Investors in Bending Spoons include musician The Weekend, tennis player Andre Agassi, movie star Bradley Cooper, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and director/actor Taika Waititi, among many other famous people: https://bendingspoons.com/people (scroll to the bottom to see all names).
I wonder if any of these illustrious backers are aware of the true business model of Bending Spoons, which can only be described as scammy:
1. Buy apps that have loyal users.
2. Fire all or most of the employees.
3. Update the apps with the most possibly intrusive adware, to milk user data for cash, earning a nice return.
Most users will thoughtlessly tap "OK" when asked to agree to the barrage of new permissions requested by the updated apps.
The company does other things too, but this is its main business.
Except for Eric Schmidt, that cap table reads like a bunch of suckers trying to "diversify their success." Barry Diller, on the other hand, is no sucker.
I also like how we are attaching these people to this company as though the Weekend and Taika Watiti sat down and sculpted a plan to get rich by being dickheads.
I bet their portfolio managers did that, and then attached their names to the deal to lend it an air of credibility, probably negotiating some sweet bonuses and spiffs for themselves in the process, and now this reads like they're all a POS, which, while that may be true for other reasons, hides the likely fact that the real POS's here are the stockbrokers.
Well, the compensation is not that bad for a company headquartered in Milan (Italy) and remote-friendly
> Competitive salary and stock options. Our compensation packages are designed to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Individuals just starting their career joining on a full-time contract are offered a salary of €63,965 along with a €1,200 welfare bonus. If you already have a few years of relevant work experience, you can expect to earn between €105,737 and €143,330, depending on your expertise
I'm building an async community software called Booklet [1], and I use it to organize a couple NY-based IRL communities - including an indie founders group and a tech dinners series. It doesn't send calendar invites (yet!), but I find that the async format keeps members engaged over time. Plus, it's independent of social networks and communicates via email.
When I lived in SF, I used Meetup to start + run OpenLate, a tech meetup with a few thousand members. Not having access to member email addresses was the worst part of Meetup, and it's probably the main reason the site still has users. (Data portability is a big focus of Booklet).
I've seen https://lu.ma used thought it's built more around one-offs than recurring meetups of the same group. Also, and I think it's closer to meetup, https://app.getriver.io/ -- though I don't think it has too much traction yet.
My AGPL, micro-federated platform Jonline has support for events with anonymous (or logged in) RSVPs. Still very early, and there are definitely still bugs, but you can deploy yourself and/or contribute!
There are plenty of tools for organizing activities. Meetup’s real value, which no one has replaced yet for various reasons, is in getting new people to join.
Anyone know of a simple badge printing setup that could work with things like Meetup, etc? Just an iPad app that can take a CSV of names and companies, say, that can connect to a Zebra printer. Everything I'm finding wants to rent you the software and the printer, I just want to scrounge them up once and for all.
Why is an adware company allowed to advertise its app with the name of a government organization ("NOAA Weather Radar")? Since they can just sell the app, I assume it's not them writing it for the government on contract.
Specifically, “Endorsement, trademarks, and agency logos
You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted.
You also cannot use federal government trademarks or federal government agency logos without permission. For example, in general, you cannot use an agency logo or trademark on your social media page to suggest endorsement or sponsorship by the agency.”
NOAA does have a licensing program, but I somehow doubt that this app was part of that program. Assuming that’s true, then this is likely a case of poor enforcement.
Is that the law, or is that more the government saying, through its publicists, how it would like its image to be used?
Seems crazy that, say, an outdoor clothes retailer couldn't share a photo of a group trek where the park ranger was wearing its gear. Or that SpaceX couldn't publish a photo of NASA astronauts flying in its spacecraft - even with NASA's permission.
If you read their Wikipedia page [1] they sound like an Italian Saint. A lot about the various awards they have gotten and other "charitable" activities.
But reading the comments here, I get another impression of the company.
Evernote finally pushed me over the edge when they limited free plans to 50 notes last month. They had made so many changes to the ui and price increases that it was becoming a worse and worse product.
Apples free notes app replaced it and other than being SLIGHTLY annoying that I have to log into the web app on windows machines... I dont miss evernote at all.
One the one hand, never take rankings and awards like that seriously. On the other hand, people in these comments are irrationally angry about the fact that people are getting fired in this deal without knowing any of the business reasons behind it.
They did the same recently with Filmic [0], of the Filmic Pro iOS Camera app.
I guess this is what the exact opposite of acqui-hire looks like. Acquire only for the app's customers, and their currently ongoing subscriptions, and nothing else.
Does anyone know if they maintain these apps well over time, or they just rot?
Unfortunately defining what that means becomes rather tricky once you consider that the company owning the app can change ownership. That ownership can be shared and go through arbitrarily many indirections, and if it's a publicly traded company, some of its shares change ownership all the time.
I think the legal concept of "beneficial ownership" is the intent here: We want to know the ultimate (natural) person(s) who control the app's assets and for whose benefit the app is monetized.
