The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) Podcast

Episode: Inside Bending Spoons’ Acquisition Machine: Evernote, Eventbrite, Vimeo
Guest: Federico Simionato, Product Lead, Bending Spoons
Host: Harry Stebbings
Date: December 5, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode dives into how Bending Spoons, a rapidly growing European technology company, approaches acquisitions (notably Evernote, Eventbrite, Vimeo), product launches, user retention, and monetization. Federico Simionato, a lead product manager at Bending Spoons, shares actionable insights from scaling diverse products—from “Dentist games for kids” to the revitalization and modernization of legacy apps like Evernote. Throughout, both Harry and Federico stress pragmatic, evidence-driven decision making and an enthusiasm for bold, user-centric product development.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Federico’s Journey to Bending Spoons

• Early Beginnings & Learnings: Federico began his career in startups, including building unscalable products. He underscores the importance of caring about what you’re building and seeking high-growth environments ([03:15]).
• Breakthrough: He was drawn to Bending Spoons due to their ambition, clarity, and desire for continuous improvement.
• Creative Job Applications: Federico brought a bottle of liquor to his interview, emphasizing the value of “being surprising” and showing character ([05:53]).

What Makes a Great Product Manager (PM)?

• Ideal Background: Entrepreneurship or analytical roles (like consulting or academic research)—anything that teaches you to focus on what matters and analyze root causes ([05:07]).
• Personality Over Perfection: Stand out by embracing rough edges; demonstrating creativity often trumps being purely polished ([06:43]).
• On Evolution: The core of product management—identifying and executing on what matters—remains unchanged, but speed and experimentation capabilities have increased with AI ([07:06]).

Evaluating Ideas and Product Features

• Dual Framework: Assess ideas by potential top-line (revenue, users) and by qualitative assessment of step-function improvement ([07:52]).
  • Example: On WeTransfer, modeling the business case for extending access to expired transfers using clear user data.
  • For products with high uncertainty (like exploratory AI for Evernote), gut feel and past comparables can guide, but it remains an “estimate game” ([08:57]).
• Lessons in Failure: Business cases may look strong on paper but may not account for the challenges in convincing users to try new products (e.g., remote fitness during COVID-19) ([11:29]).
  • Quote: “The idea is good, but it turns out that it’s not enough. You need somebody who calls you out directly: like, Harry, you’re not working out today...” ([12:11]).

Product Success Metrics & User Retention

• Evernote Example: Product decisions are often not tied directly to top-line impact, but long-term retention and making the product “more useful every day.” Subscriber retention is the key metric ([15:15]).
  • Quote: “Retention is the percentage of your life that you choose to spend together with a product.” ([15:15])
• Churn: Biggest driver was a price increase (by 50-60%) in 2023; the rationale was confidence in Evernote’s value proposition ([16:16]).
  • On Pricing Communication: Be straightforward and confident; don’t obscure the message ([18:32]).
  • On Ethics: Making subscription cancellation easy is more valuable long-term than squeezing extra revenue ([19:16]).

Idea to MVP: Testing and Customer Feedback

• Process: Varies by product. For Evernote, often involves sitting with users, showing Figma prototypes, gathering qualitative feedback from panels of super-users ([20:08]).
• Feedback Techniques:
  • Ask specific, recent-use-case questions to uncover real needs:
    "What’s a use case in the last month for which this would have been useful?" ([22:12])
  • The Mom Test: Phrase questions so users must reflect on actual behavior, not idealized preferences ([21:03]).
• Serving Casual vs. Advanced Users: Focus on the segment where you truly add unique value (e.g., advanced users for Evernote), rather than trying to please everyone ([23:06]).
  • Quote: "You should think about your product very specifically... It doesn't look like it's a great arena to fight [casual user market]. Advanced users, you cannot use Apple Notes if you're very advanced." (23:06)

Prototyping, Design, and AI’s Role

• Prototyping Evolution: Move towards skipping traditional handoff from Figma-like design to code, instead iterating on functional prototypes with AI tool assistance ([27:11]).
  • Quote: “I think the role of a designer will be as important as it is today, maybe even more. But I think…the tools we use will evolve; you won’t work on pixels and then code, but will likely merge the two things.” ([27:11])
• Tool Choices: Stack varies by team/product—WeTransfer uses Lovable and cloud code heavily; Evernote still leans on Figma for complex legacy reasons ([26:38]).

Product Launches & Continuous Delivery

• Incremental > Big Bang: Weekly visible improvements build user trust and signal long-term commitment ([31:25]). Flashier launches are reserved for step-change innovations (e.g., upcoming Evernote v11 with advanced AI).
  • Quote: “Instead of doing a large and fancy launch, you try to do it in a way that feels like every week I’m getting something new.” ([31:25])
• Monthly Updates: Instituted for transparency after missteps during the Evernote acquisition and price raise, reinforcing Bending Spoons’ personal accountability ([33:38]).
  • Be practical, show what’s shipping now, avoid over-promising future features, and don’t shy from discussing uncomfortable changes ([36:50]).

