Amidst a backdrop of growing wealth inequality, a new trend focused on authorship > ownership is becoming the next bastion of luxury. No longer is it good enough to have something few others can buy. Today, the only exclusivity is “one of one.”

In this week’s issue, we take a deeper look at how authorship is changing purchasing habits for the UHNW of the world, and what innovators and venture builders can learn from this model to deliver a similar sensibility to the 99%.

Here’s what you’ll find:

A new trend is taking hold in the uppermost tier of the luxury market: one-of-one, co-created offerings that place the customer at the center of the design and production process. This shift is clearest in moves like Bugatti's Solitaire program, where the traditional model of "limited edition" hypercars gives way to a new category entirely. There is no base car. No option list. Just a design conversation that begins with a blank sheet and ends with a creation made specifically for one person, and only that person.

As one market analyst put it…

We’ve seen “customization” trickle into the mainstream for years. Nike ID for sneakers, custom colorways on Apple Watches, monogramming for everything from bags to bathrobes. But these experiences are constrained. You’re picking from a menu designed by someone else. Your choices say, “I picked this,” not “I made this.”

At the extreme end of the luxury market, this shift is already well underway. Bugatti’s Solitaire program is one expression of it. But this isn’t just happening in the automotive space. The same instinct is surfacing across industries. Customers (particularly those with means) want more than choice. They want to shape what they buy.

Across these examples, the customer’s role has shifted from buyer to builder. And that shift is becoming the business model.

At a glance, this might feel like a return to pre-industrial norms. A time when the wealthy commissioned their goods directly from artisans. But that framing risks missing what’s actually happening here. This is not a regression. It’s a business model innovation made possible by today’s digital tools, CRM sophistication, evolved customer expectations, and, increasingly, by advancements in on-demand and modular manufacturing that make extreme personalization operationally feasible at scale.

In the past, bespoke was the only option because mass production didn’t exist. Today, bespoke is a strategic choice, a high-margin, low-volume alternative to scaled growth. The difference now is intent.

Venture builders and innovation leaders should be paying attention. Because Solitaire and its analogs don’t just represent product innovation, they demonstrate a scalable shift in how value is created and captured at the very top of the market.

Here’s what makes this approach innovative:

Remember, innovation theory suggests that successful orgs will always shift their attention upmarket toward higher margins. (More on that here.)

This movement is best understood as a shift from scarcity to unrepeatability. Luxury used to be defined by how few people could access it. Now, it's defined by whether anyone else could get the same thing.

Limited editions once created status by excluding others. Now, the most elite customers want products that feel like they were never for sale in the first place. In this model, a luxury brand’s most powerful product isn’t the object. It’s authorship: the customer’s ability to shape what the brand makes.

For venture builders, this opens up a new frontier: high-margin, low-scale business models that reward collaboration over distribution. The value isn't in making a better version of something that already exists. It's in creating something that only exists because the customer helped bring it to life.

In the co-creation model, the brand stops being the arbiter of taste and starts being the editor. They provide the talent, the infrastructure, the aesthetic guardrails, but the vision comes from the client. That doesn’t weaken the brand; it deepens it. Customers don’t just align with your identity. They write part of it.

This is a profound shift from how most companies innovate. Traditionally, companies build products, then find customers. The authorship model flips that: it finds a customer, then builds the product. It’s closer to venture studio logic than traditional manufacturing.

And that’s the opportunity. The brands that win here won’t just be masters of craft. They’ll be the ones who figure out how to make co-creation operationally elegant, emotionally resonant, and economically viable.

This trend isn’t unfolding in a vacuum. It’s happening against a backdrop of growing wealth inequality. As the ultra-wealthy pull further ahead, not just in income but in access, their experience of being a customer is also diverging. One-of-one products. Creative control. Personal collaborators. These aren’t just luxuries. They’re signals that the customer role itself is evolving.

For everyone else, the same tools are being used in reverse. Algorithmic curation replaces conversation. CRM becomes a funnel, not a relationship. Mass personalization flattens experience rather than deepening it. The result? For the few, authorship. For the many, automation.

That divergence creates opportunity. Builders can choose to lean into it. Design for the depth of the few. Or close the gap by building systems that bring authorship to more people, not just the elite.

The core insight from ultra-luxury isn’t that rich people want unique stuff. It’s that the most valuable experience you can offer is the feeling that something was made only for you. This is the frontier: not mass customization, but mass authorship.

The challenge and opportunity for founders is to translate that feeling at scale. How do you build a product that feels one-of-one to every customer?

This is more than personalization. It's the difference between picking colors on a menu and getting handed the pen. Founders who understand this can build products that feel intimate, alive, and non-interchangeable, without needing a bespoke factory behind them.

Here’s how:

This is what Bugatti has grasped and what more startups should aim for. People want products that carry their fingerprints. The future isn’t just about giving users a seat at the table. It’s about giving them the tools to reshape the table entirely.

Singer Vehicle Design is a masterclass in customer authorship as a business model. Founded in 2009, the company reimagines classic Porsche 911s from the late 1980s and early 1990s, not as restorations, but as entirely bespoke commissions. Clients begin the process with an existing 911 chassis, which Singer transforms through a deep collaborative process into a car that reflects the owner’s personal vision.

No two Singer commissions are the same. Clients work with Singer’s team to select custom interior materials, body configurations, suspension tuning, and aesthetic details that range from the subtle to the obsessive. Singer doesn’t just build dream cars. It helps customers define what that dream even looks like. The result is a vehicle that blends timeless design with modern engineering, and most importantly, a strong sense of authorship.

Singer’s model is built around scarcity and intimacy. The company produces only a limited number of cars each year, but each one commands a hefty price tag (ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars up to an eye-watering multi-million-dollar masterpiece). That revenue isn’t tied to production volume, it’s tied to how deeply embedded the customer becomes in the creative process.

The emotional investment is the product.

More than a boutique car builder, Singer represents a shift in how value is created in ultra-luxury markets. The car is a byproduct. The relationship, collaboration, and mutual craftsmanship between builder and client is what drives the business. It’s a compelling template for ventures exploring how to monetize personalization at the highest level.

Build-A-Bear Workshop may not operate in the luxury space, but it delivers a strikingly similar value proposition to Bugatti or Singer: authorship.

Since launching in 1997, Build-A-Bear has transformed the commoditized world of plush toys into a deeply personal, participatory retail experience. Each customer doesn’t just buy a stuffed animal. They choose it, stuff it, sew it, dress it, name it, and even give it a recorded voice. The result is a one-of-one product that holds emotional value far beyond its materials.

What’s remarkable isn’t the customization itself. It’s how Build-A-Bear designed a scalable system for individuality. The process is structured and repeatable, but the outcome always feels unique. Children (and increasingly, adults) walk away not with a toy, but with a creation of their own. In that moment, the brand transfers ownership of not just the product, but of the experience, to the customer.

This model captures what ultra-luxury brands are now chasing: the shift from configured to created. But where brands like Bugatti or Hermès offer authorship to the few, Build-A-Bear shows how it can be successfully scaled. Authorship needn’t come from infinite permutations. Intentional choices, guided creation, and a system designed to celebrate the customer’s hand in the outcome can establish the same sense of pride.

As personalization becomes a driver of emotional resonance and economic value, Build-A-Bear’s decades-long playbook offers insight for founders and venture builders. The lesson isn’t “let people choose options.” It’s “let people make it theirs.” Even in a mall kiosk or pop-up store, authorship can be the difference between a transaction and a memory.