YouSaid · the spoken record

Leonardo Del Vecchio

lines on the record: 26
first: 2025-07-13
most recent: 2025-07-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Only way to grow in a world of giants is to offer the best products. And so there's all this fighting going on between him and his partners. And then they realize, uh-oh, we created a competitor. So we need to destroy this guy. And the way we're going to destroy him is they were the ones that were guaranteeing the company's credit. You need a credit line from a bank for the factories to survive. So they're okay. We're going to pull the credit. And this is where I mean there's like this Rockefeller-esque situation going on here. They're convinced we're going to pull this credit. We're going to strangle this guy. This guy can't get far without us. And the reason I compare it to Rockefeller is because they didn't know who they were dealing with. So they pull their credit. Leonardo calls all his employees together and he has like tears in his eyes. He's like, I'm afraid I can't pay the salaries this month. He's crying, but he's also refusing to give up. He said, we will move forward on our own. If you don't feel secure, you can leave. They all stay. He doesn't lose a single employee. And so he has two ideas. He goes to his second largest customer, right? Because he just lost his first customer and they pulled the credit. And so this guy.”
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“They never treated him as a real partner. This is a guy that it's the best in the world at what he does. He has pride, he has drive. He's doing all the work. And he realizes, oh, you're not, I'm not a partner to you. I'm just like a supplier to be squeezed. So they try to push him on price. They drop in on the factory without telling him. And Dovecchio realizes, oh, this is not a long-term solution. And I'm at risk right now because I have way too much revenue concentration with MetalFlex. And so he does something really smart before he breaks up with his partners. He starts looking for other customers. And he also realizes even though he's younger and has way less money than his partners, he's like, wait a minute, I have a form of leverage here because literally nobody else can match the quality of my product. Think about it as quality is his survival strategy. And he would tell his employees, he's like, listen, we're going up against these giants. And there's not just the Italian companies, the German companies, the Austrian companies. And he says, an obsession with perfection. And he was convinced of the fact that the only...”
2025-07-13 · Founders · #394 An Orphan Who Built An Empire: Leonardo Del Vecchio and The Founding of Luxottica · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Forces in business and life, from six thousand euros to twenty five billion in sixty years. And all of this happened in a remote location. The town that he sets up his first factory in doesn't even have a single paved road, and I actually think there's a benefit that people overlook here. He benefits from being in such a remote location. The early employees had no other options. They gave everything to the company because it was their only opportunity to provide for their families. Some of the early employees stayed for fifty years, their sons and daughters worked in their factory, their grandsons and granddaughters worked in the factory. And they're willing to follow Delvecchio because he leads from the front. This is what he says. I used to come to the factory at five or six in the morning, really whenever I woke up and I would stay until midnight. The company is my life. So this is when he starts to take control of Luxotic and he has to break up with his partners. What they didn't understand.”
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“I would tell my brother, who also worked in the factory, wake up. The boss is already there. In 1961, Delvecchio invest five hundred thousand Lira for thirty three percent of the company. So that's about 6,000 euros today. So he puts in 6,000 euros for 33% of this company, 60 years later, his shares will be worth 25 billion euros from 6,000 euros to twenty five billion in sixty years. My friend Moses Kagan had this great tweet and something me and him bond over is this obsession of not interrupting the compounding what you're meant to do and do it forever. And he was looking at resumes if I remember correctly and it's just like, you know, people just jumping around every year, two years, three years, whatever the case is. And this is what he said. By jumping around like this, you're giving up the benefits of long-term compounding and long-term compounding is one of the most powerful.”
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“To customers at the post office to receiving sales and purchasing documents, months and months of apprenticeship that allowed him to understand the industry from inside one of the leading factories. And this guy, he doesn't miss the opportunity to learn from the best, and he also takes note of everything. Names, addresses, people. He studied every detail of the industrial activity, understood who the most promising customers were, which products were the most popular, information that would prove useful a few years later to compete directly with his former partners. This is another great example of the maxim that you and I see over and over again in these books. If you know your business from A to Z, there's not a problem you can't solve. He's going to run through these dudes like a hot knife through butter. This is an example of his early employees describing him, but also another example of how bad do you actually want it. I would wake up and it was still dark. I would open the shutters and check the factory on the other side of the river. I would always find the light on before dawn.”
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“Here, build factories, build businesses, and hire the people that are living in the town. Now the degree to which Dovecchio will thoroughly dominate. He's going to turn this village that was depopulating into a Luxica town. At one point, there's like 4,000 residents of the village, and there's 4,500 people working at this factory. And so he has 26 years old. And again, the book makes this point several times, I think it's important to point out. This is the start of his empire, but he didn't know it at the time. He never did. He just sees an opportunity for growth and he pursues it. His entire career is one step at a time with a clear and simple idea to be the best. And if you want to be the best at what you do, then growth is necessary. Now Delvecchio's relationships with his partners is going to remind you a lot of Rockefeller. So the Metalflex owners, what they thought is like, oh, we found a way to expand our business, but what they didn't see is that they created a threat. So before setting up the factory, they say come work at the MetalFlex headquarters so you can actually learn how to build these businesses. So they had him do everything from delivering parsley.”
