“It all started with 7,000 euros in severance pay and a lot of recklessness. In hindsight, I can say that this was the most important ingredient: I had no idea what awaited me and this, in my opinion, was the winning card.” Alberto Fassi, an entrepreneur from Bergamo, born in 1975 with a degree from Bocconi, was 25 years old when he decided to leave his position at a large auditing firm to enroll in a Master’s program in creativity. His project for the final exam was the design and creation of a strap for school books, which would also become the first product of Legami, the company he founded in 2003, which today is one of the best-known (and most imitated) brands of gift products, stationery, home and travel accessories, with 5,000 products in the catalog, divided into 17 worlds, 1,400 employees, and a 2025/2026 turnover of 383 million euros.
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What drove you to become an entrepreneur?
The biggest obstacle, in everything, is to start: mainly overcoming fear, and then facing the first difficulties. For this reason, a bit of recklessness is necessary: if a person were aware of how much effort it takes to become an entrepreneur, they probably would never take the first step. Instead, I was so full of enthusiasm and energy that I just thought “this is my biggest dream, I’m starting.” And from there it all began.
And how do you remain a dreamer?
In 2003 I started selling the straps door to door, then I began developing items that aligned with Legami’s philosophy, building the catalog and the company as it is today. With all the effort this entails, because moving fast is exciting, but also very tiring: it means never losing control, structuring yourself, organizing to support your dream. Because I remain this, a dreamer, like everyone who works at Legami. In fact, our claim is “We are dreamers” and it sums up everything we are and want to convey: we want to make people feel good, we want to make them dream, break down walls, spread positivity in a world that is going in the opposite direction. Our way of doing business today follows this vision.
