00:00:00 · Luca Ferrari, S1
[00:00:00] S0: We have half a billion non active users. I mean, that's a lot. We have built over the past decade an operating system of over 50 proprietary technologies. We buy these companies and then we install them on this shared operating system. At Bending Spoons, have been able to attract, I think, extremely strong talent. We had 800,000 job applications in 2025. We hired fewer than 300 people. [00:00:18] S1: You guys operate very efficiently per employee. I think the last metric you mentioned was 4,000,000 in revenue per employee. [00:00:25] S0: And this has grown tremendously. It was about $1,000,000 just two, three years ago. [00:00:29] S1: Right now, it kind of seems like Bending Spoons is actually eating Silicon Valley. So what's going on there? Luca Ferrari, thank you for having me at Bending Spoons. [00:00:49] S0: Well, thank you for coming. [00:00:51] S1: We're all the way out in Milan, Italy, and something happened not too long ago that really shook up Silicon Valley. Right now, it kind of seems like Bending Spoons is actually eating Silicon Valley. So what's going on there?
00:00:51 · S1, Luca Ferrari
[00:00:51] S1: We're all the way out in Milan, Italy, and something happened not too long ago that really shook up Silicon Valley. Right now, it kind of seems like Bending Spoons is actually eating Silicon Valley. So what's going on there? [00:01:07] S0: I don't know that we're eating anything, but I think you're probably referring to the announcement of the acquisition of Airtable, I suppose. Yeah, I guess, I mean, Airtable is a great business, a great product, you can say of Airtable something you can't say of a lot of different businesses, is that they really were identified as a high flying, you know, key company in Silicon Valley for quite a while. And that's very difficult to do. So, you know, great job, Howie and everybody else who built that business. And so I think once the announcement of the acquisition came, that was a lot more newsworthy and interesting than maybe some other acquisitions we've done before. [00:01:57] S1: So how did you pick that one? What was the process?
00:01:57 · S1, Luca Ferrari
[00:01:57] S1: So how did you pick that one? What was the process? [00:02:02] S0: Well, pick each other when it comes to acquisitions because it's something that has to be bidirectional. We look at a lot of companies, I would say actively, we may look at hundreds of companies in any one year and then we try to establish a dialogue with dozens where we see the best match. And if, you know, some of these are interested in selling, then the conversation can progress. We look for businesses where we believe we can bring a lot of value. We are a very active acquirer. And so for us to be absolutely confident we can offer a kick ass price while delivering strong returns for our shareholders, we need to be able to bring a lot of value, whether it's by improving the product or the technology or monetization, the organization, ideally, all of these. So that's a key criteria. And then we look for businesses that we believe can, you know, whose trajectory we can predict with confidence multiple years into the future. Otherwise it's difficult to underwrite big investments. And it's typically been digital businesses. So we've done consumer internet, SaaS. These are the key areas for us. We also did recently we acquired a hardware company called Tractive in spring, which is very interesting, pet tracking and also help monitoring for pets. Pet industry is booming. So that was a very nice acquisition, a little bit outside of our usual comfort zone.
00:02:02 · Luca Ferrari, S1
[00:02:02] S0: Well, pick each other when it comes to acquisitions because it's something that has to be bidirectional. We look at a lot of companies, I would say actively, we may look at hundreds of companies in any one year and then we try to establish a dialogue with dozens where we see the best match. And if, you know, some of these are interested in selling, then the conversation can progress. We look for businesses where we believe we can bring a lot of value. We are a very active acquirer. And so for us to be absolutely confident we can offer a kick ass price while delivering strong returns for our shareholders, we need to be able to bring a lot of value, whether it's by improving the product or the technology or monetization, the organization, ideally, all of these. So that's a key criteria. And then we look for businesses that we believe can, you know, whose trajectory we can predict with confidence multiple years into the future. Otherwise it's difficult to underwrite big investments. And it's typically been digital businesses. So we've done consumer internet, SaaS. These are the key areas for us. We also did recently we acquired a hardware company called Tractive in spring, which is very interesting, pet tracking and also help monitoring for pets. Pet industry is booming. So that was a very nice acquisition, a little bit outside of our usual comfort zone. [00:03:41] S1: Because the Airtable acquisition kind of set SF, Silicon Valley, American Tech into a bit of hysteria, what do you think they get wrong about technology companies or managing them?
00:03:58 · Luca Ferrari
[00:03:58] S0: I mean, not a lot, clearly. Silicon Valley has built, I don't know, 70% of the most successful technology businesses of the past twenty five to fifty years. So I think Silicon Valley gets almost everything right. I believe we have been able to do well acquiring a tiny fraction of the businesses that have come out of Silicon Valley because we bring something different and new to the table in both the way we're structured and the platform we've built. That's for the most part unavailable to these businesses on a standalone basis. So for people who don't know Bending Spoons very well, unlike most serial acquirers out there, most serial acquirers out there will either buy a business because they think it's physically good as it is and they can't really improve it, but the price is low enough that they can get good returns and then they'll basically leave it alone. And that model can work. I don't think it will ever give you exceptional returns, but it can deliver reliable, potentially appealing returns if you're very good at picking businesses that are slightly undervalued. Others are more active, but they will still keep these businesses separate as, as they were before. But they, you know, these acquirers may have an opinion on how to price the product or how to build the organ. So they will go in and make changes. We are even more extreme on the being active end of the spectrum and we integrate all of these businesses together quite tightly. So we have built over the past decade and operating system of over 50 proprietary technologies to take care of almost everything you need to run a digital business, whether it's a, you know, data storage and processing, AB testing, payment management, the, you know, everything related to recruiting, credentials management, the orchestration for all the AI models using operations and so on and so forth. And so we buy these companies and then we, it's almost like we install them on this shared operating system so they can be much more efficient. And also we have a core team of, for R and D marketing at this point approaching a thousand people. We can deploy very fluidly and rapidly across these various businesses to go after R and D opportunities. And when the R and D opportunities are not as exciting any longer, we can take out the talent and move it elsewhere. So we stay very efficient.
00:06:31 · Luca Ferrari, S1
So these are aspects that I believe none of the teams running these companies on a standalone basis really could, could, could access. And so it's not that a lot of the value we create is because other people are, are, myopic, they're doing the best they can with the resources available to them. But I do think we bring also something extra in terms of culture. We have developed a culture of extreme rationality, almost a scientific approach to running businesses whereby we are not afraid of making unpopular choices when we believe it's for the benefit of the business in the long run. So we tend to run these businesses very leanly using data extensively. Sometimes joke about taking more established companies and bringing them back to startup mode, small team, very talented teams, removing red tape, giving these people plenty of room to maneuver, to experiment, to move fast. And we have found that that generally delivers a lot of value for customers and for the business. [00:07:35] S1: So I think one of the big misconceptions with the types of companies that you acquire is that they're graveyard kind of companies, they're old brands, they're not new, maybe they're distressed assets, that kind of thing. What is wrong about that?