Luca Ferrari

For example, we know we can make pretty accurate predictions of word of mouth rates under normal circumstances, but not under sudden viral moments.

We don't feel very confident making predictions of future rates of user acquisitions through paid advertising, for example.

So that was a big lesson learned.

Another one we learned, we actually went after Grindr.

the LGBTQ plus dating app in 2019.

So the app was owned by a Chinese firm and CFEWS was forcing it to sell.

So long story short, it was a big bite for us at the time.

We're much smaller.

It would have quadrupled the company.

We didn't have an equally substantial track record as we do today.

We went above and beyond to raise the capital.

Almost won the deal.

Ultimately, we lost it because someone else offered a bit more and we would have offered more still, but we just had capped out on available sources of funds.

So that was a failure.

We worked, took us about nine months.

My main thing and the main thing for several colleagues...

At the time, we were very small.

We had an M&A team of one person.

So it really paused our growth.

Had we bought it, it would have been an incredible acceleration afterward.