Walking into the Stajvelo offices in Monaco you notice the lighting, the art, the dedication to building uniquely designed bicycles; and then you see all the Formula 1 photographs, helmets and trophies. It’s quite a first impression. I really didn’t know what to expect considering I’d never been to Monaco. I did know that Stajvelo’s visionary founder, THIERRY MANNI, is F1 driver Charles Leclerc’s uncle and that they are close to this day and that his young son Andréa is also training to be a race driver. I was secretly hoping that Charles would randomly pop in to say hello while I was there, and I would introduce myself and awkwardly ask for a photo. But that didn’t happen.
What did happen was I got to meet and talk to an accomplished, humble, wise and astute businessman who had transitioned from his family business into creating Stajvelo. He exuded confidence and calmness and had an inspiring business plan for his eight-year old bicycle company whose bikes are hand-built in Italy. We would ride Stajvelo e-bikes to the harbor for a lunch that included large towers of oysters and ice-cold champagne. I expected a bit of Monaco flair, but I didn’t expect to be so inspired by Thierry and his vision for Stajvelo.
What do you want Fausto readers to understand about the Stajvelo brand? Maybe the thing I would like to help them discover is the fact that we are not a regular bike manufacturer. I mean, I guess there are thousands of different brands. Most of them are buying bikes from Taiwan or China. Clearly, they are doing a good job. But our philosophy right now is to be a European-based supplier. It’s also really to be seen as a custom-made supplier. That means when you decide to enter our family, you decide not to buy a bike from the brand but to build your bike from Stajvelo. That means you’re going to choose your color, you’re going to choose your design, you’re going to choose your geometry, you’re going to choose your components, you’re really going to build your bike from scratch.
Why did you get into the bike industry? I don’t even know (he laughs). I mean, first I was riding bikes very often. The first day I sold our first bike and I saw the person riding the bike in Monaco, I was very proud. Proud of the team, proud of what we accomplished over the last years of development. It was also a part of my life [as] I always had to follow the family company, everything had been built and so we were just managing. While here we were talking about creation, we were talking about building something new. So, I was once again at the period of my life, I mean I lost almost all my family within three years, so I just told myself how about building your own product? So it was this, plus the sport, plus the passion for the technology and my passion for bikes.
I want to continue to do something, build something and I want to develop this brand. You have to manage the pleasure that it is giving you.
What have you taken from your past business experience into Stajvelo that has helped you and what are the things that are most different from that world and the cycling world? Two big differences: I was managing a group that was approximately 10,000 people so I had my board of management, I was talking with seven people and I was traveling to all the different plants we had worldwide—but I was not touching the product. In the company, we were making parts of the system of the car, so we were delivering, for example, dashboards. Okay, that is boring. Yes, technically, it’s very interesting but it’s not something romantic. So, what I took from that is project management capacity, because once you have to manage such a company with all the processes in turn, that helps you learn a lot. So, the way now we manage the team and we manage the project, this is something I learned from that.
What is it about Monaco, what is it about your F1 background that is in the brand? When we started, there was one thing that didn’t change from the beginning, and that was to put the Monaco flag on our bikes. I am from Monaco, I was born in Monaco and almost always lived in Monaco. So, this country, I mean, I just love it and I think that Monaco is also playing the game to try to maintain some industrial capacity or industry. Monaco is full of people that have passion for their work.
You want it to be a certain size? And stay there? Yeah, I do believe that. It’s like, you may have a lot of money, but I think it’s going to be stupid to try to find a house that is 4,000 square meters (43,000 square feet) when you are three people. And I think that right now we’ve made some calculations and some simulations. We know that we can reach the right number with our structure. And with our production plan here, if we go higher than that number, that means we’re going to have to move, we’re going to have to employ more people, etcetera.
Do you think your former experience and your age have allowed you to know what’s important, what’s good and what is enough? Of course. It’s hard to learn. Yeah, and there are some things that I don’t want, that I learned over time and with the events that I went through that makes you think, okay, do I want this type of life? And now, with the racing projects, with Charles and Andréa, I need to be able to give them some time. I need to give time to my family. I see success through the combination between work and my family.
When you wake up in the morning and you think about coming to work, what are your thoughts? First, I enjoy it. Even if it’s hard, I enjoy it. You know, that’s the beginning of the week when you feel it. I went to Italy to pick up 37 bikes that we were finishing, painting for our customer in Dubai. First, I was very proud, then I was very happy. I want to continue to do something, build something and I want to develop this brand. You have to manage the pleasure that it is giving you.
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