Acquiring Legacy Brands: The AOL Opportunity

Luca explains acquiring AOL’s email and portal assets, recognizing durable user bases and opportunities to modernize them.

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My guest today is Luca Ferrari. Luca is the co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, which he describes as 25 percent private equity and 75 percent technology company. Founded in 2013, Bending Spoons fully acquires and operates digital companies like Evernote, Meetup, Vimeo, and most recently AOL.

Our conversation explores the unique model behind Bending Spoons, and the culture required to scale it. Luca shares exactly how their acquisition playbook works – from identifying promising businesses to rebuilding every part of them across product, design, monetization, and marketing. We discuss their approach to financing long-term ownership through both debt and equity, Luca’s obsession with finding and developing exceptional talent, and his decision to build the company in Europe.

I found Luca’s description of himself as perennially unhappy to be the clearest window into how he builds. It’s a mindset that fuels his pursuit of excellence and defines the culture at Bending Spoons.

Please enjoy my conversation with Luca Ferrari.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:03:12) The Vision and Ambition

(00:07:56) Challenges and Early Days

(00:11:01) The Turning Point: Evertale to Bending Spoons

(00:13:12) Acquisition Strategy and Growth

(00:24:22) Case Study: Evernote Acquisition

(00:33:34) Pricing and Valuation Insights