he lived) and Agunnaryd (the village he grew up in)? Some will probably be able to tell you that Coca-Cola comes from coca leaves and cola berries but fewer will know that Pepsi gets its name from dyspepsia – another word for indigestion.

Yet the origin of these names is important. Along with market positioning and communicating the brand’s narrative and values, they create the cohesive story that serves as a foundation for all future work. Beyond that small matter, they also help staff understand the organisation’s culture, history and vision for the future. So when it comes to naming your business, you need to know that your name can do two things: attract attention and give you space to grow. A good place to start is to lay out all the names of the brands in your sector and look for the gap in the market. Branding is about telling a story that nobody else is; if everyone is calling themselves Something & Something, why not call yourself The Something Company? At this point, if you want a name that lasts, you’ll need to consider the trickier part: instilling your name with meaning.

We humans invest an awful lot in names. Whether it’s your beloved Italian greyhound, trusty fold-up bicycle or favourite kitchen succulent, assigning personality to things both living and inanimate comes naturally to us. So, naturally, the names of the brands we choose must hit the right notes.

Generally we want to feel a sense of honesty and integrity; that there is a certain provenance and an understanding of a wider purpose. Choosing something descriptive and straightforward might reduce your marketing budget in the short-term but, alternatively, that heavily marketed abstract name could help you build a brand that people remember. The name will influence the life and success of a business. Getting it wrong could leave you open to ridicule or as Peter York, co-author of The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook, says, “You don’t want your brand to get into the national joke factory.”

Naming a business is an emotional and financial investment, which is why trying to decide on a name can induce a form of business-halting paralysis. Perhaps it’s best to take inspiration from some of the biggest names in business. Jeff Bezos decided against calling his online retailer Cadabra and instead chose Amazon as it was closer to the beginning of the alphabet; Apple was named after Steve Jobs came back from a trip to an apple farm; and Häagen-Dazs was a name made up in 1961 by its founders to convey old-world tradition and craft. So there really aren’t any limitations apart from your imagination and ability to convince your colleagues of a name’s merits. But tread carefully: for every industry-defining winner, there’s a Thai Tanic (restaurant), Analtech (pharmaceutical company) and Big Beaver Stump Grinding (by all accounts a highly rated tree removal service in Massachusetts) waiting in the wings.

Today you need look no further than the adverts on your city’s metro carriage for the emerging moves in naming. Where space is cheap and visibility high, start-ups and those without asteroid-sized budgets can get some healthy exposure. On the London Underground the current tendency is for made-up words and a cavalier approach to spelling. That’s all very well as a way of guaranteeing domain space online but trends are fleeting and most of us remember words we can say – and spell.

Two bits of advice to leave you with. First, objectivity is your friend. Second, keep a naming brief to check back on. But the general rule is: if it feels right, it probably is. And if you change your mind you can always rename it. After all, Google was originally called BackRub; there’s hope for us all. Now what did you say your name was?

Golden rules of naming:

1.
Start wild
There will be time for safe ideas later so cut loose and go on a creative safari. At this point every idea should be welcomed, no matter how whacky.

2.
Head down the rabbit hole
You’re only ever one idea away from your Apple, Orange or BlackBerry so explore the fruit section at your supermarket. And don’t forget to have a read of that Old Norse dictionary. You never know where the perfect words might appear from.

3.
The eureka moment is rare
Good names can be slow burners. Don’t decide too quickly: the right name will often need time to percolate.

4.
Be lucky for more than just some
Sure, you want to be big in China but have you picked a number or a colour as part of your name? If so you should be sure to have a leaf through those numerous resources devoted to Chinese mythology to learn about what is lucky – and what is not so lucky.

5.
Beware grandma’s cat syndrome
Remember Iris, the angry half-Siamese that used to scratch your hand off every Christmas? Chances are that Iris isn’t a name you’re ever going to warm to. Everyone has objections to names based on personal experience so bear that in mind when discussing a newly minted one.

6.
Check before you buy
People get excited about names. They fall in love and they can’t move on. But make sure your name isn’t taken by an Indonesian telecoms giant. You’ll be disappointed and – even worse – you’ll have raised the bar for the next idea.

7.
Trends don’t last
Don’t plump for a name that fits the latest fashion if you want it to age gracefully. Name for keeps.

8.
Don’t box yourself in
Always choose a name that allows for an expanded business, service or product line. At one end of the scale you have overly descriptive names; at the other are the empty vessels. The best ones often lie in the middle.

9.
Don’t worry about URL availability
Modified urls can work just as well. It’s sometimes helpful to split naming ideas into types or constructs so that you’re ticking all boxes: abstract, simplistic and descriptive.

10.
If in doubt, make it up
This is generally a good idea if done with care. The trick is to take a word with positive associations that are relevant to your business then change a letter or two – and bingo. Or Bipgo. See? Easy.

Get a move on

1.
Annecy

“There’s room for everything here,” says Julien Latil, sitting on the terrace of his coffee shop Brumes. Whether he is referring to the dozens of small-batch coffees on sale at his café or to the many shops lining the streets of Annecy is unclear – but he probably means both.

