20VC: Inside Bending Spoons Acquisition Machine: Evernote, Eventbrite, Vimeo | How Evernote Evaluates Acquisitions and New Product Ideas | How Evernote Mastered Product Launches, User Retention and Monetisation with Federico Simionato
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Federico Simionato, a Product Lead at Bending Spoons, shares the inside story of one of Europe's most coveted tech companies in this revealing conversation. With eight years at the company, Federico has led product teams across Evernote, WeTransfer, and other major acquisitions. (03:02)
The episode covers Bending Spoons' unique acquisition strategy, their horizontal platform approach to scaling products, and the methodologies behind their product development process. (13:35) Federico reveals how Evernote has mastered user retention, the impact of AI on product prototyping, and lessons learned from both successful and failed product launches. (38:01)
- Main themes: Product development methodologies, acquisition integration strategies, user retention optimization, AI-powered prototyping, and building sustainable product businesses within a horizontal platform structure.
Speakers
Federico Simionato
Federico Simionato is a Product Lead at Bending Spoons, where he has spent eight years leading product teams across major acquisitions including Evernote and WeTransfer. Before joining Bending Spoons, he co-founded a startup focused on gamifying dental experiences for children. He discovered Bending Spoons through their ambitious online presence and joined the company by bringing a unique approach to his interview process, including a memorable bottle of liquor for co-founder Matteo.
Harry Stebbings
Harry Stebbings is the host of 20Product, a monthly show featuring conversations with the best product and design leaders. He conducts in-depth interviews with product leaders from some of the world's most successful companies, focusing on actionable insights for professionals seeking to master their craft.
Key Takeaways
Focus on Substance Over Process in Customer Communication
Federico learned through monthly Evernote updates that user feedback directly matches the substance of what you're delivering. (35:25) When they started the updates, users would directly tell them if they were working on irrelevant features, saying things like "this is irrelevant, I don't need this, why are you working on this?" However, as they improved at understanding what users actually needed, comments became much more positive, with users saying "this is exactly what I needed" or "I've been waiting for this for years." This teaches us that authentic, regular communication with users creates a direct feedback loop that keeps product teams honest about whether they're building things that matter.
Build Evidence, Don't Rely on Opinions When Validating Ideas
Federico emphasizes being "very careful with your opinions" when evaluating product ideas. (44:23) He learned this lesson when Evernote's audio transcription feature exceeded expectations despite initial skepticism. The team wasn't confident it would work because people weren't recording much audio on Evernote, creating a chicken-and-egg problem. However, they decided to build it anyway because the quality was "literally perfect." Users ended up tweeting screenshots of the transcription accuracy, blown away by how good it was. The key lesson: always try to resort to evidence instead of saying "I think it won't work" or "I think it will work."
Retention is the Ultimate Product Success Metric
For Evernote, subscriber retention is the most important metric, defined as "the percentage of your life that you choose to spend together with a product." (15:15) Federico compares this to Spotify, where he's been subscribed for 10-12 years and plans to continue for decades because it provides consistent value. This perspective reframes retention from a monthly churn number to a lifetime commitment indicator. Products that achieve this level of retention become integral to users' professional and personal workflows, making them nearly irreplaceable.
Use AI Tools to Bridge the Gap Between Design and Development
AI has fundamentally changed how Bending Spoons approaches product testing by enabling rapid prototyping. (25:24) Instead of just showing Figma designs to customers and asking "how would you use this?", teams can now build functional prototypes using tools like Lovable and Cursor. This allows them to put working prototypes in users' hands and observe actual behavior rather than rely on what people say they would do. Federico notes that "people tell you that they would do something, and then in reality, when they have a prototype on their computer, they would do something different."
Choose Your Arena Carefully - Don't Fight Unwinnable Battles
Federico learned that product strategy requires choosing the right competitive arena. (23:20) For Evernote, trying to compete for casual users against Apple Notes and Google Keep would be fighting an unwinnable battle - these products are free and pre-installed on devices. However, advanced users "cannot use Apple Notes if you're very advanced" and "cannot use Google Keep if you're very advanced." By focusing on advanced users who need sophisticated features, Evernote chose an arena they could win. This principle applies broadly: identify where your product has a sustainable competitive advantage rather than fighting in crowded, commoditized markets.
Statistics & Facts
- Bending Spoons acquired Vimeo for $1 billion last month and Eventbrite for $500 million this week, demonstrating their aggressive acquisition pace. (00:00)
- Their HQ Trivia clone achieved 2 million registered users in Italy alone, representing one in 30 people in a country of 60 million people. (41:37)
- When Evernote raised prices by 50-60%, it created significant churn but ultimately proved successful as a financial strategy, separating committed users from casual ones. (16:22)
