Oct 4, 2026 · 1h 5m
Bending Spoons turns overlooked tech into permanent businesses
This EU Firm Made Billions Buying Up Forgotten Tech
Luca Ferrari explains a model that combines acquisition, aggressive restructuring, rigorous hiring, and AI while raising difficult questions about work and value.
- 1Bending Spoons buys overlooked digital businesses, operates them directly, and holds them indefinitely rather than following a private-equity exit model.
- 2Ferrari defends layoffs and efficiency gains as value creation while acknowledging the moral and social costs of restructuring.
- 3The company treats hiring as a data problem and uses AI to improve both acquired products and internal operations.
Don't miss
Ferrari defends layoffs after acquisitions as necessary operational improvement while acknowledging the ethical stakes of making people bear the cost.
The brief
Luca Ferrari traces Bending Spoons to a failed AI startup, where the founders learned to improve existing products instead of chasing fashionable ideas from scratch.
The company’s core model is permanent ownership: acquire overlooked digital businesses, apply internal engineering and operating talent, and keep improving them rather than selling quickly.
That strategy creates its sharpest tension around layoffs. Ferrari argues that restructuring can strengthen a business and expand value, while conceding that the human cost is a moral question.
Bending Spoons applies the same analytical mindset to hiring, defining performance through colleague feedback and refining selection with data before trusting employees after they join.
Ferrari sees AI creating new product features and lowering operating costs, but the conversation ends with an unresolved question: who bears the cost when efficiency displaces work?
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Luca FerrariMentioned
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