Business in this French alpine town is thriving, with traditional Savoyard restaurants and ski-wear shops rubbing up against smart brunch spots and design-focused concept stores. “People in Annecy have a certain buying power,” says Latil, a reference to the many commuters living on Swiss salaries. “When I started out three years ago there was already a growing demand for niche products.”

Annecy is now home to a crop of handsome businesses that wouldn’t look out of place in much larger European cities – often because they are run by ex-Parisian or Lyonnais owners who moved here to find a better life at a lower cost and slower pace. “We came to Annecy for a weekend because we were looking to relocate and start a restaurant,” says Jérôme Bigot, a Parisian-born painter-turned-chef who runs restaurant Kamouraska with his Québécoise wife Marie-Hélène. “My wife was drawn to the lake, the mountains and the climate, which reminded her of Canada. And when we saw an artist’s studio for sale behind the cathedral, we knew that if we didn’t do it, someone else would move here and do what we always wanted to do.”

Three years ago the tiny alley that Kamouraska sits on had no other shops. These days its neighbours include a good florist and a zero-waste lunch canteen, also owned by Bigot. Luckily, being just off the main tourist drag has helped commercial rents remain well below the monthly city-wide average of €3,750 per 100 sq m. Similarly, residential rental prices generally drop by a quarter just a 10-minute cycle ride from the Alpine-style houses of the pretty Old Town.

Then there’s the option for business owners to enjoy the great outdoors during working hours, such as a lunchtime picnic by the town’s lake. Commuting to Switzerland for higher pay is still popular but more and more often, residents are choosing to work in Annecy instead of spending hours in traffic on the motorway to and from Geneva every day.

“I can take my bike and go cycling in the mountains before starting work,” says Germain Reinier, an Annecy native and the owner of menswear shop St Germain. “Annecy is a good compromise between city and nature.”

The wood-and-metal shelves in Reinier’s well-appointed shop are filled with Margaret Howell workwear jackets, Common Projects trainers and Ally Capellino backpacks, reflecting this mix of city and country living that the town embodies.

Annecy also boasts a decent cultural calendar, fuelled by an annual animated-film festival. Alice de Montalivet came here from Paris this spring to work for the festival. “Considering the size of the city there are so many cultural activities,” she says, gesturing to the nearby Haras building, a space for temporary exhibitions that will undergo extensive renovations from 2020 to house a film centre, galleries and a food hall.

“A lot of people are moving to Annecy after stints in Paris or abroad, realising that life here is sweet. Besides, Geneva airport is not far away,” she adds with a smile. “If you want you can be on a plane to see something different in almost no time.”

Why it works

With strong links to Switzerland and Geneva, this overlooked corner of France has a more buoyant economy than might be expected. That, paired with reasonable rents and a small city centre, has created the perfect storm for a growth in independent shops and new businesses. Thanks to a booming cultural sector and the Alps being on their doorstep, residents are never bored.

2.
Hiroshima

From the window of his second-floor office in downtown Hiroshima, Kengo Nakamoto has a view of the spot that put his city’s fashion-retail sector on the map. Six years ago in Fukuromachi Park, Nakamoto organised a two-day open-air market called Trunk that brought together fashion and stationery brands, chefs, coffee roasters, architects and record shops. It was a pivotal moment for an area that had previously been best known for its multilevel carparks.

“A decade ago nobody wanted to touch this neighbourhood,” says Nakamoto, who moved Ref, the first of seven clothing and lifestyle shops, to this low-rise area of overhead power lines and narrow streets in 2008. “People from this region used to travel to other cities to shop. We changed that by building a street-level retail culture here.”

The Trunk Market is now a biannual event with 60 stalls that attract crowds of more than 20,000. Its success helped Nakamoto persuade APC, Undefeated, Atmos, The North Face, Patagonia and others to open shops near the park.

Hiroshima is an outlier. It’s far from Tokyo – four hours on the Shinkansen – and the nearest major international airport (Kansai, near Osaka) is a three-hour train ride away. Perched on a delta that empties into the Seto Inland Sea, the city has a population just shy of 1.2 million. Its lack of density makes it manageable and everything moves slowly: the old-fashioned trams, the traffic, the pedestrians. The buildings could use a spruce up, the riverbanks are a little overgrown and even the okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) – Hiroshima’s soul food – are a messy hodgepodge. Yet these qualities lend charm to a place that sees no need for breakneck development. This – and its history (it’s one of two cities on which the US dropped an atomic bomb) – is what 13 million visitors come for each year. Entrepreneurs looking to get a start in the hospitality business couldn’t ask for a better set-up.

