Owner of 3T.bike
My entrepreneurial adventure started in 2007, when I acquired an iconic Italian premium’s bicycle brand. 3T was founded in 1961 in Torino (3T stands for Techno Tubo Torino) with the goal to make the best bicycle parts in the world. The company rose to world famous status in the 80’s and 90’s when many athletes won the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Olympic races and World championships racing with 3T parts. After being acquired around ’95, the company started loosing its leading position under the new ownership due to lack of innovation and ignoring to focus on what made 3T famous. By 2007 the company had disappeared from the market but was still in the mind of many consumers.
After the acquisition of the trademark (3T), I started re-building the company from scratch to a leading position in bicycle parts by focusing on what made 3T strong in the first place: innovate, focus on performance, combined with good marketing and a modern business operation. By 2010, 3T was recognised again as the thought leader in premium bicycle parts. We had some good years from 2010-2013 taking the full benefit of this leading position. But then I realised the market was changing, and bicycle parts became more and more an integrated part of any bike frame. In other words, our market was under threat. Therefore I started in 2015 to transition the company from ‘parts’ company to a ‘complete bike’ company. That might sound trivial, but it is comparable to turning ‘Mahle’, a very important cars parts supplier into ‘BMW’ a leading premium car brand. The change from ‘parts’ to ‘bike’ brand meant a complete overhaul not only of our product development, but also of sales channel, logistics, customer service, supply chain and marketing. In hindsight, rebuilding 3T in 2007 was easier than this strategic re orientation. It was in these sometimes very difficult years of transition where I received very strong support from my fellow EO forum members.
Today, 3T is the thought leader in the fast growing premium ‘gravel’ and ‘e-gravel’ segments, with in house production, assembly and an omni channel sales approach.