Everybody loves to hate BendingSpoon, but there is a lesson here. They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product. They basically skip everything but engineers, and they are kept at a minimum. Feedback from users is the products they take over 1) become more expensive, 2) they ship features waaaay faster.
It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.
I think that’s always the thing with any of these things. The companies private equity or Bending Spoons acquire are frequently inefficient, bloated and not the best-run businesses.
But its basically an admission that the business is in its extraction phase and will no longer innovate.
Relevant quote:
Private Equity is engaged in buying artisanal semi-businesses, turning them into businesses, propping up the numbers while destroying them —then, hopefully, destroying itself.
>They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product.
"improve" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Evernote and meetup are in worse states post BS. Shipping features and shipping value is very different in this landscape.
>It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.
Bending Spoons has recently been buying aging SaaS companies that have established PMF and customers and decent brands (Evernote, Komoot, WeTransfer, Meetup).
I guess it's mostly a private equity play—usually after being acquired by BS, prices go up, paywalls go everywhere, companies get "more efficient" (aka layoffs) and the product stops evolving.
I wish there was a better outcome for beloved brands with good products that won't experience any more hypergrowth.
The founders decided "it had been a wild ride but all journeys come to an end" so the prices and upselling now keep increasing so that the private equity that bought them can see fast short-term gains (the only thing they care about).
From my perspective, it "evolved" to force you to have an account, to aggressively kick off organizers who can't pay for the rising prices of posting, and the search algorithm got worse. I could barely find meetups I knew existed with a direct query.
"In September 2022, Bending Spoons acquired FiLMiC[13] and converted its video-recording app FiLMiC Pro to a subscription revenue model.[14] In December 2023, the original FiLMiC team were laid off, and development of FiLMiC Pro was continued in-house by Bending Spoons.[15]
In November 2022, Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Evernote.[16] The acquisition was concluded in January 2023.[17] In July 2023, Evernote laid off all of its existing staff."
That's a way higher evaluation than I thought after their pivot. I remember in 2012 when I had hope they would succeed as a YouTube competitor. Their staff videos were insanely funny. Sad to see I end like this.
It makes sense. Without ad revenue or premium subscriptions, there's no viable way to pay for creators in the say way a proper "indie youtube". In addition, many creators who post on Vimeo very much did not want their content to be publicly viewable. That was a feature.
Everybody loves to hate BendingSpoon, but there is a lesson here. They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product. They basically skip everything but engineers, and they are kept at a minimum. Feedback from users is the products they take over 1) become more expensive, 2) they ship features waaaay faster.
It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.
Also, their core development team is in Italy and they are considered by many the best company in the IT space in Italy.
What it means is that they have the top Italian talent, they pay them a very good italian salary that is still way lower than an american one.
So basically they have very capable people working on their engineering, at a fraction of the cost of the original staff.
> Also, their core development team is in Italy and they are considered by many the best company in the IT space in Italy.
That’s just PR to get students to apply and pay them peanuts. History shows that they acquire businesses, make them worst and destroy them.
I think that’s always the thing with any of these things. The companies private equity or Bending Spoons acquire are frequently inefficient, bloated and not the best-run businesses.
But its basically an admission that the business is in its extraction phase and will no longer innovate.
Relevant quote:
Private Equity is engaged in buying artisanal semi-businesses, turning them into businesses, propping up the numbers while destroying them —then, hopefully, destroying itself.
Can you provide proof that products ship features faster after they lay off their teams?
> It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.
Isn't this the same that Broadcom does on a larger scale?
As a Vimeo OTT customer, this is producing mixed emotions.
>They consistently rewrite the code of their acquisitions with a tiny team, fire everybody and are able to maintain and improve the product.
"improve" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Evernote and meetup are in worse states post BS. Shipping features and shipping value is very different in this landscape.
>It looks like next generation private equity, and my guess is more houses will start copying them.
Yes, that's why I hate it.
Citation needed for “improve the product”
Oh no, this is undoubtedly going to be terrible for the companies that built their OTT platforms on Vimeo. E.g. Dropout.tv.
Could you help me understand what Vimeo helps with that's specifically helpful with OTT?
They do whitelabel OTT. https://vimeo.com/ott
Neat, thanks. Didn't come across that link in their menu.
Bending Spoons has recently been buying aging SaaS companies that have established PMF and customers and decent brands (Evernote, Komoot, WeTransfer, Meetup).
I guess it's mostly a private equity play—usually after being acquired by BS, prices go up, paywalls go everywhere, companies get "more efficient" (aka layoffs) and the product stops evolving.
I wish there was a better outcome for beloved brands with good products that won't experience any more hypergrowth.
I will transfer my remaining domains from Gandi this month.
In case anyone else needed a reminder.
Wait why. I'm out of the loop.
The founders decided "it had been a wild ride but all journeys come to an end" so the prices and upselling now keep increasing so that the private equity that bought them can see fast short-term gains (the only thing they care about).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35080777
https://www.crunchbase.com/acquisition/montefiore-investment...
https://news.gandi.net/en/2019/02/futureofgandi-the-adventur...
Thanks, transferring out now.
For Meetup at least the product did evolved after it got aquired.
From my perspective, it "evolved" to force you to have an account, to aggressively kick off organizers who can't pay for the rising prices of posting, and the search algorithm got worse. I could barely find meetups I knew existed with a direct query.
"In September 2022, Bending Spoons acquired FiLMiC[13] and converted its video-recording app FiLMiC Pro to a subscription revenue model.[14] In December 2023, the original FiLMiC team were laid off, and development of FiLMiC Pro was continued in-house by Bending Spoons.[15]
In November 2022, Bending Spoons agreed to acquire Evernote.[16] The acquisition was concluded in January 2023.[17] In July 2023, Evernote laid off all of its existing staff."
Oh great.
That's a way higher evaluation than I thought after their pivot. I remember in 2012 when I had hope they would succeed as a YouTube competitor. Their staff videos were insanely funny. Sad to see I end like this.
Funny that I see this while searching for this story here: https://ymcinema.com/2022/03/17/vimeo-we-are-a-b2b-solution-...
It makes sense. Without ad revenue or premium subscriptions, there's no viable way to pay for creators in the say way a proper "indie youtube". In addition, many creators who post on Vimeo very much did not want their content to be publicly viewable. That was a feature.
oh the monsters that killed evernote
Oh sweet, does this mean my worthless VEMO is worth something now?