From $10K to $500M Deals: Bending Spoons’ Acquisition Playbook

Luca and Matteo spent months analyzing 20-30 global locations before choosing Milan, recognizing that location decisions create massive long-term leverage. They identified markets with high talent density but limited opportunities, enabling them to attract exceptional people while building inspiration for local entrepreneurship. Consumer brands should similarly approach geographic expansion strategically rather than opportunistically.

Bending Spoons developed over 50 proprietary technologies that can be deployed across any acquired business - from A/B testing infrastructure to payment management systems. This platform approach enabled them to improve businesses dramatically post-acquisition rather than just consolidating. Consumer marketers should build reusable marketing technologies and playbooks that compound value across product lines or markets.

Their most powerful competitive advantage is the ability to rapidly move talent to highest-impact opportunities without organizational friction. Team members proactively suggest reassignments, and leadership regularly restructures based on value creation potential. This requires hiring for cultural fit over experience and aligning incentives through equity ownership across the organization.

Bending Spoons deliberately runs smaller teams (40 people managing $100M+ businesses) to maximize individual contribution and decision-making speed. They've proven that focused teams with clear autonomy outperform larger organizations with complex hierarchies. Consumer brands should resist the temptation to scale headcount proportionally with revenue growth.

Rather than hiring experienced executives, they hire exclusively new graduates and invest heavily in their development, creating loyalty and cultural consistency while enabling rapid internal promotions. Their 27-year-old CEO of Evernote exemplifies this approach. Consumer marketers should view junior talent development as a long-term competitive moat rather than just cost management.

Their approach to acquisitions mirrors how they think about product development - each acquisition teaches lessons that improve the next one, creating a compounding knowledge advantage. They deliberately balance exploitation of proven playbooks with exploration of new business models to expand their platform capabilities.

Despite managing billions in capital, they prioritize risk management through sophisticated Monte Carlo simulations and scenario planning. They never acquire businesses where pessimistic cases would be "ruinous," preferring steady compounding over venture-scale risks. This patient capital approach enables longer-term value creation strategies.