David vs Goliath – the true story behind Fliesana
Before Fliesana was in our shop, it was an idea in a workshop: an adhesive tile only two millimetres thin that still makes a bathroom watertight. In his book, Fliesana founder Sascha Tordai tells how this invention grew into a company with 32 employees – and what happened when a global corporation called.
What the book is about
An inventor. An idea that could change a market. And a global corporation on the phone. The partnership starts as a huge opportunity and ends with a termination without any stated reason.
There are technical terms for what happened in between. Set up to fail: creating conditions under which the other side can only fail – such as a mandatory special film with lead times of up to five months that the contract manufacturer has to pre-finance. And the bullwhip effect: first let capacity ramp up to 98 pallets a month, then order nothing for months. The large contract did not survive that. Fliesana still exists today – and our tiles are still phthalate-free.
What follows reads like a thriller: a foreign batch number, a misrouted truck, a laboratory analysis – and the question of what happens when one person stands in the way of a system.
What you will find inside
- 13 chapters, from the first tinkering to the legal dispute
- Appendices with laboratory reports, a chronology and excerpts from the correspondence
- A factual account: people and companies have been renamed, the original documents are on file
- English paperback, 164 pages, first edition 2026 – also available as an e-book
Who this book is for
For founders, for small and medium-sized businesses and suppliers who depend on big customers. For everyone who enjoys true business stories. And for our customers who want to know what is behind the tile on their wall.
About the author
Sascha Tordai has been working in IT for more than 30 years, is the inventor of several patented products and the founder of Fliesana. He has been building things since he was five – and kept every document he needed for this book.
Editions and languages
- English – Part 1: The Invention, paperback in this shop or at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
- Deutsch – Teil 1: Die Erfindung at Amazon.de
- Polski – Część 1: Wynalazek at Amazon.pl
- Français – Partie 1 : L’invention at Amazon.fr
Frequently asked questions
Is the story true?
Yes. Part 1 is a factual account. The names of people and companies have been changed; the documents the book is based on exist in the original.
Is there a second part?
Part 2, “The Counterstrike”, has been written and will be published later. It is explicitly a thought experiment: how things could have gone.
Why is the book sold in the Fliesana shop?
Because it is the story of the invention every Fliesana tile is based on.
The cover artwork was generated with AI.