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“A company called Metalflex. They have more demand than they can fill and they want to start a new factory. So they propose partnering with Del Vecchio to run that new factory. He will be a minority shareholder. They want him to run it. He was worried about being a minority shareholder there. He said this would castrate his ambitions. Remember, this is a man obsessed with control. Maintaining control was important to him and he would never, ever compromise that. And even though he's very young at this point in the story, he had very clear ideas about his future. So he forms a limited partnership and he's the general partner so he can maintain control of the factory. He insisted on operational control despite not owning the majority of the company. So he sets up the factory in this town of Orgordo because the mayor is giving away free land for companies that will come create jobs. Once the mine closed down, the population was dwindling and so the mayor actually did something smart. He's like, hey, you know, you can have the land.”
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“Industry that promises high profit margins to those who are able to produce high level products. Remember, his obsession with quality is important and it's also even more important because he decides to direct that his obsession with quality to an industry that will pay for it. And again, he repeats that he sensed that he had something extra compared to his competitors. His guiding strategy is very simple. I want to be the best at everything I do. That is all. This is very important because the application of that idea leads directly to the beginning of Luxica, the way he founds Luxotica is that one of his best customers, remember, he's a subcontractor at this time. He's going to start at the very bottom of the industry and then just Sherman marched to the sea and absolutely dominated over the next 50 years. So one of his best customers wants to become his partner. So there are two wildly successful entrepreneurs.”
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“To refer to, but perfection as a fact. He has several great and important ideas. Number one, he realizes there is less competent competition in the eyeglass sector. And so he's going to focus on the industry completely. He starts out as a subcontractor. This is what his first business is, producing molds and small metal parts for eyeglasses. Two, he also realizes that the sector is the most profitable. He says, among the small metal parts that he was making, the parts for glasses gave me the most profit. three. He realizes to his customers quality is more important than price. You need to remember this idea. He's going to use this idea so many times over the next sixty years. When my clients were ordering new molds for eyeglass temples, they were not so much interested in the product's price as in the quality and in the fact that the molds were made to perfection. And this is how the book describes this turning point in his life. Leonardo understands that he can expand into an”
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“Starts. He goes and plays with all the rookies. And Larry says this. It took me three days of rookie camp. And I found out, hey, this league is nothing. I can play in this league and I will dominate in this league. The reason I bring that up is because you're going to see Doveccio throughout his entire career. He cannot understand why his competitors don't have the ambition that he has, are satisfied with the small stakes. He'll repeat this over and over again. Don't work as hard as he does and are incapable of making the quality, the same quality of product that he is. And so as soon as he can, it's just a year that he's doing both jobs. After year, he resigns from his day job and devotes himself full time to building his business. He is 23 years old. And from this point at 23 until he dies, I think he dies at 87 years old. He follows one, only one categorical imperative. Excellence. He says, if you want to stay in the market, you must always seek perfection. And it's not perfection as a disease, not as an abstract idea.”
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“One of the things that helps push him and to work way harder than anybody else, he says, there's a line in the book where he says he never stops because he knows he is good. He understands the key to success is in his pocket. This is what he said. I realized I was good because when I delivered my finished work, I immediately got new orders and never had to make changes. Even though I was young, I realized that I had something more than my competitors. That is one of the most important lines in the book, if you think about where he's at in his life. In fact, it reminded me of one of my favorite stories from Larry Byrd, the basketball player. You know, Larry went to Larry Bird went to a tiny college. He went to a small school. And people didn't think that he could make it in the NBA. And then they told him that you're not going to be able to make it in the NBA. And so Larry is talking about this later in his career after he's won, you know, multiple championships and had a Hall of Fame career. And he said, oh, that I won't be able to get my jump shot off, that I'm not quick enough, that I won't be able to rebound. And so after he was drafted in the NBA, before the first season,”
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“He was ever going to stay working for anyone else. So, this is when he starts his first company. He decides to open his first workshop in a tiny spot that he calls the hole. By day, he's still working his day job at the factory, and at night he works for himself. And so Dovecchio begins to produce molds for various industries. He starts out as a subcontractor. It is a strictly family-run business. It's Dovechio, his wife, and his brother are helping him out as well. And he doesn't quit his job right away because he needs a fixed salary as a guarantee for the loans required to start the business. This is how he's going to transition from how he buys his first machines and he starts to transition from artisan to industrialist. He's very much a craftsman at this point. And one thing I love about reading all these biographies is there's always these examples and anybody that creates something great. And the way I think about this is like, how bad do you actually want it? Like, how bad do you actually want this to happen? He is working 20 hours a day.”