Two such people are Toshiyuki Ochi and his business partner Keiichi Moto, who set up shop and restaurant Engawa a year ago in a former warehouse in the city’s busy industrial port. Ochi, who has a construction business, and Moto, a professional photographer, have done wonders with just ¥2m (€17,000) in low-interest public loans and funding from banks, creating an elegant space of private tatami-mat rooms and wooden furniture. “We are targeting people who are looking to discover something new,” says Moto. To fill the shop they scoured the region for little-known artists and brands and picked their favourites: knitted scarves, sun-dried soba noodles, ceramic bowls, green tea and honey. “We wanted everything to fit the lifestyle, terrain and climate of the islands and the towns bordering the Seto Inland Sea,” says Moto. “People from all over the world come to Hiroshima. Its port is the gateway to the inland sea region. We are trying to connect the two.”

Elsewhere, in the city’s northern foothills, live Masafumi and Sumire Shimatani, the founders of Hankura Design. They got together at university but only decided to launch their own business in 2013 after a decade of working for others. Their four-person operation has produced many handsome shops and restaurants, coffee kiosks and homes around the region.

The Shimatanis are about as rooted here as anyone you’ll find. Masafumi, from nearby Onomichi, has never been abroad and doesn’t have a passport, while Sumire is a Hiroshima native. For them this is a dream location. “It’s convenient to work on projects almost anywhere in Japan’s western region,” says Sumire. It’s also a great place to be an architect thanks to 560,000 hectares of cypress, cedar and red-pine forests and some of the country’s most skilled carpenters, woodworkers and furniture makers.

The Shimatanis laud Hiroshima’s efforts to support entrepreneurs with subsidies and a downtown office with a library, workspace and printing machines, plus a backroom for seminars. But what they really want is somewhere to meet other young creatives and urban thinkers. They’ve created a proposal for a private lounge that will be part of a downtown hospital-cum-hotel renovation project opening before the end of the year. “There isn’t anywhere like this in the city at the moment,” says Masafumi.

For some it’s the proximity to nature that makes Hiroshima such an attractive place to live and work. Coastal diving spots, pristine fishing holes and forest hiking trails are all within an hour’s drive. Farms and orchards blanket the northern mountains and neighbouring islands, while the coastline is Japan’s top oyster-producing region.

At what might be the city’s most hidden breakfast spot, Home Run Shokudo (you get to it by climbing the stairs at the back of a garage on a residential side street), Kana Akutagawa is busy serving pescatarian meals with okayu, a rice dish.

She opened in 2017 and uses ingredients mostly from farms and producers around Hiroshima; her shelves are crammed with jars of pickled plums and peppercorns, homemade miso and preserved fruits from past years’ harvests. “I rely on a small vegetable dealer near where I live. The elderly couple who run it get their produce from farms just north of here. I love going there because they have taught me a lot about how to prepare and preserve vegetables.”

It’s the kind of story that you’re likely to hear in small towns and villages around here. “What I love about Hiroshima is that it’s a city but with just enough of a countryside streak running through it,” says Kana.

Why it works

The slower pace of life is a gift to anyone looking to do business slightly differently, with plenty of gaps waiting to be filled by savvy entrepreneurs. A reliably high visitor count means that there are always new customers to win; housing stock is slightly neglected but has plenty of potential. The ease of access to nearby coastline, forests and farms is hard to beat and provides plenty of chances for work and play.

3.
Locarno

When you picture a Swiss city, images of trams gliding through an urban landscape punctuated by prim and proper façades will likely come to mind. Then you visit Locarno, a sun-kissed lakeside settlement of palms and piazzas where winding streets lead to pastel-coloured palazzi filled with old-world charm.

For Canadian Marc Brosselard it wasn’t difficult to decide where in Switzerland to settle once he caught sight of the place. Unspoilt valleys, mountain peaks and the deep-blue waters of Lake Maggiore frame this corner of Canton Ticino, the lone state in the Helvetic confederation where the language of Dante is the dominant tongue.

“Buongiorno,” says Brosselard in a booming voice as patrons enter his tea shop, La Casa del Tè, which is nestled on a pedestrian lane in the heart of Locarno’s old town. Customers reply by calling Brosselard by his first name and long chats ensue. “It’s what makes this place great,” he says. “It’s a small tight-knit community where you know the other merchants and you have a regular following of clients. Being from Ottawa, I also don’t miss out on the snow – but here there’s the advantage that it stays on the mountaintop.”

Locarno’s microclimate is a big draw, helping to bring in a healthy number of tourists from Swiss-German cantons. The mild winters and 2,300 hours of sunshine a year mean it is frequented by a steady stream of second-home buyers and retirees with disposable income to spend in shops.

Fashion designer Lisa Pomari runs her slow-fashion label LP4 Studio out of an atelier on a quiet side street. “We have seasonal tourism but still have a good number of residents coming in to buy,” she says. “And being a small community, word of mouth gets out quickly when new things pop up.”

A Locarno native, Pomari studied fashion in Milan but chose to return to her hometown after graduating. “It’s the perfect base,” she says, pointing to the fact that Zürich is less than three hours away by train and Milan less than two. “You are right in between these two different worlds yet you can come back to your laidback life on the lake the same day.”

The living is good here. The waterfront provides plenty of space for cyclists and pedestrians to roam, while bright-red benches are strategically placed throughout the town for those wanting to take a breather and watch the world go by. Those eager to get wet have beach access on their doorstep. There’s also the sprawling Lido Locarno complex, which has a collection of indoor and outdoor pools, including a soothing thermal bath and spa.

