Q-1) Kindly give our readers an introduction to your business. Please include what your business is all about, in which city you are located and if you have offices in multiple locations/ cities.
A – Our restaurant stared in Treviso, Northern Italy, in 1986, where we still have the original location. Few years later, we open and grew in South America. In 2000 we came to USA, started in Miami, where we expended and currently have seven restaurants plus two more locations in Houston, TX. Our offices are in Terviso Italy and Miami.
Q-2) Kindly give us a brief description about yourself (it should include your brief educational or entrepreneurial background and list some of your major achievements).
A – Really early in life, at age 16, I started to work in the restaurant business. I liked to grow in this kind of industry and I stared my first restaurant, “Ugly Man” “Uomo Peu Brutto”, at a young age in 1982, in Treviso, Italy.
Q-3) What inspired you to (start a new business venture) or (to make significant changes in an existing business)? How did the idea for your business come about?
A – After a long experience in pub and nightlife restaurants, one day we decide to open a pizza place. A pizza place that will give a different meaning to pizza, an upscale pizzeria with a large divers pizza menu. In Italy, back in the days, they missed the good kind of pizza restaurant, with a tablecloth and good seat down service. We were among the first ones to open this king of restaurant in Italy and in America. Slowly, we transition to a casual seat down restaurant.
Q-4) What three pieces of advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs?
A – Dream, believe and be persistent in your project
Q-5) What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
A – You need to be a hard worker; you need to have leadership skills and the capability of transporting your idea to others.
Q-6) How many hours do you work a day on average?
A – When you like your project and believe in it, you enjoy work and you do not call it work. You do not count the hours, you count the success.
Q-7) To what do you most attribute your success?
A – I never looked for success; I only look for the realization of my dream. Believe and persistency in my idea brought me success.
Q-8) How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
A – Marketing in house is the most successful marketing. I am a strong believer that good food, good ambiance and good service, will bring you good marketing. And it proved me right over the ears.
Q-9) Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
A – When you believe in your dream, you find funding. To start, the capital came from my family and myself. Over time, other invested in my dream, because my believe made them believe in my dream.
Q-10) What is the best way to achieve long-term success?
A – Persistency is the road to success. Never think about the money, continue to believe and the believers will come to find you. Success does not go hand in hand with the money.
Q-11) Where you see yourself and your business in 5 – 10 years?
A – I hope we can keep growing and bring the brand in other cities.
Q-11) Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
A – Diesel, as fashion; Cipriani, Starbucks, Mister O1, as food industry
Q-12) How important have good employees been to your success?
A – 100%. Employees are the most important pillars to build a business. Without them, your dream is just a dream. They are more important than the investors.
Q-13) How long do you stick with an idea before giving up?
A – Forever, I stick with my ideas. Giving up is the easiest solution, but in the same time the biggest enemy of the success.
Q-14) What motivates you?
A – Execution of my dream was always the motivation.
Q-15) What are your ideals?
A – My ideals of business was and still is, to create a place where customers are coming generation after generation, parents with children, and the children with their children, and so on.
Q-15) How do you generate new ideas?
A – Traveling and listening to the new generation, keeps me in touch with the changes and bring new idea.
Q-16) How do you define success?
A – Success, in my definition, is to create a healthy business that can easily be duplicated, without losing your business identity.
Q-17) How do you build a successful customer base?
A – Like building a pyramid. You build the base by believing that the customers and employees are the most important asset of your business.
Q-18) What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
A – To be in charge 24 hours a day without feeling fatigue of the boring office work.
Q-19) What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
A – The first time our business was in the newspaper and TV, back in the days, about 35 years ago, when it was really difficult to be there and the times when I give speeches to the young generation.
Q-20) What do you feel is the major difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for someone else?
A – The freedom of creativity!
Q-21) What kind of culture exists in your organization? How did you establish this tone and why did you institute this particular type of culture
A – Culture is the respect for every kind of individual, and I do not think you need to establish it, it is coming from education.
Q-21) In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.
A – Dreamer!
Q-22) If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently?
A – Manage the time different. Better time management!
Q-23) How has being an entrepreneur affected your family life?
A – Is always difficult and a challenge, being a night entrepreneur, to manage your family life.
Q-24) What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?
A – Failing the dream is the greatest fear, but you can manage it by believing in your dream.
Q-25) How did you decide on the location for your business?
A – Listening to my heart!
Q-26) Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
A – There is no formula!
Q-27) If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?
A – Artist Keith Haring. He broke a lot of buriers with his art, by following his own dream.
Q-28) Who has been your greatest inspiration?
A – Restaurateur Alfredo Beltrame.
Q-29) What book has inspired you the most? (OR what is your favorite book?)
A – L’uomo Che Piantava Gli Alberi (The Man Who Planted Trees) by Jean Giono.
Q-30) What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made?
A – Let some employees go with no reason.
Q-31) How can you prevent mistakes or do damage control?
A – Patience!
Q-32) What are your hobbies?
A – Art and walking!
Q-33) What do you do in your non-work time?
A – Traveling and walking
Q-34) What makes you happy?
A – Woke up early and go for a walk.
Q-35) What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
A – Limited time with my family, my daughter and friends.
Q-36) If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
A – What made you decide if you want to be an entrepreneur or you want to work for someone else?