00:51:25 · Molly O'Shea
[00:51:25] S5: I know we have a few minutes left, but I think it was really great to hear over lunch with you and Francesco, the team, how impactful the IPO was for you all, and in many different ways. So I'd love to hear from you. I know you gave a speech at the IPO. What was your speech about? What was different?
00:51:46 · Matteo Danieli
[00:51:46] S4: So it was a very emotional moment for me. One of the reasons is that, like, because of our culture, we don't get to pause very often and, you know, celebrate achievements and milestones and pat ourselves on our shoulders. Of course, I mean, we... We're happy when when things go well, but we've always had this mindset like, you know, what's the next challenge? What can we do better? What can we do more? And, you know, the IPO was a sort of like forced stop to that mindset so that, like for one day we could just look back at what we accomplished and take it in. So for me personally, like that day was really, you know that they say that in near death experiences, you have your whole life flesh in front of you. I haven't tried those, but that's what they say. But in a way, you know, that IPO was like a moment where all the, you know, the whole experience and all the failures, hard work, all the people that contributed to it, you know, they sort of, manifested very clearly, in my thoughts. So very emotional, have like fond memories of that day. And, well, that speech was substantially was substantially, you know, showing that our, take, which is impossible sometimes is just maybe, and, it's not that impossible after all. I mean, that IPO was a clear example of that. We compressed the time it typically takes to IPO to much less than it normally does and, you know, the banks supporting us all believe that we will never make it for the day that we have planned to make it. So, again, one more demonstration that we believe in this impossible maybe tagline. And then it was just thanking everyone for the insane amount of hard work that went into making Bending Spoons. And, and I also had a a personal reflection that I know was shared by a lot of people about the fact that, yes, it's Spooners as we call ourselves that put in the hard work, but for sure we benefited from having some friends and family and people around us cheering, on us and and, supporting us and believing in us and, you know, making it possible for us to focus on on on on on making this possible, than our other things. And, I I know that that resonated with a lot of people, so I'm happy about it.
00:54:26 · Matteo Danieli, Molly O'Shea, Luca Ferrari
But it was super emotional and when I started talking, it was a short speech, so only a couple of minutes, but when I started talking, I felt the burden of representing everybody's thinking and everybody's emotion. And also was reminded about the fact that it wasn't really something that could repeat itself, you know? So I had to make it work with just one attempt. Yeah. So at the very beginning it felt almost impossible again. But then, you know, what I wanted to say and how grateful I was for the people there and outside for for their effort was so was so powerful and so strong that ultimately, you know, I just delivered this speech. And, it should have been Luca delivering it if he had decided to, join us on the podium, but I I admire him so much for deciding to to join the rest of the team, on Times Square instead. And so he followed me not so much because I'm... I was the right person, but because, you know, I gave a couple of speeches before and and so, you know, I I probably was the best... The the the best second alternative to it, but I'm really happy that I had that opportunity. Yeah, it was definitely, a moment to remember. [00:55:51] S5: Incredible. So many incredible stories. I said this before, but I'm going to have to come back to Bending Spoons. [00:55:58] S2: You guys [00:55:58] S5: have so much going on here. [00:56:00] S4: So much to tell. [00:56:01] S5: There's so much. Well, you so much, Matt. I really appreciate the time and all of the expertise that you shared with us. [00:56:08] S4: Thank you.
00:56:08 · Matteo Danieli, S6, Molly O'Shea, Valentina Jerusalmi
[00:56:08] S4: Thank you. [00:56:09] S6: Thank you. Today's episode is sponsored by VCX by Fundrise, the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. Learn more at getvcx.com. Some of you may not have heard this yet, but our sponsor Public just launched something called Generated Assets, and it brings AI into investing in a way I've honestly never seen before. Here's how it works: You type in an idea like AI powered supply chain companies with positive free cash flow or defense tech companies growing revenue over 25% year over year. Publix AI then dispatches a swarm of agents that scan every single US stock, evaluates them, and instantly builds a custom index around your thesis. What really stands out is how clearly it explains why each stock is included. And before you invest, you can even backtest your idea against the S and P 500, so you're making decisions with real context, not just guessing. And beyond generated assets, Public lets you invest in stocks, bonds, options, crypto, all in one place. They'll even give you an uncapped 1% match when you transfer your investments over from another platform. If you want to build a portfolio that actually reflects your thesis, visit public.com/sorcery, paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosures description. [00:57:39] S5: Vali, welcome to Sourcery. Thank you for having me here at Bending Spoons. [00:57:44] S1: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
00:57:44 · Valentina Jerusalmi, Molly O'Shea
[00:57:44] S1: Thank you. Thank you for having me. [00:57:46] S5: You're very welcome. So I'm, one, very excited to speak with you, but also a little bit intimidated. You've been here for five years, you're the general manager of AOL now, you manage 90 plus products, and it took you three applications to get in? [00:58:05] S1: That's right. Yeah, it took me three tries. The first one was for a summer internship a few years ago. I was still probably not ready so I got you know, rejected right at the CV application, CV screening gone. Then I tried again for First Ascent which is a great event that we run for very highly talented students. And I got rejected after almost getting at the end. And after that I just said, you know, like I want to get in now. I was rejected too many times and I was like, now I have to prove myself that I can get in. So I tried again and the third was the charm. [00:58:50] S5: What age did you start applying? Because you joined when you were 25, you're five years into this. Yes. How did you know Bending Spoons was gonna be the most legit company on earth?
00:58:50 · Molly O'Shea, Valentina Jerusalmi
[00:58:50] S5: What age did you start applying? Because you joined when you were 25, you're five years into this. Yes. How did you know Bending Spoons was gonna be the most legit company on earth? [00:59:02] S1: So for this I have to thank my sister who's also a Spooner, fun fact. She told me you should check out this company, it's really great, sounds super fun, when I was around maybe 22 and that's the first time I applied. And by then like Bending Spoons was not of course as well known as it is today. But the more I got to know it, the more I got engaged and I understood it was probably gonna become a great company just because of the people who were running it and the people who were working here. They were all awesome and I was like, I wanna work with these guys. [00:59:38] S5: So Christy was just telling me before we started that when you joined, was like, there was an all hands or a meeting of some sort, and you raised your hand to speak. And you said, how do I get involved in the most, the largest projects here? And you were just 25 at the time. He was a little bit intimidated by that, but then he also said that was pretty badass, to come in fresh and immediately want to be put on the largest projects, and now you're GM of AOL and manage 90 products. So what was the thinking there?