Molly O’Shea@MollySOShea5h 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