Despite being home to fewer than 16,000 people, Locarno rivals major European cities with an envious cultural calendar. The undisputed star is the Locarno Film Festival held in August, which sees the main piazza converted into an open-air cinema that screens mainstream Hollywood productions as well as independents. The event draws an A-list crowd who come for the relaxed approach that’s light on glitz. Music festivals and performances are also common during the year.

“There’s a lot to see and do for a small town, while still being close enough to the big city when you need it,” says Zürich-native Susan Engelhard Herdeg, owner of Villa Novecento hotel. She and her husband had previously been guests at the 19th-century structure – which has leafy gardens and panoramic lake views – and fell in love with the area so much that they decided to take over the business.

For Matteo Inches, an Italian-born architect and longtime Canton Ticino resident, it was the scale of the town that drew him in. After living in Australia, he and his German wife Nastasja Inches-Geleta, also an architect, opted to set up their own practice in Locarno. They enjoy the mix of independent family-run shops, such as grocer Suini and pastisserie Marnin, known for its candied-pineapple panettone. “In Locarno there’s the Italian influence but with a Swiss quality of life,” says Inches. “It’s the perfect balance.”

Why it works

This is Swiss living but with an Italian twist, offering the winning combination of nearby Zürich and Milan. Residents have high spending power and like to enjoy the finer things in life, making this a great place for starting out in hospitality or retail. Add in a strong arts offering, an almost Mediterranean micro-climate and plenty of options for enjoying the outdoors (even within the city) and this becomes a standout place to live and work.

Hot desking

Both classic and contemporary design pieces should define the office of a sharp entrepreneur. Furniture selection reflects your brand values and we advise you to keep it tasteful, well organised and generous when it comes to kitting out your space. This will be appreciated by staff and clients alike and have a positive impact on your bottom line. Invest in pieces that are hard-wearing and think about systems that can adapt to your company as it scales up. Finally, you’re going to be spending much of your working day with these wares so keep things warm and cosy to soften those hard hours. Here are our office-furniture essentials.

Slatted bench
Twentytwentyone

A classic bench brings people together and placing one in your public space – whether that’s on the street in front of your shop or in the waiting room – shows a generosity that works wonders for your brand image. This walnut classic, from UK designer Robin Day, will never go out of fashion.
twentytwentyone.com

Stool
Benchmark

Foster + Partners’ Ovo timber-furniture collection for Benchmark focuses on pared-back pieces that blend in seamlessly to varied environments. A growing office will therefore welcome this stool, which will age gracefully alongside your firm.
benchmarkfurniture.com

Steel pipe drinks trolley
Cappellini

Come Friday afternoon, a well-stocked drinks trolley rewards you and your staff’s hard work. This steel version, reissued by Italy’s Cappellini, was designed by Shiro Kuramata in 1968 – a glorious year for office drinking.
cappellini.com

Table/system
USM

Swiss furniture brand usm remains synonymous with good office furniture and the modular nature of its pieces, supported by a hardy chrome-plated steel-and-brass system, means your collection can grow alongside your company.
usm.com

Co chair
Menu

One of the biggest constraints for a young company is space (or lack of it). Stackable chairs are essential in the early days and these, designed for London’s The Office Group (and now available commercially) by Norm Architects, are practical and smart.
menu.as

Kevi chair
Engelbrechts

The Kevi chair by Danish architect Jørgen Rasmussen has been serving entrepreneurs’ behinds since 1958. With its curved backrest, corduroy seat cover and discreet height adjustor, it’s a smart long-stay in a world of chairs that tend to be over-designed.
engelbrechts.com

Magazine holder
Fritz Hansen

A well-organised waiting room reflects a well-organised company. Fritz Hansen’s magazine holder keeps things neat while providing clients with a welcome distraction. Just make sure the latest Monocle has pride of place in this meshed-steel piece.
fritzhansen.com

Billy TL (Ilse Crawford edition)
Kalmar

A desk lamp will be your companion well into the wee hours so you want yours to be both warmly designed and reliable. Ilse Crawford’s rosewood-and-brass Billy TL will brighten up your desk, while its Austrian mechanics won’t let you down. kalmarlighting.com

Erei daybed
De Padova

We’re of the firm belief that a good power nap can improve productivity. Comfier than a couch and more discreet than an actual bed, De Padova’s plush Italian daybed will sit snugly in your corner office. A truly peaceful piece.
depadova.com

20 Books in 20 words

Just as there is an art to making a deal (if we are to believe Donald) there is an art – or rather, a formula – to writing a business book. First there’s the cover: shouty, all caps and in all shades of primary optimism. Then the content, often kicked off with a confession. There’ll be practical take-aways (three, five or seven skills to apply right now) and references to the rigorous research that went into them. Crossovers into sport or ancient wisdoms should be expected. Sometimes their message may not feel that surprising. And yet many of these titles have been selling millions of copies for decades. Like the lucrative self-help market they resemble, they have a way to make us feel like we’re taking action. Sometimes though, they do teach us lessons – however straightforward. Our insight? The formula for success is a little harder to find.