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“More and more and more control over what he's doing. This relentless, methodical march for deeper and deeper vertical integration. And you see it when he's 14. He's also wicked, smart. He understands two important things about himself from an early age. One, doing one's job well, whatever it may be, being the best at it is non-negotiable for him. And the second thing he realizes is that he's got a lot more drive and passion than other people around him. He said, I've always thought of myself as privileged for the passion I had inside and for my enormous desire to do. So by the time he's eighteen years old, he's promoted to run the factory. He's now the head of the factory. For a few years, he keeps his position, and so he winds up getting married and having kids early on. And so he's making enough money, right? He's running the factory. He's in his late teens, early 20s. And he could have just stayed in that position. He would have never been poor. But there was no way.”
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“And this is important because it's engraving that first puts him in contact with eyeglass frames. He's handed a pair of aluminum eyeglass frames and he's asked to engrave decorations on the temples. This is the very first time that a young Leonardo DeVecchio will handle the object that will change his life. He quickly understands that he's good. He's very precise. He's meticulous, and he's restless. Almost immediately he wants to start his own business as soon as he can because he does not like having to rely on other people. He refuses, there's a line in the book later on. It says, Daveo cannot be controlled. He refuses to let other people have command over him. I think Del Vecchio is a great example of the wisdom that Charlie Munger had when Charlie Munger said, hey, it really helps. Don't read business books. Read the biographies because it helps to tie the ideas to the personality that developed them. If you grew up like Doveccio, if you experienced what he experienced, of course, like if you look at his entire 60-year career, it's just him getting.”
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“Of his childhood. He will never have to be poor again. He will never be forced to rely on anyone other than himself, so the company he works at, he works their journey today, and then the company sends him to school at night, so he's taking drawing and engraving classes at night.”
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“All of their stories are united by the same thread. They know the harshness of poverty, the pangs of hunger. They become skilled craftsmen thanks to a trade learned at the orphanage. They seek independence from a young age, are not satisfied with their first success, and continue to grow their businesses into becoming leaders in their respective fields. Young Leonardo de Vecchio is orderly and precise, he says at this time, I liked to study, and the trade that he learns in the orphanage is engraving, which he doesn't know at this time is going to lead to his career in glasses, so he finds a master ready to take a minute as an apprentice at a metal factory. He is fourteen when he leaves the orphanage and starts working full time and really more than full time. And from this point for the rest of his year, he has a singular obsession to be the best. The way he thinks about it is if he is the best at what he does, he will never again be forced to suffer the heart.”
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“To fight against your inherent laziness, you are told perseverance makes the difference and that talent isn't enough. And what's interesting about this, and there's several stories in the book, but there's several Italian entrepreneurs of the 20th century that were at the same orphanage. They follow remarkably consistent and similar paths. They all start out as great craftsmen first, then industrialist. And they said they were united by maniacal attention to the quality of their product and never satisfied with what they achieve. And keep in mind, this is Leonardo and Glasses. The guy goes on to build one of the largest publishing houses in Europe. Another one is the best manufacturer of bicycles. Later in life, one of these entrepreneurs that were raised in the same orphanage that go on to build a fantastic career as well talks about this. He says, I'm a lucky man. I was born poor, and this gave me a certain understanding of the facts of life.”
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“them to take in and care for her son. He is seven years old when this happens. Can you imagine thinking that your mother abandoned you when you were seven? This is how Delvecchio describes his childhood. We were a poor family. My mother was a widow, I grew up without a father and in an institution. Growing up without a family is something you can't explain unless you've lived it. It marks you. He lives in the orphanage for seven years. The orphanage has very strict and precise rules, and you'll see that he actually adopts these rules in the way he runs his life and runs his business. So at the time, you sleep in a dorm, there's 10 other beds in each room, you wake up at 6 a.m. no matter what. You line up shirtless even in January when it's freezing. You eat breakfast at seven. You go to school until it's night. You are taught to work tirelessly. You are told.”
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“This will without a doubt be one of the most remarkable founder stories you'll over here. So, this is at its core. This is a story of a poor orphan who will come to dominate an industry and build a $30 billion fortune. This is an orphan who built an empire. That might have to be the episode title, an orphan who built an empire. So Daveo's dad was a fruit pedaler who died from pneumonia when Dovecchio was in his mother's womb. His dad is only 49 years old when he dies. Delvecchio is the youngest of four kids, so now his mom has to go work in a factory to support her other kids. She has to walk forty minutes each way to her job every day. She had nobody to take care of young Leonard or young Daveio, so he essentially spends his days on the street. She's terrified of what's going to happen to him if he stays on the street all day. So she goes to an orphanage and begs them.”
