The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
00:49:58 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:49:58] S1: Another element that I also just find fascinating from a behavioral kind of psychology perspective is push notifications. Yep. Do you have any lessons on what works, what doesn't work, and how you'd advise product owners? [00:50:10] S2: Yeah. We're not big on push notifications. We have used them in some products differently. So on Evernote, I think we don't use them at all. I mean, we use them for reminders, for people who set a reminder for a note or for calendar events, but we don't, like, use them as a marketing strategy just because we think it would decrease the user experience. People would be pissed about it, and they would turn them off. And so that would reduce the usefulness of the product, So we don't do it. On the other hand, when working on live quiz, the the HQ Trivia clone, push notifications were literally the trigger to use the product. Because, of course, it's happening couple times a a day, always at the same time. But if we don't receive the notification, there are fewer chances that you actually remember to play. And so in that case, it was it was a core part of the experience. [00:50:59] S1: Going back to the structure, when you acquire a new business, a Vimeo, an AOL, what happens then? I know it sounds stupid, but, like, does Luca say, hey, everyone. We're acquiring this. Who wants to work on it? [00:51:13] S2: Mhmm. [00:51:13] S1: Is that how it works?
00:51:13 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:51:13] S1: Is that how it works? [00:51:14] S2: We take into account people's preferences. Like, if somebody comes to me and tells me, I like to work on Vimeo, I... I'm like, that's great. I... It's great to know that some people are passionate about one or the other product. I mean, at the end of the day, I think people are... Perform better when they are working on something they are passionate about. To the extent that it is possible, we always try to make it so people are working on stuff that they care about and they're passionate about. So so we definitely encourage people to tell us. But it's not like we find volunteers to to work on a on a product. It's more about functional leads. So our CTO, Mateo, our cofounder, myself, other people, we have in mind the structure of of the product teams, and we try to see where we can find people that are best suited to work on new acquisitions. [00:52:02] S1: And you're like a Jedi ninja that kind of jumps from new product to new product. [00:52:06] S2: Yeah. Lately, I've I've done that quite a bit. It's a bit uncomfortable because you have to start fresh very often, but it's you learn a lot. You learn both about the specific characteristics of that product, but also about... You you start seeing some patterns about how companies are run and these things. [00:52:25] S1: Do you get nervous? It's a big transition moving from, respectfully, the thirty day fitness to Evernote. That's a big transition. [00:52:33] S2: Yes. [00:52:34] S1: And then from Evernote to fucking Vimeo and AOL.
00:52:34 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:52:34] S1: And then from Evernote to fucking Vimeo and AOL. [00:52:37] S2: Yeah. I remember I was on a plane. We were about to take off. I was in Malpens, I think. I was leaving to California to meet the Evernote team. And I was like, what am I going to tell these people? Like like, they are true professionals. And instead, I'm just a guy with with some startup experience, and what am I going to tell them? And so I lacked a bit of confidence. What I realized is that they are people. It's... I I was intimidated by the fact that many of them had, like, twenty years of experience being a VP at Yahoo or or or or stuff like that. And they are smart professionals, but it's not like they are and they have experience, then it means that you cannot talk to them. You can just have very rational conversation with with with people, and you just, like, try to do your best. [00:53:22] S1: Which quality code base was the best when inheriting it? [00:53:28] S2: I don't dive as deep into the code as my colleagues, so I'm I'm not sure. I heard that the WeTransfer code base was very good. Which was the worst or most difficult to inherit? It doesn't have [00:53:40] S1: to be code based, but just like when you went into it as a product lead Yeah. You're like, oh.
00:53:40 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:53:40] S1: to be code based, but just like when you went into it as a product lead Yeah. You're like, oh. [00:53:45] S2: Well, Evernote, I'm not sure it was bad. I actually don't think it was necessarily bad, but it was complex. Like, just compare WeTransfer to Evernote. WeTransfer, in terms of complexity, could be one feature of Evernote, and Evernote has, like, literally hundreds of features. So, I mean, not... Maybe not the simplest one, but but but it's easier as product surface to conceive and and to and to think about. Evernote is just... Has this long tail of small features, and it's twenty years old. When WeTransfer, if you fail and upload, people are going to be frustrated, but it's not going to be the end of the world. If you lose a note on Evernote, you... We will receive phone calls and, rightfully, like, understandably, it's what should happen. And so it's just critical that you do it well. Not only it's more complex, but it's also more critical, and and you should, like, triple check everything you're doing. So, yeah, it it was difficult. [00:54:39] S1: Do you have horizontal paid marketing machines at Bending Spoons? And what I mean by that is does the marketing sit as a function on top of the product teams and they are a paid marketing engine for WeTransfer, for Evernote, for Vimeo, for AOL, da da da, or do you have individual paid marketing machines for each entity?
00:54:39 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:54:39] S1: Do you have horizontal paid marketing machines at Bending Spoons? And what I mean by that is does the marketing sit as a function on top of the product teams and they are a paid marketing engine for WeTransfer, for Evernote, for Vimeo, for AOL, da da da, or do you have individual paid marketing machines for each entity? [00:54:57] S2: It's generally individual. You can think of of the function versus team as a matrix. Right? Each person belongs both to a function and the team. So I'm a product manager inside the Evernote team, for instance. So I'm inside the product function inside the Evernote team. And so there are people who are inside the growth and marketing function that work on Remedy, for instance. Almost all people are... Who do this are deployed inside business units. [00:55:22] S1: In terms of their actual location, how do you think about effectiveness of remote in product teams?
00:55:22 · Harry Stebbings, Federico Simionato
[00:55:22] S1: In terms of their actual location, how do you think about effectiveness of remote in product teams? [00:55:28] S2: Mhmm. I don't have a strong opinion on it. Meaning that, one, I see that some of our best contributors work remotely or or almost only remotely. And it... It's almost as if having the ability to craft an environment where you are almost cocooned inside your own, like, habits and environment. You can just, like, deliver your best work without distractions. Probably for me, I'm most effective when I'm at the office, but I do love having the flexibility to be able to, I don't know, meet my parents for a long weekend and just work from from their place. I don't think that that there's a clear winner between remote and in person. I think hybrid is is a very good mix of both. When you when you need to to attract this level of talent, it's an extra requirement to have to ask them, you should also be physically in Milan. If it's not necessary, you just drop it. It's it's a it's a false requirement. You know? [00:56:25] S1: You work with American teams that you often inherit [00:56:28] S2: Mhmm. [00:56:28] S1: And European teams that you sit with day to day. How do they differ in terms of work ethic, psychology, mentality?