1.
Trump: The Art of the Deal
by Donald J Trump & Tony Schwartz

Believe me. He knows smart words. He knows the best words. They are great words. Losers can’t make deals. Sad!

2.
Factfulness
by Hans Rosling

Here’s a fact: what you think you know is probably just preconception. Only pursue things that are supported by evidence.

3.
Capital
by Thomas Piketty

You could read this massive and insightful tome about macro-economics but, really, what’s it going to teach you about “unicorns”?

4.
Zero to One
by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters

“Stop copying other people!” said Paypal’s co-founder, writing a book full of examples and giving you practical advice to follow.

5.
Good to Great
by Jim Collins

Disciplined leaders who hire disciplined people and face reality can be great – Collins isn’t just telling you, he’s got data.

6.
The Culture Code
by Daniel Coyle

Galvanise your staff by embracing tough feedback, delivering bad news in person and creating a corny catchphrase: be more bee.

7.
The Trust Manifesto
by Damian Bradfield

So you want to found a tech start-up? You folk don’t have the best rep nowadays. Better listen to users.

8.
Start With Why
by Simon Sinek

Whoever told you what matters is when and where your business started, well, they were wrong. It’s always about why.

9.
The 4-Hour Work Week
by Timothy Ferriss

Be effective. Act professional. If you listen to Ferriss you could read this sentence 200 per cent faster than most.

10.
Grit
by Angela Duckworth

Like everything else, grit can be developed. Don’t stop, never give up, hold your head high and reach the top.

11.
Dare to Lead
by Brené Brown

Did you think courage was about bravado? Vulnerability matters more. All perfectionism and no generosity make Jack a dull boy.

12.
Range
by David Epstein

The machines are coming: they can do your specialised, fiddly bits. All you have going for you is common sense.

13.
Everything is Figureoutable
by Marie Forleo

No money? Not your fault. You just need to figure out you can figure out anything that needs figuring out.

14.
Atomic Habits
by James Clear

Change is not about annihilating your former self. This book drops a different kind of bomb: baby steps transform lives.

15.
Trillion Dollar Coach
by Eric Schimdt (et al)

Teams want to be loved. Talk to them about stuff that’s not work – it won’t cost you a trillion dollars.

16.
Winning Not Fighting
by John Vincent & Sifu Julian Hitch

You’d think a martial arts-inspired approach to business requires warmongering but the opposite is true: breathe in the Shaolin serenity.

17.
I Will Teach You to be Rich
by Ramit Sethi

Allocate budgets. Invest early. The reason you can’t save is also why you got fat: you kinda can’t be bothered.

18.
The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries

Write your business hypothesis but don’t get too analytical: try it, test two options. Treat ’em lean, keep ’em keen.

19.
Bounce
by Matthew Syed

Take it from a table-tennis champ: talent is a tenuous idea. Greatness is not genetic. Guess what? It’s about practice.

20.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie

Make people feel like it was their idea. Listen. Praise. Smile. Avoid rows. And, for God’s sake, remember their names.

Images: Getty Images

Scaling up

It’s a real challenge for an entrepreneur to build a base that is beneficial to business and uses good design to create the correct culture within. Thankfully, what fledgling ceos might lack in terms of funding and resources early on they make up for in their inventiveness.

It’s those entrepreneurs that have a knack for bringing fruits to bear in the business world who are often clever in creating smart work environments. But as a business grows there will come a time when it takes commissioning a canny architect to raise an office’s design up a level – and this requires further vision.

It is undeniable that thoughtful office design is good for business. So, to learn more, we’ve toured our favourite workspaces, from simple home set-ups to bases that have expanded and grown to become the headquarters for global brands.

The lessons we have gleaned have been distilled into this simple rulebook: our guide to designing workspaces that reflect brand values, keep staff comfortable and allow for adaptability as a company scales up.

Rule 1
Eliminate distractions
Lilitt Bollinger, Nuglar, Switzerland

For the modern entrepreneur, working from home doesn’t necessarily mean you’re operating a small business. But doing business from an environment made for living is a recipe for distraction (a quick trip to a well-stocked fridge can be a slippery slope). For Swiss architect Lilitt Bollinger, who created both working and living spaces in this fine conversion of a former factory in the small Swiss town of Nuglar, the trick is a defined separation and the elimination of disturbance. “There should be a balance and it shouldn’t be too cosy,” she says of her minimalist workspace, marked by cool concrete floors and timber panelling. Here she works peacefully while keeping clear of the kitchen.

Rule 2
Design for wellbeing
Represent, London

Offices of all sizes benefit from a good dose of natural light and one rule for entrepreneurs looking for first digs is to give ceiling height and window size the same consideration as floor space. These factors benefit staff in London recruitment agency Represent’s new office. Opened earlier this year, it was formed on the double-height top floor of an old bicycle factory. While floor space is sufficient for this small business, a window-lined sloped roof allows light to bounce in off white-washed walls. Worker wellbeing is further enhanced by a masterfully crafted timber structure sitting within the space that forms private meeting pods and enriches the office environment with the warm smell of wood.