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“Of the company to Andrea Guerrera, a young chief executive. Guerrera did not want to emerge with Esselor, Del Vecchio forced Gera out and came back to work he was seventy nine years old. It became clear that Delvecchio was worried about what would happen to Luxotica after he died. Luxotica is his most precious child, his most precious child is this company, D Vercio has six children from four marriages to three women. He remarried his second wife. I'll tell you about that later. It's a wild story. Devecio came to believe that folding Luxotica into Eslor was the best way for his work to endure. Esselor controls almost half of the world's prescription lens business and has acquired more than two hundred fifty other companies in the past twenty years. Between them, Esselor and Luxica play a central, intimate role in the lives of a remarkable number of people around four.”
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“That all Oakley refused. In the summer of 2001, the company's founder, Jim Genard, flew to Milan to meet Del Vecchio and strike a deal. Genard had founded Oakley out of the back of his car in nineteen seventy five. At the end of their conversation, he said he hoped the two men would one day be friends. Delveccio replied, We will never be friends. A few months later Delveo swung into action sunglass hut stopped selling Oakleys. Sunglass Hut accounted for a quarter of Oakley's business and its share price fell by thirty seven percent. Then Luxica began to produce ray bands with bright blue and green lenses that were eerily similar to Oakley's colored shades. Oakley sued, the case was settled out of court, and Luxica bought Oakley for two point one billion dollars. By that time, Delve appeared ready to retire in the summer of 2004 as he approached his seventieth birthday, Luxotica's founder handed over day-to-day control”
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“and had laid the groundwork for Delvecchio's hostile takeover of US shoe, a conglomerate that owned Lenscrafters, the country's largest optical chain. On paper, the deal seemed outlandish. US shoe was five times larger than Luxotica, and its board did not want to sell, having its own shops would also put Luxotic in direct competition with the thousands of optometrists it had been supplying for decades, a colleague of Deveo described the deal this way. You have to not only be courageous, but a bit crazy. Luxica completed the hostile takeover of US shoe for one point four billion dollars.”
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“set out step by step to control the entire process of making and selling glasses, from acquiring the raw materials to selling its own products in its own stores. No one had done this before Delveccio. There is a simplicity to him. To him it is a very simple equation. I make the best stuff why doesn't everybody buy it? For the first twenty five years, Luxonica stayed on the wholesale side of the industry, behind the curtain, as it was called, selling its glasses through opticians to the public. In the nineteen nineties, however, Delveccio decided he wanted a retail network too. First, he got Luxotica, listen on the New York Stock Exchange, an almost unheard of move for a mid-sized Italian business, a move a lot of experts said was impossible. Luxica later estimated that that listing was worth about one hundred million in free advertising in the United States.”
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“Career had run its course, but at the age of eighty one, Delvecchio announced the greatest deal of his life in which he also secured the final missing part of his frames, the lenses, when Lexotica agreed to merge with Esilor. Delveccio is referred to as simply El Presidente. In the optical world, conversations turn to the personal charisma and menace of Delveccio. He's the godfather, said Dean Butler, who founded Lenscrafters in nineteen eighty three. Delveccio bought Lenscrafters in nineteen ninety five, the story there is crazy. And again, very Bernard Orno like, I'll get to that in a little bit. The godfather is the guy. He runs it. He runs this industry. Delveo built the Empire of Luxotica on two ideas. The first was to do everything itself. After the company's initial progression from parts to complete frames in the early nineteen seventies,”
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“small scale the totality of Delvecchio's ambition took his rivals by surprise this will remind you of another great European founder Bernard Arno there's a lot of things that that Delbeccio is going to do throughout his career which I'll talk about later that are very Arnold like he sought to control every element of the business from the metal alloys of the hinges to the stores where eyewear is sold in a series of audacious takeovers Delveccio acquired brands such as Rayband and Oakley and Persole and signed contracts with fashion houses such as Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Chanel. He built factories in China, acquired vision insurers in the US, and retailed chains on four continents. Delveo was Italy's highest individual taxpayer and the country's second richest man. A few years ago, people thought his career.”
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“David from Founder sent you. They will give you a thousand dollars off that is vanta.com. Leonardo Dovecchio is the patron, legend, and haunting spirit of the global eyewear business. He is its citizen Kane and its captain Ahab. His father died before he was born, his mother was poor, and he was raised in an orphanage. He went to work as a metal engraver at the age of fourteen. At twenty five, Delveo opened a workshop in a tiny village in the Dolomite Mountains that was giving away free land to companies that were willing to move there. Delveo built a factory to make parts for eyeglasses. He had a young family. He built a house next door to the factory so he could start his day at three AM. Over the next half century, Delveo grew his company, Luxica, into the world's greatest maker of glasses. In an industry that was traditionally fragmented.”
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