The Luxury Academy magazine · edited by Matteo RivoltaOctober 2026 · 118 articles

Section

Stories that teach

The decisions that made industrial history.

13 articles · 12 with video

Lead story · 3 October 2026

Totem Automobili: the young man building €700,000 cars in Italy, and 5 lessons for business owners

In 2018 Riccardo Quaggio, a designer in his early twenties, starts from an abandoned warehouse, a €150 block of foam and a €4,000 Alfa. In the evenings he works as a barman, and for years the bank won't give him more than €3,000 of credit. Today Totem Automobili builds cars costing around €700,000 in the Veneto, and around 60% of its customers are American. I tell how he did it and the 5 lessons for anyone who wants to take their company to the high end.

Matteo Rivolta · 12 min read →

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