Rule 3
Create room to communicate
Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, Barcelona

There comes a point in every office’s life where open-plan becomes far too open and private spaces become essential. But meeting spaces shouldn’t feel like afterthoughts; a converted storage room will always feel more cupboard than conversational, while erecting glass cubes should be left to those in the aquarium business. What your office needs are meeting spaces designed with dignity in mind; these are the places where big decisions are made, career-defining concepts are refined and conversations that require privacy are afforded. For inspiration look no further than Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill’s office. These masterfully designed spaces are set in the theatrical stylings of a former cement factory.

Rule 4
Leave things exposed
Squire and Partners, London

As your business scales up you’ll begin to understand the power of “brand” and may feel the desire to use design as a tool to stamp your company’s identity onto every nook and cranny of your office. Please don’t. When it comes to architecture and your surroundings you can learn a lot from what already exists; if a building has already lasted many years it tends to be because it is well built. London’s Squire and Partners knows this fact well and the success of its conversion of a historic department store into its HQ comes as much from what has been left exposed as what has been added. “We didn’t want to lose the loveliness,” says partner Henry Squire of the layers of history this sensitive renovation reveals.

Rule 5
Work with what you’re given
Rainbow Publishing, Seoul

Entrepreneurs tend to think big but in their early days are often constrained by tight budgets. However, you don’t have to let a lack of funds limit the ambition of your office design if you think about it creatively. Just look at this new home for the young business Rainbow Publishing in Seoul. Here, architect DaeWha Kang worked within the confines of a small footprint site to erect anarrow five-storey structure where the staircase connecting each floor becomes the centrepiece of the design.

A 100-shelf bookcase (handy for a publisher) is adjoined to the light-flooded stairwells, which form stages for staff interaction across the office and have the added benefit of boosting fitness: Kang points to research that shows people who walk up five flights of stairs a day live longer than those that don’t. Healthy staff, healthy business.

Rule 6
Welcome with your architecture
Frama, Copenhagen

When a company installs a bedroom on its premises it doesn’t have to signal the fact that staff are being overworked. For Danish design company Frama’s base in Copenhagen, a sleeping space has been added to offer proper hospitality to weary visitors from far-flung regions. Friends of the company, and clients and distributors doing work at the furniture company’s centrally located HQ, can rest up here in comfort. The space is made extra cosy by the brand’s wares. It’s a fine live-in advertisement for Frama products and a finer representation of the values for which the brand stands.

Rule 7
Give staff a break
Studio Valentin Loellmann, Maastricht

Forming social bonds between staff members works wonders for creating a warm company culture. As such, a good workspace design is one that incorporates space for both work and recreation. As we reveal in our report on company cooks, a handsome dining area (and good food) is a key ingredient in bringing your team together. Maastricht-based artist Valentin Loellmann has taken things a few steps further for members of his growing studio. Here, in an environment that was custom designed by the artist, staff can relax in a sauna and work from a botanical garden. Loellmann almost added a swimming pool but decided against it. Some work still needs to happen, you know?

Rule 8
Leave a lasting impression
Note Design, London

Stockholm’s Note Design took inspiration from the world’s best airport lounges when thinking about how to form the perfect office lobby for London office Summit House. Like a good lounge, any well-designed lobby should welcome new arrivals, highlight the positive attributes of your brand and provide a comfortable space that people will be keen to linger in. From the spacing of the seating (close enough together to avoid isolation but far enough apart to create privacy) to the design of the front desk (inviting but authoritative), your public-facing parts are the ones that require the most manicuring.

Making it together

Big clothing, furniture and design firms today tend to make their products in locations far from where they are conceived. Perhaps it was globalisation and rampant offshoring that drove this? Or maybe it had something to do with the coronavirus pandemic, which helped workers to make the case that they could fulfil their roles from anywhere? Whatever the cause, how things are created can often feel detached from a company’s day-to-day operations.

Luckily, many entrepreneurs are now seeking to bridge the gap between conception and final product by integrating manufacturing into their office spaces. Why? It offers employees opportunities to test ideas more responsively and bring better products to market at greater speed. This can help employers to cultivate a more engaged workforce, as staff are able to see the fruits of their labour almost immediately.

Over the following pages, we visit three firms that chose to bring production in-house. From the pair who followed a thread that took them from the US to Morocco and the firm seeking a competitive advantage in Japan to an Italian firm that found a fresh use for some former stables, each reimagined their workplace to help them gallop ahead with their plans.

Beni Rugs
Tameslouht, Morocco

It’s fair to call Beni Rugs’ founders, Robert Wright and Tiberio Lobo-Navia, a tenacious pair. Back in 2015, Wright was in Morocco for a photoshoot involving the shoe brand he worked for at the time. He ended up buying several handmade rugs from a shop in Marrakech and shipping them back to New York. The rugs were an immediate hit with friends but both Wright and Lobo-Navia, who had joined him for the end of the trip, had noticed that the buying process wasn’t the smoothest. “Basically, it was hard to find a design you loved in the size you wanted,” says Lobo-Navia, who everyone calls Tibs. The couple saw a gap in the market for a beautiful product sold online that was easier to buy and came in living-room-friendly sizes. They set about turning Beni Rugs into a reality.

