Luca Ferrari is the co-founder and CEO of @bendingspoons, one of the most fascinating companies in Europe and just became Italy's first decacorn.

He describes it as 25% private equity firm and 75% technology company. They fully acquire and rebuild digital companies like Evernote, Vimeo, and most recently AOL.

@luke10ferrari shares exactly how the Bending Spoons playbook works — how they find great businesses, improve every core function, and finance them with both debt and equity to own and operate forever.

We also talk about his obsession with attracting and developing exceptional talent and why he's determined to build a generational company in Europe.

Enjoy!

Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:30 What is Bending Spoons? 4:30 Why Europe Lacks Trillion-Dollar Companies 7:25 The First Test: From Failure to Founding 10:52 The McKinsey Years & Funding Co-founders 13:24 The Strategic Insight: Why M&A Over Building 16:13 Structural Advantages of the Platform Model 21:00 Talent as the Ultimate Edge 22:50 Rejecting Consensus 26:28 Early Days: From $10K to Billions 30:52 The Evernote Transformation 36:17 Pricing Power & Monetization Sophistication 40:32 Valuation & Deal Discipline 44:52 Financing Strategy 1:01:47 No Variable Pay: A Contrarian Approach 1:04:14 Areas of Dissatisfaction & Regulatory Frustration 1:09:25 Raising Europe's Largest Private Debt Round 1:13:28 AI's Impact on Software Businesses 1:17:26 Building Culture: State of the Spoon & Retreats 1:20:20 Why There Aren't More Bending Spoons 1:23:35 The Kindest Thing