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Six Hundred Twenty-One SpoonersNarrow moat

Bending Spoons (BSP) — moat facet

Everything Bending Spoons can do rests on 621 people, and the company admits it has turned down acquisitions because it did not have enough of them.

Bending Spoons runs a two-tier workforce and says so. At the end of the first quarter of 2026 it had 621 full-time equivalent Spooners, representing 27% of total full-time equivalent team members, of whom 42% were in technical roles and 18% in product and growth roles1. Total headcount was 2,284, from 405 at the end of 20232, about five and a half times larger in two years3.

Full-time equivalent team members405End-2023785End-20241,834End-20252,284End-Q1 2026Bending Spoons Form 424B4; the growth is acquired teams, of whom few are expected to remain
Five and a half times larger in two years, almost all of it bought.

Almost none of that growth was hiring. The company states that the vast majority of headcount growth was driven by the addition of acquired teams rather than hiring activity4, and that Spooners may be transferred between businesses on short notice5 and are held to particularly demanding performance standards6. Non-Spooners are typically assigned to a specific business for the duration of their tenure, generally join through an acquisition, and must pass the same process to become Spooners7. Platform teams are staffed exclusively by Spooners8.

The filter is extreme. Applications to become a Spooner went from about 110,000 in 2023 to 360,000 in 2024 and 800,000 in 20259; of the 2025 cohort about 60,000 completed practical tests, about 3,300 were interviewed and 286 were hired, less than 0.04% of applications10.

The structure is deliberately flat. Nearly all of the businesses and functions are led by people in their twenties or thirties, most of whom had little or no work experience before joining11, and in most cases there are no more than three managerial layers between the chief executive and an individual contributor Spooner12.

The geography is changing with the listing. Offices opened in Madrid and Warsaw in the second quarter of 2026, and over 50% of the Spooners hired during Q2 2026 were based outside of Italy13; a London lease at Regent's Wharf of about 30,700 square feet was signed for ten years on 8 July 202614. In Milan the company took a nine-year lease on a whole building at Via Tocqueville 13, about 92,350 square feet of offices, with an expected lease liability of about $33 million15.

Spooner capacity is also the binding constraint on the whole model: the company says it has occasionally passed on acquisition opportunities due to insufficient Spooner capacity16. That makes the Spooner share of headcount the figure to follow. At 27% it is being diluted by every acquisition, and a transformation run by borrowed capacity is a transformation that waits.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Spooners 27% of a headcount inflated by acquired teams; hiring rate under 0.04%.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Spooners as a share of all team members
27% at end-Q1 2026, 621 of 2,284

The scarce input in the model; a falling share means transformations wait on capacity.

