Right time, right place

Yoox's founder built success on venture capital grasped just in time and beat the dot-com bust. Now he's riding the wave in virtual China, he tells Tiffany Tan.

If anyone knows the importance of timing, it is Federico Marchetti. The Italian entrepreneur established his online retail business in March 2000 after securing 1.5 million euros ($2 million) from a venture capitalist. Soon after that, the dot-com bubble burst.

"If I'd started probably one month after, I wouldn't have found any money to start my own business. Impossible," Marchetti, 45, says in Beijing. He likens the experience to zooming past closing gates just before they snapped shut.