My Entrepreneur Magazine
April 28th, 2015
Creating a rich, authentic culture should be at the heart of any start-up. Jonathan Jackson speaks with Damian and Nancy Hancock about how they have built a genuine Italian lifestyle experience into their A’QTO brand of clothing.
It’s that love for what you do that usually propels you towards success; an ingrained passion that drives you forward and holds you strong to the values and vision around which a business is built.
For Damian Hancock it was his love of all things Italian that inspired A’QTO (pronounced ‘a-cue-tow’ and means acute or intense in Italian). Damian is a man who lives and breathes Italian; from the food, to the clothes and the way cyclists go about their cycling – riding hard and then stopping for a more relaxed bowl of pasta and a macchiato before rolling out for the ride home.
“There is a sense of freedom, speed and rhythm with cycling that I wanted to bring to the brand, but also to create a community of passionate cyclists who are bound by history, relevance and a rich culture,” Damian says.
Damian’s wife Nancy, whom he met at a cycling event and just happens to be Italian herself, says, “What Damian brings to A’QTO is a deep knowledge and appreciation of cycling history and culture. He knows what the cyclist knows, and with this knowledge is developing a sub-culture around the cyclist ‘in the know’. There is a niche culture and community that we are building; a community of likeminded cyclists who appreciate the history and rich culture of the sport.”
Damian continues, “We researched the history and culture of cycling; who the main players were and their stories. We looked at the style and panache of the races of bygone eras and all of that fed into where we wanted to push the brand from a lifestyle perspective.”
As well as creating a cultural zeitgeist, Damian wanted to build a product that was high quality. The fact that he had production management, budgeting and timeline skills from his previous life as a Print Production Manager with advertising firm McCann meant he was confident in taking a more entrepreneurial path. He says without those production and project management skills, he probably would not have been able to take the start-up journey.