Despite not having any experience in the rug industry and few contacts in Morocco – a country with its own set of social, cultural, religious and linguistic complexities – Wright found himself on a plane bound for Marrakech the following spring. “I found my way back to the same shop,” he says. “I approached the owner and told him we had this custom-rug idea and wanted to work with him. He said, ‘Absolutely not. This is a crazy idea! You have to understand that Moroccan weaving doesn’t work like that.’”

That sort of initial knock-back would have been enough to sink an idea for many budding entrepreneurs. But not Wright and Lobo-Navia who, drawing on their wells of tenacity, weren’t put off at all. Wright says they had a “gut feeling” about the idea and it was enough to try a different tack. They approached the owner’s cousin and tasked him with convincing his family member to hear the pair out. The plan worked and Beni Rugs officially launched with six looms and 12 weavers.

Things have come a long way since the website first went live in 2018. Its founders organised the first photoshoot at a friend’s modernist home in Michigan that same year. Wright and Lobo-Navia may no longer be married but they call each other “family” and clearly share a common vision. Indeed, their shared desire to push boundaries also led to the signing of the lease for the new headquarters in 2020, rented from artist Mohamed Mourabiti. Located about half an hour’s drive outside Marrakech in the town of Tameslouht, the HQ embodies just how far the brand has travelled. Painted in a bright blood orange that contrasts with the deep blue of the cloudless Moroccan sky, stepping through the gate feels like entering a sanctuary – or perhaps a high-end rescue centre given the number of cats milling about, all of them given “Spanish old-lady names”, jokes Lobo-Navia, such as Hortensia and Jacinto.

Walking past a garden full of olive trees, succulents and cacti, as well as a pétanque court, you arrive at an impeccable showroom which feels influenced by Lobo-Navia’s years working in New York’s hospitality scene. There’s a red 1970s Togo sofa from Ligne Roset in front of a wood-and-marble bar with a La Marzocco coffee machine perched atop it. There are Clara Porset chairs from Luteca and a stunning locally made table in square pieces of Thuya wood; on its surface a collection of weaving books and antique trinkets. Next door’s office has a pair of mid-century sputnik chandeliers in Murano glass from a vintage dealer in Marrakech, while the walls are covered in Moroccan cork. Everywhere you look there are soft, colour-popping rugs underfoot, arranged with such taste that you want to step around rather than over them.

One of the things you notice about the rugs is that the designs are contemporary and don’t immediately nod to Moroccan aesthetics. “Part of the aim was to not appropriate traditional designs,” says Wright, who adds that the idea has always been to use Moroccan weaving talent and techniques – from flat woven to knotted – to create something different. The founders knew from early on that, for several factors including quality control and consistency, they needed to bring weaving in-house and “vertically integrate” as Lobo-Navia calls it. “We learned along the way,” he adds. “Every system we’ve built from the ground up, on our own.”

Although slowed by the pandemic, the Tameslouht atelier, showroom and headquarters opened in May 2021 after extensive refurbishment driven by the founders’ desire to create the right working environment. “This building was dark and broken up, with the courtyard walled in,” says Wright. Windows were installed around the central external space, where a 150-year-old olive tree was planted and a fountain added. “Our whole idea was to have transparency between the business side and the weaving.”

Beni Rugs’ HQ started with about 20 weavers, all of them women, and the number has since grown to 65. A new atelier opened in Sidi Zouine at the end of September, employing 20, and with the capacity to grow to more than double that number. Wright and Lobo-Navia are also eyeing another production facility, all part of creating centres of weaving talent. And while the brand still works with the initial partner for some orders to to a growth that more than tripled in the first few years of business, and currently stands at 40 per cent year-on-year, all rugs pass through Tameslouht for final checks, as well as the washing and surface burning that are part of the cleaning and softening process. After the rugs are hosed-down, they’re left out the back of the building and on the roof to bake dry in the North African sun.

Wright and Lobo-Navia’s model clearly differs from the often-extractive relationship in which Western companies come to developing countries simply because labour is cheaper. Alongside hiring people, the pair has also clearly committed to place. Both have been learning French and Moroccan Arabic, known as Darija, with Lobo-Navia renting a villa a 10-minute drive away from the HQ and Wright based in Marrakech (when he’s not in Barcelona or New York).

Both admit that bringing staff into the office wasn’t easy at the beginning due to cultural differences. But it has also proved a game changer. Traditionally, Moroccan weavers work at home or in small cooperatives near where they live, having to source their own yarn and find a market afterwards. At Beni, five buses a day bring people from Marrakech and villages to the office, and Beni’s founders have made sure that there is a real possibility for those coming onboard to work their way up from a beginner to a maallema (master). “In other facilities it’s hard to find young people,” says Afaf Chouhaidi, Beni’s director of operations. “But in the past few months we have had 10 young weavers join. There’s a career path.”

