00:13:08 · Luca Ferrari, Katie Prescott
[00:13:08] S11: Yeah. So that's even before Bending Spoons, We were backpacking in in Indonesia and we're we're climbing a volcano with insufficient security measures in hindsight. But thankfully, nothing happened. Nothing too bad at least. So we realized that we all wanted to record our memories. That was such an incredible experience. And so we decided to create a startup to use AI. This is 2010, by the way, to write, diaries automatically for people. And we did launch that startup. It was called Evertail. It ran between 2010 and 2013. It was an utter failure from almost any measurable perspective, but we did learn a lesson. So we, we strengthened a lot of skills that became important later for Bending Spoons. We certainly strengthened our relationship. We're very, very close friends, almost indistinguishable from, you know, being siblings, for just how much we've gone through. And I think the the level of intimacy and and trust that we have established between each other. And from the ashes of that startup with the roughly 40,000 that were left over from the approximately 1,000,000 we'd raised from VCs. We, we just started Bending Spoons and we have to thank that startup. And, and of course that Indonesian trip for some of the key insights, the capital, the seed capital in a way directly from the leftovers from the previous startup. And and also a lot of the skills that were foundational to to building Bending Spoons. [00:14:30] S10: Bending Spoons having one of the best names in the tech industry, I think, alongside the hugging
00:14:30 · Katie Prescott, Luca Ferrari
[00:14:30] S10: Bending Spoons having one of the best names in the tech industry, I think, alongside the hugging [00:14:36] S11: face. Hugging face is pretty good. Yeah. [00:14:39] S10: People at the newspaper going, what? Bending spoons. [00:14:43] S11: It is weird. Yeah. [00:14:44] S10: Tell us the story. [00:14:45] S11: You know, actually we have a lack integration. We use lack for internal communication. We built a bot that will post mentions of Bending Spoons online on Reddit and elsewhere so that we can monitor and learn, you know, what people think and maybe hopefully improve sometimes respond. But something we are still struggling to to fully separate is people mentioning spoon bending, like, meaning telekinesis. And so I I read so many posts at this point of people talking about there's a entire world out there. It's weird. [00:15:12] S10: We used to be a TV show.
00:15:12 · Katie Prescott, Luca Ferrari
[00:15:12] S10: We used to be a TV show. [00:15:13] S11: Talking about telekinesis. And Mhmm. So anyway, so that's off topic. But, yes, we we we love the name. One of my cofounders, Mateo, is a big fan of of the movie The Matrix. You know? And there is a little kid at some point bending a spoon with his mind through telekinesis presumably. And so Mateo, they were brainstorming names, brings up the name. And we like it. We liked it a lot for a few reasons. One, it just captures the idea that the mind is powerful. It can do can do a lot more perhaps than you intuitively think it can. And then that power is unlocked through plenty of practice, perseverance, you know, hard work. And those are things, you know, call them values or ideas that resonate with us. And also we thought the name was kind of a little bit funny. We like the idea of not taking ourselves too seriously. And so, yeah, we went for it. It's also memorable. I've learned in hindsight, people remember it easily because it's so unusual. So we don't we don't regret that choice. It was a good choice, I think. [00:16:12] S10: And was the idea always to do what you do now, which, you know, buying up interesting tech companies and and zhuzhing them up is how I always describe it to people.
00:16:12 · Katie Prescott, Luca Ferrari, Danny Fortson
[00:16:12] S10: And was the idea always to do what you do now, which, you know, buying up interesting tech companies and and zhuzhing them up is how I always describe it to people. [00:16:22] S11: I mean, the short answer is yes. The idea was broadly speaking was there after that Evertail failure. We decided that we should be able to over time become world class at the skills that you need to run digital businesses really well. So software engineering, product design, product management, monetization, marketing, AI research, and that we should be able to find digital businesses out there, which weren't being managed optimally. So we should be able to offer very good prices to people, prices they would find appealing, but still deliver high returns for ourselves, our shareholders. We hadn't fully realized the advantage of having a centralized team of engineers, designers who we could redeploy flexibly across our different businesses on a short notice to go after opportunities to develop new functionality. But, but equally we throw those resources the moment that a particular product was not interesting. So we could keep costs very efficient at all times. Those were, I think, levels of sophistication that came with time, but the broader idea that we should be able to compound capital efficiently for a very long time through acquisitions. If we are exceptional at operating these businesses, that idea was there pretty much immediately, let's say. [00:17:41] S9: Today's episode of the Times Tech podcast is sponsored by ServiceNow.
00:17:41 · Danny Fortson, Katie Prescott, S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S8
[00:17:41] S9: Today's episode of the Times Tech podcast is sponsored by ServiceNow. [00:17:45] S10: ServiceNow describes itself as an AI control tower for business reinvention, connecting people, systems, data, and AI so work flows more smoothly across an organization. [00:17:56] S9: The platform integrates with different clouds, models, and data sources, bringing them together in one place to help your team. [00:18:03] S10: To learn more about how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. [00:18:11] S0: People are disappearing again just like before. [00:18:16] S1: Nocturne. Streaming on Apple TV on the October 30. Liev Schreiber. [00:18:23] S2: Walter has a way of getting to people. When he does, [00:18:25] S1: they don't come back. Steven Graham. The world [00:18:27] S3: is sort of dark places. Zarcee Beats. [00:18:30] S4: How's he getting messages at? [00:18:31] S5: He's locked under six feet of concrete. [00:18:33] S6: She's still alive. I'm a fighter. [00:18:36] S1: Nocturne, streaming on Apple TV on the October 30. Subscription required. [00:18:41] S8: This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get preapproved for financing, and estimate trade in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One.
00:18:41 · S8, Katie Prescott
[00:18:41] S8: This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get preapproved for financing, and estimate trade in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. [00:19:18] S10: Can you give us an example of one of the companies you've taken over and how you've changed it and what it looks like now?