Bending Spoons employees get their equity on day 1, with no

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Bending Spoons employees get their equity on day 1, with no vesting period. The even bigger surprise? it had no impact on retention: “You created value within a certain year & you're going to be rewarded for that. And if you leave the day after, you're still being rewarded because of the work you've done before.” “That had no impact on retention. We still have less than 1% churn on a yearly basis.” — Co-Founder Francesco Patarnello

Molly O’Shea@MollySOShea1d ago

BREAKING: Inside Bending Spoons $BSP Milan, Italy @bendingspoons has completed 50+ acquisitions & never sold a single one Buying up some of tech's most recognizable companies, including AOL, Airtable, Vimeo, Eventbrite, Evernote, WeTransfer, Tractive & Brightcove, with Miro now under agreement. I went to Italy to sit down w/ 4 leaders behind one of tech’s most aggressive acquisition machines: › Luca Ferrari (@luke10ferrari), Co-Founder & CEO › Francesco Patarnello (@frapatarnello), Co-Founder & Head of M&A › Matteo Danieli, Co-Founder & VP Product › Valentina Jerusalmi, GM of AOL The thesis: acquire great products, centralize the capabilities underneath them, & unlock value at a scale that would be difficult for each company to build independently. We cover: › 1,000 potential acquisition targets & 5–10 deals per year › How Bending Spoons’ centralized platform creates value across acquisitions › “Startup mode,” talent density & cutting headcount after acquisitions › Why even founder roles & the CEO job are up for grabs › Rebuilding AOL & what happens after Bending Spoons takes over Head of M&A Francesco Patarnello on what they look for: “We want to see our platform be able to unlock a lot of value if applied to that business. That can mean different things. Sometimes it's ability to attract talent, process data & get insights, [or] attract new users.” Stats: › 50+ acquisitions completed, & never sold a material business › 500M+ monthly active users, 9M+ paying customers › $2.64B of enterprise value across Airtable & Miro in 5 weeks › $1.5B for AOL, $1.38B for Vimeo, $500M for Eventbrite › Under 1% voluntary churn, with equity that carries no vesting This is Part I of a II-Part Series Full Sit-down Interview w/ CEO Luca Ferrari coming next.. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Bending Spoons Co-Founders Luca Ferrari, Francesco, Matteo & GM of AOL Valentina (01:11) The two traits that matter most (03:16) The Biggest lesson from every acquisition (Airtable, AOL, Miro...) (05:37) Why the CEO didn't ring the Nasdaq bell (07:37) The Acquisition that got away (15:21) What makes a company worth buying (18:27) Why Founders choose Bending Spoons (21:30) Why Employees can cash out early (28:44) Choosing to step aside as CPO (40:10) What "Startup mode" actually means (49:31) Why most product ideas fail (51:25) The emotional story behind the IPO speech (57:39) Betting on Bending Spoons early on (1:01:00) The Mindset behind the rapid growth (1:05:22) What actually happens during an acquisition (1:09:44) Why they never ship without testing (1:16:17) What's coming next for AOL

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