Marchetti found his own recipe for success by combining Silicon Valley hard skills with Italian passion, creativity, and humanism. In some ways, Marchetti’s approach to business harkens back to this Italian DNA, and yet Marchetti helped bring fashion into the 21st century by building Italy’s first tech unicorn - in a country lacking digital infrastructure and tech culture. Marchetti took a few million-dollar investment from Benchmark Capital and turned it into YOOX Net-a-Porter Group, which was eventually sold in 2018 to Cartier’s parent company, Richemont, in a $6 billion transaction value.

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Marchetti’s story features bold-faced names against a backdrop of European vistas – Milan, Lake Como, Venice, and England’s Royal Palaces. The journey starts with a challenging Italian childhood, and hits on many of the most significant moments in international business over the past decades – from a 90-hour week at Lehman Brothers, to working in the Twin Towers, to absorbing the energy of Columbia Business School during the infancy of the internet and launching a startup right before the dotcom bubble. Along the way he meets the who’s who of e-commerce and technology from Jeff Bezos (Marchetti declines Bezos’ offer to buy his company) to dinner at Bill Gates’ Seattle home and to a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg in Milan.

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This being an Italian story, there’s helpings of style. Marchetti throws parties with Anna Wintour, advises Giorgio Armani (Federico sits on the Armani board as the only non-family member), frequents the front row at catwalk shows, co-invests in the films of movie director Luca Guadagnino (who later designs Federico’s five homes) and ends with the dazzling Coronation of King Charles III where he sits on another type of front row as the only Italian invited alongside the President of the Republic of Italy.

The King of England now considers Marchetti his consigliere on matters of climate change, regenerative fashion, and innovation, collaborating on a number of initiatives including The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force and The Modern Artisan project. Marchetti is currently focusing his innovative approach, entrepreneurial spirit, and business expertise to accelerate sustainability in many domains of the fashion industry.

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The book, a Top 10 bestseller in Italy, covers the highs and the lows of creating the world’s leading online fashion company and is filled with surreal situations, unexpected happenings, and ‘sliding door’ moments. It speaks to the next generation of entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to find the courage to change the world: this is a book on how to achieve the American dream in an Italian way.