Every entrepreneur dreams of turning a small startup into a global powerhouse. But how do you do it without following the typical "build a product, get funding, scale it, and exit" playbook? Luca Ferrari, founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, did just that— their journey is anything but conventional.

It started in 2013, when their first-ever startup Evertale flopped and left them with just $40,000. After Evertale missed PMF, they pivoted, bootstrapping Bending Spoons by focusing on acquiring digital products with solid market fit but untapped potential.

Bending Spoons has mastered the art of turning underperforming digital businesses into powerhouses using operational tweaks, AI, and machine learning.

In this episode of Neon Show, we sit down with Luca Ferrari in the heart of Milan, at the headquarters of a tech company that's rewriting the rules of how digital businesses scale.

Discover their bold acquisition strategy behind major deals like Evernote and Splice, and how they’ve managed to serve 150 million monthly active users with just 400 employees!

Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction
00:37 Who is Luca and what's Bending Spoons?
02:32 Bending Spoons by the numbers: Users and revenue
03:05 Recent funding rounds: 2023 and 2024
04:59 Profitability and use of debt
07:27 Luca's previous startup experience
10:17 The birth of Bending Spoons in 2013
13:35 The secret sauce: Product-market fit and talent
15:29 First acquisition: iPhone keyboard app
18:28 Top revenue generators: Remind, Evernote, Splice
20:26 Future acquisition strategy debate
24:24 Price range for acquisitions
33:29 Transforming acquired products like Evernote
37:00 Competing with giants: Evernote vs. Notion
42:32 Plans to enter enterprise software
45:07 Luca's take on product-market fit
47:58 Luck vs. skill in Bending Spoons' success
51:30 AI's Impact on Bending Spoons
54:42 Why Italy for Bending Spoons?
59:08 Going public: Future plans
1:00:32 Luca's journey: From small town to tech CEO
1:04:27 Why aren't more tech companies starting in Europe?
1:10:54 Bending Spoons' unique hiring approach
1:14:35 Future growth areas for Bending Spoons
1:16:47 The art of pricing in acquisitions
1:21:49 How accurate are Bending Spoons' acquisition predictions?
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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.

Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.

We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
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Looking to build a differentiated tech startup with a 10X better solution? Prime is the high conviction, high support investor you need. With its fourth fund of $120M, Prime actively works with star teams to accelerate building great companies.
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