Inside Bending Spoons: Buying Airtable, AOL, Vimeo & Eventbrite

Molly O'Shea (0:00)

Bending Spoons has announced to buy Miro a deal worth $1.3 billion.

Matteo Danieli (0:04)

Eventbrite in a deal worth $500 million.

Valentina Jerusalmi (0:06)

Airtable for $1.25 billion.

Molly O'Shea (0:09)

AOL for $1.5 billion.

Luca Ferrari (0:11)

We don't sell the companies we buy, so they know that with us, the company has a private home, and they've seen how much we can invest in the product.

Francesco Patarnello (0:18)

Private equity comes in and buys a business. Generally, that means that the founder needs to be involved for the next three, four, five years. And with Bending Spoons, we can take care of it from closing date.

Matteo Danieli (0:30)

Within our portfolio, we have plenty of products. People that come into Bending Spoons, they don't need to come in because they want to work specifically on Vimeo or WeTransfer or AOL. They can actually be exposed to a lot of different products.

Valentina Jerusalmi (0:43)

AOL was a pretty healthy business when we acquired it, and it's still as of today. It has millions and millions of users who are still very active and still very engaged.

Molly O'Shea (0:52)

I'm so excited to see what you acquire next. Airtable broke the Internet in a lot of people's brains, so I'm excited to see what happens.

All right, we are here at Bending Spoons in Milan, Italy with CEO Luca Ferrari. We're going to go for a little walk around the office, and then later we're going to speak to the co-founders as well as Vali, the GM of AOL. So Luca, do you want to take it away? All right. So how many offices do you have now?

Luca Ferrari (1:31)

For the core team, we have Milan, then we have London, Madrid, in Spain and Warsaw in Poland, and then with the acquired companies, many others in the States, in Tokyo, all over the place.

Molly O'Shea (1:45)

All right. So you have this office here. When did you open this one?

Luca Ferrari (1:50)

About three years ago.

Molly O'Shea (1:51)

Okay.

Luca Ferrari (1:51)

And we're working on opening another one next door, which will be way bigger. So we're looking forward to that, maybe next year.

Molly O'Shea (1:59)

How many floors is that one?

Luca Ferrari (2:00)

Nine, I think. That's way bigger. It's good for 500 to 1,000 people, something like that.

Molly O'Shea (2:07)

And so are all the offices set up like this with open desks? Do you guys have a specific office or you?

Luca Ferrari (2:13)

No, everybody can pick their desk. They're all up for booking, and everybody is the same in that regard. There are no-product offices. We have meeting rooms, of course, but no-product offices.

Molly O'Shea (2:24)

I know we're recording this in reverse order, but I have spoken with everyone already. And one of the main takeaways is the density of talent that you have here, the extreme ownership culture, and I guess the quality overall. So what are the traits that you look for when hiring in employees?

Luca Ferrari (2:46)

Well, it boils down to looking for people who are smart and who care. You know, smart means people who can learn quickly.

Even if they don't have the knowledge, they'll pick it up rapidly and they'll be able to develop the skills they need to succeed. And then who care means, and that's the extreme ownership traits you just referenced. It means they care tremendously about being amazing and what they do, delivering the greatest possible impact for the team and the company. So that's sort of the firing the belly to be awesome at work.

Molly O'Shea (3:16)

I have to ask you, I forgot to ask the center sit down, but what is the biggest lesson you've learned from all the acquisitions?

Luca Ferrari (3:25)

Oh my goodness. That's a pretty huge question. But I'd say, I guess we have confirmed, we've confirmed just how incredibly powerful it can be. There was a small team of people who are very high caliber and who have almost complete autonomy and leeway in being ambitious and executing.

Going from a much larger company where people don't feel as much sense of ownership, they're not as accountable, there's more process, more bureaucracy to that small team, magic happens almost every single time. So, we've now come to believe in that formula fully, and it's really a trademark of our wheelbarrow.

Molly O'Shea (4:09)

What's the key to negotiation?

Luca Ferrari (4:13)

To acquire a company?

Molly O'Shea (4:14)

Yeah.

Luca Ferrari (4:14)

Price.

Molly O'Shea (4:15)

Price?

Luca Ferrari (4:17)

I've never seen a true transaction where the highest price didn't win.

Molly O'Shea (4:20)