Lobo-Navia says that the HQ is all about building a work culture. “Our vision is unusual,” he says. “It’s community, it’s collaborative.” Alongside the couscous Fridays organised for the team, and the annual go-karting attended by the hyper-competitive washing and packing men, each weaver also gets a chance to make their own rug, all part of giving back to people who are used to making for others rather than thinking about a design for their own homes. Clearly the Beni founders want people to relish coming to work and value a craft that has sometimes been under-appreciated in Morocco.

Last year, the company signed with bricks-and-mortar retailer, Design Within Reach, becoming available in its 65 outlets throughout the US. Beni had to ramp up production to provide inventory when previously the model had been entirely made-to-order. And while it was stressful, they got the job done. When the shipment was finally complete in the early hours of the morning, Lobo-Navia and Wright sent a dkakiya music troupe to the HQ to serenade employees as a thank you.

With experimentation on the horizon, including a soon-to-come denser weave – and possible extension to another building in Tameslouht as the rug collection of over 240 designs grows – Beni wouldn’t be where it is without 66-year-old maallema Rachida Ouilki, whose quietly strong gaze suggests that she may share some of the tenacious qualities of her employers. Weaving since the age of 10, she says she is happy to teach new people coming through Beni’s doors the craft. “The weaver should love what they’re doing,” she says from a shaded area in the back patio. Does she? “Too much.”
benirugs.com

Arc’teryx
Tokyo, Japan

“There’s such an amazing connection between the brand and Japan with regards to the simplicity, beauty and innovation that we love,” says Katie Becker, the chief creative officer of Vancouver-based outerwear company Arc’teryx. She has just overseen the opening of the brand’s new outpost in Tokyo, its first overseas. Renowned for its minimalist, high-performance design, Arc’teryx worked with Torafu Architects to reimagine a concrete-and-glass building in the Daikanyama neighbourhood. Its primary aim is to function as a base for operations and community-building in Japan.

But unlike an ordinary creative workplace, the office has room for pattern makers and sewers to work on new ideas. Additionally, the basement, which doubles as an events space, contains a cutting room that’s equipped with materials and tools. Here, the Arc’teryx team can rapidly prototype and test ideas, speeding up the production process. “This is called a creation centre because we can actually make things here,” says Becker. “There are sewing machines and steam-tape machines. We can make a waterproof jacket in a day and go outside to test it right away.”

For Arc’teryx employees who aren’t out in the field exploring new concepts, the building has been designed to welcome the elements. The roof is an open garden area inspired by both the mountain landscapes of British Columbia and Japan’s rich forests. Here, seating made from Yanase cedar from Kochi prefecture has a circular form to encourage conversation and creative back-and-forth. “We had this concept of creating a connection between inside and outside, the surrounding city and nature, as well as a place that is enriched by elements such as technology, culture and nature,” says Torafu architect Koichi Suzuno. The interior is filled with mountain-inspired artworks while one double-height wall is lined with Japanese craft and design, alongside vintage Arc’teryx jackets and mountain kit. “The wall is designed to provoke discussion and show the brand in context by displaying items from Japan with pieces that convey Arc’teryx’s history and philosophy,” says Suzuno.
arcteryx.com; torafu.com

Giopato & Coombes
Treviso, Italy

“It was a classic romance,” says Cristiana Giopato, the co-founder of leading lighting company Giopato & Coombes. She tells Monocle that she met her husband, UK-born Christoper Coombes, while on an Erasmus study programme in the 1990s. Today they work from an elegant 18th-century villa in the city of Treviso in northern Italy, designing and producing lighting pieces for hotel lobbies, jewellery shops and apartments worldwide.

After starting their careers in Milan – Giopato with Patricia Urquiola and Coombes with George Sowden – and working there for a decade, the duo felt that something was missing. “We wanted direct involvement in projects,” says Giopato. “In 2014 the time seemed right for us to bring everything in-house, to have a vertical model and become our own brand,” she adds, looking out over the villa’s lawns to a large former stable building that they have recently converted into a cavernous workshop and office space hosting 38 staff.

From the outset, the duo were keen to experiment with their fledgling brand. “One of the first things that we learnt was the importance of a continuous learning process,” says Giopato, in a soft but self-assured voice. As such, the company has invested in showcasing the artistic, conceptual stages of its work, displaying experimental installations with titles such as “To Draw Breath”. In 2024, Giopato & Coombes exhibited in Seoul, Milan, Copenhagen and New York. “Through these experiments, we realised that there’s the idea, the market and the production,” says Giopato.

Taking such an approach and creating a compact lighting-design campus in Treviso, Giopato & Coombes has, in effect, cut out the middlemen. By going to the market with products that it has developed in its own workshop space – and by showing technical and craft skills directly to a broad audience – the company is receiving vital feedback from potential new clients. “We operate a little differently,” says Giopato. “We are more like a fashion atelier than an ordinary lighting manufacturer.”
giopatocoombes.com