Source: Bending Spoons Form 424B4 prospectus ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Two Men, No Employment Agreement
Bending Spoons has no employment agreement with either the chief executive or the man who finds the acquisitions, and says so in its risk factors.
References
  1. ReportedAt the end of the first quarter of 2026 it had 621 full-time equivalent Spooners, representing 27% of total full-time equivalent team members, of whom 42% were in technical roles and 18% in product and growth roles.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedTotal headcount was 2,284, from 405 at the end of 2023, about five and a half times larger in two years.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  3. Moat Explorer calcTotal headcount was 2,284, from 405 at the end of 2023, about five and a half times larger in two years.
    Moat Explorer calculation from figures reported in Bending Spoons' Form 424B4 prospectus, its Q2 2026 Form 6-K exhibits and the market data cited beside them ($ thousands unless stated). Revenue growth: 671,053 / 387,067 - 1 = 73.4%; 1,306,404 / 671,053 - 1 = 94.7%; 2,800,000 / 1,306,404 - 1 = 114% on the FY2026 guidance midpoint (2,780,000 + 2,820,000) / 2 = 2,800,000; Adjusted Operating Income guidance midpoint (1,460,000 + 1,510,000) / 2 = 1,485,000. Trailing twelve months to 30 June 2026: revenue 1,306,404 + 1,305,476 - 570,046 = 2,041,834; net income (204) + 204,433 - (46,953) = 251,182; operating cash flow 290,600 + 254,240 - 87,733 = 457,107; net margin 251,182 / 2,041,834 = 12.3%. Revenue by type, trailing twelve months: subscription 1,213,194 + 1,047,991 - 521,571 = 1,739,614; advertising 67,253 + 158,811 - 35,791 = 190,273; other 25,958 + 98,674 - 12,684 = 111,948; sum 2,041,835. Subscription share 1,739,614 / 2,041,834 = 85.2%. Q2 2026 revenue mix: subscription 540,790 / 704,155 = 76.8%; advertising 88,637 / 704,155 = 12.6%; other 74,728 / 704,155 = 10.6%. Q2 growth by line: 540,790 / 282,138 - 1 = 91.7%; 88,637 / 19,285 - 1 = 359.6%; 74,728 / 9,676 - 1 = 672.1%. FY2025 by line: 1,213,194 / 616,418 - 1 = 96.8%; 67,253 / 52,690 - 1 = 27.6%; 25,958 / 1,945 = 13.3 times. Gross margin: 236,518 / 387,067 = 61.1%; 428,851 / 671,053 = 63.9%; 857,270 / 1,306,404 = 65.6%; 463,621 / 704,155 = 65.8%; 871,825 / 1,305,476 = 66.8%. Operating margin: 84,267 / 387,067 = 21.8%; 127,352 / 671,053 = 19.0%; 277,851 / 1,306,404 = 21.3%; 240,251 / 704,155 = 34.1%. General and administrative expense 326,953 / 1,306,404 = 25.0% of 2025 revenue. Costs excluded from Adjusted Operating Income in 2025: 150,532 + 85,466 + 78,607 + 20,790 = 335,395, which is also 613,247 - 277,851 = 335,396. The same four lines across 2023, 2024 and 2025: (13,514 + 848 + 33,809) + (51,792 + 31,952 + 85,947) + (78,607 + 85,466 + 150,532) = 48,171 + 169,691 + 314,605 = 532,467. Interest: 142,601 / 32,605 = 4.4 times; 108,970 / 35,733 - 1 = 205%; 142,601 / 277,851 = 51.3% of 2025 operating income; interest paid 161,153 / 254,240 = 63.4% of H1 2026 operating cash flow. Research and development 58,204 / 19,398 = 3.0 times; sales and marketing 72,679 / 30,696 = 2.4 times. Balance sheet at 30 June 2026: total debt 794,141 + 4,086,939 = 4,881,080 (415,260 + 2,255,622 = 2,670,882 at 31 December 2025); net debt 4,881,080 - 792,950 = 4,088,130; net debt / equity 4,088,130 / 1,258,412 = 3.25 times; goodwill and intangibles 4,146,212 + 2,156,607 = 6,302,819, which is 6,302,819 / 8,055,399 = 78.2% of assets; tangible book 1,258,412 - 6,302,819 = (5,044,407); goodwill 4,146,212 / 163,863 = 25.3 times the 31 December 2023 balance. Free cash flow H1 2026 254,240 - 3,969 = 250,271. Deferred revenue 583,265 / 450,499 - 1 = 29.5%. Net cash inside the two enterprise deals: Airtable equity value about 2,250 less enterprise value 1,285 = about 965 of net cash; Miro 1,790 less 1,355 = about 435; the two together 965 + 435 = about 1,400, against combined equity value 2,250 + 1,790 = about 4,040. Valuation and rail arithmetic: market value 28,289 / pro-forma FY2025 net income 22.374 = about 1,264 times earnings; store commission of 22 to 45 against Q1 2026 gross profit of 408,204 = 5.4% to 11.0%; store fee 15% to 30% against processor fees of 5% or less = three to six times. Per-unit arithmetic: trailing revenue 2,041,834 / 9,000 thousand paying customers = about $227 a year each; other revenue 74,728 / 25,958 = 2.9 times all of 2025; advertising expense at 6% of 2025 revenue 1,306,404 x 0.06 = about 78,384. Customer