Super silly of me to ask but how does Bending Spoons make money in all of this?
Is it the "fire all American devs and save costs with cheaper Italians" schtick or is there something else?
I don't see how Airtable makes money on its own.
I don't see how Airtable makes money on its own.
They then fire nearly all of the existing new companies staff and think of all the ways they can maximally monetise the existing userbase. Growing the product via investing in it isn't a priority, revenue stream is.
They get a lot of stick, but in fairness they are up front about their business model; they don't hide the fact that they are going to fire most people, unlike traditional private equity firms who make false promises.
These companies all pay insanely high silicon valley wages and deliver very little actual product development velocity for the wage costs involved.
The founders don't have the b**s to do the necessary haircuts themselves so they sell. Bending spoons takes the reputation hit that the founder should have taken and makes severe cuts.
BS then rationalises the roadmap, and either keeps it alive or invests into it depending on expected return.
Nothing particularly revolutionary other than they are an execution machine.
The same thing Broadcom is doing with VMware.