Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari told investors Tuesday that the Italian technology firm achieved its massive $18 billion valuation by successfully replacing the unpredictable whims of startup culture with the cold, reliable mathematics of squeezing captive users.
Explaining that relying on product innovation leaves far too much to chance, Ferrari outlined a foolproof corporate strategy built entirely from first principles. Rather than gambling on whether consumers will adopt a new piece of software, Bending Spoons systematically acquires decaying but structurally necessary utilities like Meetup and WeTransfer, immediately terminates their workforces, and steadily ratchets up the price.
We looked at our early failures and realized that hoping a user organically likes your software is essentially gambling.
Ruzza noted that luck played absolutely no role in the company's recent decision to charge long-time Evernote users $130 a year to look at their own grocery lists. Because migrating thousands of scattered digital notes to a new platform is agonizing, the resulting revenue spike was completely mathematically predictable, requiring zero serendipity, good fortune, or software development.
Similar luck-minimizing strategies were reportedly applied to Meetup, where organizing a local knitting circle now requires a premium enterprise tier. The firm's meticulous, risk-free roadmap concludes next quarter, when Bending Spoons will acquire the concept of the PDF, fire everyone involved, and charge users a flat monthly fee to open their own tax returns.