How Bending Spoons Mastered Product Acquisition

Luca Ferrari's Journey to Bending Spoons

Early Life and Education

Luca Ferrari grew up as an extremely shy and introverted child. Teachers often described him as pathologically shy, gentle, and considerate. This phase lasted until his early teens, when he struggled to make friends and felt like an outsider.

Professional Beginnings

Ferrari's professional journey began at McKinsey, where he worked while funding his first startup, Evertail. Despite its ultimate failure, he learned valuable lessons about the importance of building a good team and being thoughtful about market needs.

Transition to Bending Spoons

Following the collapse of Evertail, Ferrari teamed up with two co-founders to start Bending Spoons. This new venture took a different approach: instead of building new products from scratch, they focused on acquiring products with proven market fit and improving them further. This strategy was born out of his previous experiences and the humility gained from early failures.

Luca Ferrari's journey highlights how initial struggles and failures can lay the foundation for innovative business strategies and eventual success.

The Birth and Evolution of Bending Spoons

The early days of Bending Spoons were marked by several key challenges and strategic decisions:

• Initial Challenges:

  • After the failure of their first startup, Evertail, the founders faced significant obstacles in securing funding.
  • They had to contend with the lack of a robust venture capital scene in Italy, limiting their options for external financial support.

• Bootstrapping Decision:

  • The decision to bootstrap was driven by their desire to maintain control and their ability to generate early revenue.
  • Luca Ferrari's job at McKinsey helped fund their initial operations, allowing the other co-founders to work full-time on the venture.

• Transition from Evertail to Bending Spoons:

  • Following Evertail's collapse, the founders decided to focus on acquiring products that already had market fit instead of creating new products from scratch.
  • This pivot stemmed from lessons learned about the unpredictability of market needs and their previous experience.

Bending Spoons' early phase laid the groundwork for its unique strategy, emphasizing humility and pragmatic resource allocation.

Unique Product Acquisition Strategy

Bending Spoons' product acquisition strategy is distinct and calculated. Instead of building new products from scratch, they target existing products with established market fit. This approach minimizes the risk of failure and leverages existing user bases.

Key Criteria for Acquisition

1. User Base: Products with a substantial and engaged user base.
2. Brand Recognition: Established, recognizable brands.
3. Distribution Channel: Strong positioning within their distribution channels.

Acquisition Process

1. Identify Potential Products: Using the above criteria.
2. Evaluate Potential: Assessing untapped potential for further growth.
3. Optimize and Improve: Once acquired, they focus on product enhancements—rewriting code, redesigning UI/UX, and perfecting marketing strategies.

This strategy, born from early failures, ensures a thorough vetting process and leverages existing market insights to boost success.

Improving Acquired Products

Bending Spoons has mastered the art of enhancing the products they acquire. Their approach is methodical and data-driven, ensuring each product reaches its highest potential.

• Rewriting Software: They often completely rewrite the essential parts of the acquired software. This step eliminates technical debt and improves performance and scalability.

• Redesigning User Interfaces: A significant focus is placed on user experience. By redesigning the UI, they make the product more intuitive and user-friendly, which helps in retaining and growing the user base.

• Optimizing Marketing Strategies: Bending Spoons revamps marketing strategies to better align with the product's value proposition. They leverage data analytics to create targeted campaigns that improve user acquisition and retention.

These methods have allowed Bending Spoons to unlock untapped potential in acquired products, driving growth and success.

Challenges in User Acquisition

User acquisition remains one of the toughest challenges for Bending Spoons. Luca Ferrari explains that projecting future rates of user acquisition can be devilishly difficult.

He notes, "Rate of user acquisition is the hardest to project accurately by a huge margin.”

This difficulty stems from the many variables that influence user acquisition, many of which are outside the company's control. These variables make it hard to forecast user acquisition trends accurately.

Ferrari emphasizes the need for intellectual humility when tackling user acquisition challenges. He advises lowering expectations in projections to avoid being overly optimistic. Despite these obstacles, Bending Spoons constantly iterates and refines their strategies to align better with market realities.

Building a Strong Team

Importance of Talent and Motivation Density

At Bending Spoons, talent and motivation density are key. Luca Ferrari emphasizes that having a team with high talent and motivation can propel the company forward. They focus on these aspects rather than solely on experience.

Hiring Practices

Their hiring practices are unique. Instead of traditional interviews, they rely on practical tests. These tests simulate the actual job requirements. They prioritize problem-solving abilities and work ethic.

Lessons from Hiring Mistakes

Ferrari admits they've made mistakes. One significant error was putting too much weight on experience. This approach led to lower long-term contributions. Now, they focus more on talent and motivation, aiming for long-term success.

By concentrating on these elements, Bending Spoons ensures they build a strong, effective team.

Lessons from Failed Projects

Bending Spoons, led by Luca Ferrari, has learned valuable lessons from its failed projects.

• PlayOn Experience:

  • PlayOn was an ambitious project aiming to be the "Netflix of mobile games."
  • Despite significant investments ($6-7 million), it failed to gain traction.
  • The release of Apple Arcade didn't help, but wasn't the sole reason for failure.

• Key Takeaways:

  • Intellectual Humility: Recognize the limits of predicting market needs, especially for new concepts.
  • Lower Expectations: Assume positive bias towards your ideas and adjust projections accordingly.
  • Thorough Research: Avoid being lazy in analyzing underlying market factors.

These lessons have refined their strategies, emphasizing humility, realistic projections, and thorough market research.

Future Ambitions of Bending Spoons

Luca Ferrari envisions a bright future for Bending Spoons. He emphasizes scaling and creating a significant positive impact.

Ferrari stated, "I hope we can continue doing what we do but at a much bigger scale. We aim to make a positive difference."

The goal is not just growth. It’s about enhancing their capabilities to tackle global issues.

Ferrari admires initiatives like the Gates Foundation, aiming for substantial contributions in the future. "Being able to tackle polio or similar problems would be incredibly inspiring," he noted.

Bending Spoons plans to accumulate resources and credibility. This will help them address both business and societal challenges effectively.

Their ambition is clear: to combine business success with meaningful positive change.