Product Failures and Surprises

• Failure - Playond ("Netflix for mobile games"): Despite heavy investment, failed because game habits didn’t fit the subscription model—games build long-term loyalty, unlike movies ([39:43]).
• Surprise Success - Audio transcription on Evernote: Initially doubted due to low past usage, but became beloved after launch due to quality ([43:49]).
  • Lesson: “You should be very careful with your opinions… If you don’t [have evidence], you should try and build evidence and then you should follow that instead of saying, I think it won’t work or it will work.” ([44:43])

The Bending Spoons Acquisition Playbook

• Horizontal Platform Model: Centralizes shared services (legal, HR, accounting, data pipelines, etc.) so acquired product teams can be lean. For example, Evernote shrank from several hundred to under 100 people post-acquisition ([45:25], [46:38]).
• Who Stays/Who Goes: Core product, design, and management functions remain at the business unit/product level, but are far leaner due to centralized platform support ([46:42]).

Monetization & Paywall Strategy

• Case-by-Case: No universal playbook; best approach varies by product. Post-acquisition Evernote moved from paywalling advanced features to monetizing based on usage (note volume), while making previously paid features like offline access free ([47:27]).
• Aggressive Paywalls: Sometimes warranted for mature products with large user bases; for new growth, a lighter touch may make sense ([49:13]).
• Push Notifications: Use sparingly—Evernote avoids them for marketing, while products like Live Quiz (their HQ Trivia clone) made them a core trigger ([50:10]).

Organizational Structure, Culture, and Process

• Team Allocation: Functional leads, not “volunteers,” decide who works on which products post-acquisition, but personal preferences are considered ([51:14]).
• Remote vs. In-office: No strong stance; hybrid is preferred for flexibility and attracting global talent ([55:29]).
• Cultural Differences: No notable difference between US and European teams in Federico’s experience ([56:36]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Retention & Product Value
  “The way I think about retention is, it’s the percentage of your life that you choose to spend together with a product.”
  – Federico, [15:15]

• On Pricing Communication
  “If I'm confident that the price I’m asking you to pay is fair, then I can tell you 10 times and you will still make the decision of staying retained. If you’re trying to... not really tell people that we are increasing their prices, that’s a bad move.”
  – Federico, [18:32]

• On User Segmentation
  “You should think about your product very specifically, like Evernote. Should we build Evernote for casual users?”
  – Federico, [23:06]

• On What Makes a Great PM
  “Great PMs are entrepreneurs at heart... The best entrepreneurs are great creative people at coming up with ideas, designers at thinking what the UX should look like, project managers that get the team to ship fast and they ship fast with the team.”
  – Federico, [59:24]

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:15 | Federico’s early career and the “dentist game” startup | | 05:07 | Best backgrounds for becoming a product manager | | 07:52 | How Bending Spoons evaluates product ideas | | 13:35 | Product changes chosen for user value vs. top-line impact | | 15:15 | Evernote's key retention metric and philosophy | | 16:16 | Raising Evernote's prices and the churn lesson | | 19:16 | Making it easy for users to cancel subscriptions | | 20:08 | How features get tested—user interviews, panels, and Figma | | 23:06 | Choosing to focus Evernote on advanced users | | 27:11 | The diminishing line between design and code | | 31:25 | Ship weekly improvements vs. waiting for big launches | | 33:38 | The rationale behind Evernote’s monthly user updates | | 36:50 | How to do effective, transparent product updates | | 39:43 | Failure of Playond (Netflix for games) and Takeaways | | 43:49 | Audio transcription success—a surprising hit | | 45:25 | Bending Spoons’ horizontal platform model for acquired companies | | 47:27 | How monetization shifted at Evernote post-acquisition | | 49:13 | Aggressiveness in paywall and monetization strategy | | 50:10 | Push notifications: when to use them and when not | | 55:29 | Remote vs. in-person effectiveness at Bending Spoons | | 59:24 | The most non-obvious skill for a product manager | | 62:00 | Federico’s advice to his younger self: “Be bolder” |

Fast Fire Round Highlights

• Dream Acquisition: Google (“it’s just one of the best products in history”) ([57:34])
• Unexpected Favorite Apps: Polytopia (mobile strategy game), Napper (tracks baby sleep schedules) ([58:21])
• Most important PM Skill: Entrepreneurial drive ([59:24])
• Preferred AI Coding Tools: Replit for personal use, Lovable dominant at Bending Spoons, but Cursor and Claude Code also in play ([60:09])
• Personal Advice: “Be bolder. I think sometimes I waited for somebody to give me permission to do stuff... If you have an idea for something that works, we're just gonna be enthusiastic about you trying it.” ([62:00])
• If Fearless: Would build a Neuralink competitor or start a Neuralink project at Bending Spoons ([62:38])

Summary Takeaways

• Bending Spoons’ product strategy is driven by a combination of bold ambition, evidence-based iteration, and obsessive focus on user value—especially for power users.
• Frequent, clear, and honest communication with users builds trust and long-term retention.
• Product and monetization strategies must be deeply customized to fit specific use cases—even among diverse acquisitions.
• The future of product development will fuse design and code, powered by rapid AI-driven prototyping and ever-faster feedback loops.
• Personal agency, creative thinking, and being unafraid to stand out (and even fail) were presented as invaluable traits throughout Federico’s journey and the company’s philosophy.

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