There is no simple rule that can be applied at scale. Determining beneficial ownership requires a case-by-case review of not just the chain of legal ownership, but management, contracts, incentives, etc.
Any fixed rules can be gamed. For example, a company could license out its name as a "franchise" who is legally independent but whose franchise contract has so many arms of control that they de facto function as a single company. Another example is that a majority donor of a nonprofit controls the nonprofit even if they have no board seats or de jure power to appoint or fire board members.
For public companies, it is extremely easy. Just start off with a warning every time certain filing (Section 13) is made. You could conceivably do this automated.
For private, large companies, its a simply attestation. You could open source monitoring for changes - if the company makes an PR announcement of any kind , or if a member of the public reports submits proof of change of control exercise in their contract, ask the company to update their attestation and compare.
They don't provide it ? They get a nice little red banner alerting users of shadiness going on.
This should be a law really. Any subscribers to any service should promptly be notified about the change in parent company and clear language changes (like ads and new permissions etc.)
Readit News
I wonder if any of these illustrious backers are aware of the true business model of Bending Spoons, which can only be described as scammy:
1. Buy apps that have loyal users.
2. Fire all or most of the employees.
3. Update the apps with the most possibly intrusive adware, to milk user data for cash, earning a nice return.
Most users will thoughtlessly tap "OK" when asked to agree to the barrage of new permissions requested by the updated apps.
The company does other things too, but this is its main business.
They're doing exactly as you are describing.
I bet their portfolio managers did that, and then attached their names to the deal to lend it an air of credibility, probably negotiating some sweet bonuses and spiffs for themselves in the process, and now this reads like they're all a POS, which, while that may be true for other reasons, hides the likely fact that the real POS's here are the stockbrokers.
I think this is every app's business model now.
> Competitive salary and stock options. Our compensation packages are designed to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. Individuals just starting their career joining on a full-time contract are offered a salary of €63,965 along with a €1,200 welfare bonus. If you already have a few years of relevant work experience, you can expect to earn between €105,737 and €143,330, depending on your expertise
I can't help but find this funny
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38953242
When I lived in SF, I used Meetup to start + run OpenLate, a tech meetup with a few thousand members. Not having access to member email addresses was the worst part of Meetup, and it's probably the main reason the site still has users. (Data portability is a big focus of Booklet).
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37585869
https://github.com/JonLatane/jonlinehttps://jonline.iohttps://bullcity.socialhttps://oakcity.social
He doesn't have the discoverability of Meetup, of course, but handles the RSVPs and organizing. Pricing is on the website.
I’m not aware of anything else out that works like that.
It's almost more surprising that Bending Spoons thinks they can squeeze out any money out of Meetup.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38502586
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33623402
Specifically, “Endorsement, trademarks, and agency logos You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted. You also cannot use federal government trademarks or federal government agency logos without permission. For example, in general, you cannot use an agency logo or trademark on your social media page to suggest endorsement or sponsorship by the agency.”
NOAA does have a licensing program, but I somehow doubt that this app was part of that program. Assuming that’s true, then this is likely a case of poor enforcement.
Seems crazy that, say, an outdoor clothes retailer couldn't share a photo of a group trek where the park ranger was wearing its gear. Or that SpaceX couldn't publish a photo of NASA astronauts flying in its spacecraft - even with NASA's permission.
But reading the comments here, I get another impression of the company.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bending_Spoons
Is this just an aggressive PE firm or what?
Apples free notes app replaced it and other than being SLIGHTLY annoying that I have to log into the web app on windows machines... I dont miss evernote at all.
I was not planning to do that, and I don't wish that they force me to do that.
"Evernote was acquired and everyone was laid off."
"Immuni was awarded but less than 1% used it."
"Acquired some company and fired its entire team."
Literally sounds like some tech scavenger.
I guess this is what the exact opposite of acqui-hire looks like. Acquire only for the app's customers, and their currently ongoing subscriptions, and nothing else.
Does anyone know if they maintain these apps well over time, or they just rot?
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38502586
That would seem like a useful app.
Frankly Apple and Alphabet should offer such a service but I don't have much confidence that they will.
Unfortunately defining what that means becomes rather tricky once you consider that the company owning the app can change ownership. That ownership can be shared and go through arbitrarily many indirections, and if it's a publicly traded company, some of its shares change ownership all the time.
There is no simple rule that can be applied at scale. Determining beneficial ownership requires a case-by-case review of not just the chain of legal ownership, but management, contracts, incentives, etc.
Any fixed rules can be gamed. For example, a company could license out its name as a "franchise" who is legally independent but whose franchise contract has so many arms of control that they de facto function as a single company. Another example is that a majority donor of a nonprofit controls the nonprofit even if they have no board seats or de jure power to appoint or fire board members.
For private, large companies, its a simply attestation. You could open source monitoring for changes - if the company makes an PR announcement of any kind , or if a member of the public reports submits proof of change of control exercise in their contract, ask the company to update their attestation and compare.
They don't provide it ? They get a nice little red banner alerting users of shadiness going on.