Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Hello and welcome, everyone.

I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy, and this is Invest Like the Best.

This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money.

If you enjoy these conversations and want to go deeper, check out Colossus Review, our quarterly publication with in-depth profiles of the people shaping business and investing.

You can find Colossus Review along with all of our podcasts at joincolossus.com.

My guest today is Luca Ferrari.

Luca is the co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, which he describes as 25% private equity and 75% 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 Benning 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 any expense.

Please enjoy my conversation with Luca Farrar.

For those that don't know about it, since we're in Milan today, it's not New York City.

Not everyone yet knows about Benning Spoon.

Soon they will.

Can you just tell us what it is and then we'll go from there?

Can you say a little bit about the vision you have for the business, not in terms of how big it will be or the number of acquisitions or anything, but five years hence, I know you care very deeply about the culture of the people here, what the home office looks like and feels like.

You have a huge ambition for what you're building.