and per-unit arithmetic: a customer below 1% of Q2 2026 revenue of 704,155 is below 7,042, so under $7.0 million a quarter. Market value at $44.17 on 20 October 2026: 330,222,651 + 310,240,685 = 640,463,336 shares; 640,463,336 x 44.17 = $28,289 million. Trailing price-to-earnings 28,289 / 251.2 = 112.6; price-to-sales 28,289 / 2,041.8 = 13.9; enterprise value 28,289 + 4,088 = 32,377; 32,377 / 1,485 = 21.8 times guided Adjusted Operating Income; forward price-to-sales 28,289 / 2,800 = 10.1. Price against the 52-week high 44.17 / 59.50 - 1 = -25.8%; against the offering price 44.17 / 29.00 - 1 = +52.3%. Shares after the Berkshire placement 640,463,336 + 10,000,000 = 650,463,336. Berkshire's July tranche 600 / 29.00 = about 20.7 million shares, plus 10.0 million at $33.00 = about 30.7 million. New investors paid 29.00 / 1.00 = 29 times the $1.00 average price of the pre-offering equity. Votes: 310,240,685 x 5 = 1,551,203,425 against 1,551,203,425 + 324,978,625 = 1,876,182,050 total votes = 82.68%; equity 310,240,685 / 635,219,310 = 48.84%. Luca Querella's holding 310,240,685 - 234,315,380 = 75,925,305 class A shares, 75,925,305 x 5 / 1,876,182,050 = 20.2% of the votes. Geography: 201,424 / 387,067 = 52.0%; 347,942 / 671,053 = 51.9%; 642,140 / 1,306,404 = 49.2%; 434,864 / 704,155 = 61.8%; Italy 23,637 / 1,306,404 = 1.8%; revenue outside the United States in Q2 2026 704,155 - 434,864 = 269,291, 38.2%. Payment rails in Q1 2026: 0.75 x 0.33 = 24.8% of revenue through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, 601,321 x 0.248 = about $149 million, on which a 15% to 30% fee is $22 million to $45 million; 0.75 x 0.67 = 50.3% through payment processors. Acquisitions: aggregate enterprise value 194 + 876 + 1,920 + 2,010 = $5,000 million for 2023, 2024, 2025 and Q1 2026. AOL contributed 65,500 / 141,800 = 46.2% pre-tax margin in Q1 2026 and 156 / 294 = 53.1% over six months; its FY2025 carve-out operating margin 333,610 / 633,365 = 52.7%, United States share 620,393 / 633,365 = 98.0%, purchase price 1,454,432 / 633,365 = 2.3 times carve-out revenue. Miro 1,355 / 600 = 2.3 times annual recurring revenue; Airtable 1,285 / 480 = 2.7 times; the two together 480 + 600 = about $1,080 million of annual recurring revenue. Tractive 896 - 115 = $781 million payable at closing. Pro-forma FY2025 interest 368,113 / 508,758 = 72.3% of operating income and net margin 22,374 / 2,608,496 = 0.9%. Cumulative net income attributable 2023 to 2025: 160,773 + 89,513 - 137 = 250,149. More acquisition arithmetic: average enterprise value per completed acquisition 194 / 1 = 194 (2023), 876 / 5 = 175 (2024), 1,920 / 6 = 320 (2025), 2,010 / 2 = 1,005 (Q1 2026); acquisitions closed in 2026 to 20 October = 4 (AOL, Eventbrite, Tractive, Airtable), with Miro agreed and expected to close in Q4; Airtable plus Miro enterprise value 1,285 + 1,355 = 2,640, against 480 + 600 = 1,080 of annual recurring revenue, which is more than the 671 of revenue Bending Spoons earned in all of 2024. Adjusted against reported operating income: 137,441 / 84,267 = 1.63 times (2023) and 613,247 / 277,851 = 2.21 times (2025). Cumulative revenue 2023 to 2025: 387,067 + 671,053 + 1,306,404 = 2,364,524. Interest 142,601 / 32,605 = 4.4 times. Customer tenure split, Q1 2026: 48% at five years or more less 28% at ten years or more = 20% between five and ten years, and 100% - 48% = 52% under five years. Conversion: WeTransfer 1,000,000 / 58,000,000 = 1.7%, Brightcove 1,700 / 15,000 = 11.3%, and 58,000,000 / 15,000 = about 3,900 times the user base. Mobile application stores as a share of gross accounts receivable 95% - 47% = 48 points lower over two years. Deferred revenue 583,265 / 2,041,834 = 28.6% of trailing revenue. Addressable revenue outside North America and Europe about 400 - 315 - 77 = $8 billion. People: 2,284 / 405 = 5.6 times the end-2023 headcount; Spooners 621 / 2,284 = 27.2%; hires 286 / 800,000 = 0.036% of applications; Evernote 60 / 341 - 1 = -82.4%; StreamYard 44 / 154 - 1 = -71.4%; Evernote's annual personal price 130 / 70 - 1 = +86%. Addressable market already owned 1,306 / 400,000 = 0.3%. A 10% euro move 18,821 / 1,306,404 = 1.4% of 2025 revenue - growth rates, margins, acquisition and headcount arithmetic. — 2023-2026 · publ. October 2026 · source ↗
    Method: Arithmetic on figures reported in Bending Spoons' Form 424B4 prospectus, its Q2 2026 Form 6-K exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 and the cited market data; the operands are shown in the source line.
  4. ReportedThe company states that the vast majority of headcount growth was driven by the addition of acquired teams rather than hiring activity, and that Spooners may be transferred between businesses on short notice and are held to particularly demanding performance standards.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe company states that the vast majority of headcount growth was driven by the addition of acquired teams rather than hiring activity, and that Spooners may be transferred between businesses on short notice and are held to particularly demanding performance standards.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedThe company states that the vast majority of headcount growth was driven by the addition of acquired teams rather than hiring activity, and that Spooners may be transferred between businesses on short notice and are held to particularly demanding performance standards.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedNon-Spooners are typically assigned to a specific business for the duration of their tenure, generally join through an acquisition, and must pass the same process to become Spooners.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  8. ReportedPlatform teams are staffed exclusively by Spooners.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  9. ReportedApplications to become a Spooner went from about 110,000 in 2023 to 360,000 in 2024 and 800,000 in 2025; of the 2025 cohort about 60,000 completed practical tests, about 3,300 were interviewed and 286 were hired, less than 0.04% of applications.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  10. ReportedApplications to become a Spooner went from about 110,000 in 2023 to 360,000 in 2024 and 800,000 in 2025; of the 2025 cohort about 60,000 completed practical tests, about 3,300 were interviewed and 286 were hired, less than 0.04% of applications.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  11. ReportedNearly all of the businesses and functions are led by people in their twenties or thirties, most of whom had little or no work experience before joining, and in most cases there are no more than three managerial layers between the chief executive and an individual contributor Spooner.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  12. ReportedNearly all of the businesses and functions are led by people in their twenties or thirties, most of whom had little or no work experience before joining, and in most cases there are no more than three managerial layers between the chief executive and an individual contributor Spooner.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  13. ReportedOffices opened in Madrid and Warsaw in the second quarter of 2026, and over 50% of the Spooners hired during Q2 2026 were based outside of Italy; a London lease at Regent's Wharf of about 30,700 square feet was signed for ten years on 8 July 2026.
    Bending Spoons second-quarter 2026 results release, Form 6-K exhibit 99.1 - organic revenue growth, non-GAAP measures, net debt and leverage, the business transformations and guidance for the third quarter and the full year. — Q2 2026 · publ. 13 August 2026 · source ↗
  14. ReportedOffices opened in Madrid and Warsaw in the second quarter of 2026, and over 50% of the Spooners hired during Q2 2026 were based outside of Italy; a London lease at Regent's Wharf of about 30,700 square feet was signed for ten years on 8 July 2026.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  15. ReportedIn Milan the company took a nine-year lease on a whole building at Via Tocqueville 13, about 92,350 square feet of offices, with an expected lease liability of about $33 million.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
  16. ReportedSpooner capacity is also the binding constraint on the whole model: the company says it has occasionally passed on acquisition opportunities due to insufficient Spooner capacity.
    Bending Spoons S.p.A. Form 424B4, the final initial-public-offering prospectus dated 30 June 2026 - the master document, covering the business, the Playbook, the Platform, the audited financial statements for 2023-2025, the Q1 2026 interim, the acquisitions, customers, risk factors and legal proceedings - the Business section on the Platform: people, hiring, compensation and culture. — FY2023-Q1 2026 · publ. 1 July 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated October 20, 2026