Getting a job at Bending Spoons comes with no bonus, no fancy title, and a warning—800,000 people applied anyway

Bending Spoons, the Italian tech conglomerate that owns Vimeo and AOL, attracts over 800,000 applicants annually despite its selective recruitment process. The company's "controversial" workplace principles warn prospective hires of the challenges and high expectations they will face, yet many still apply. Bending Spoons acquires underperforming apps, rebuilds their technology with its own engineers, and keeps them.

CEO Luca Ferrari compares the company to private equity merging with Google. With a workforce of 600 employees, revenue per full-time employee has nearly doubled in two years, and the company went public in July, raising $1.68 billion. Despite the demanding nature of the job, Bending Spoons does not offer performance bonuses, arguing that such incentives lead to short-term thinking.

Instead, the company invests in salaries and offers employees a discounted stock purchase option. The hierarchy is minimal, with no more than three layers of management between the CEO and core team members. Bending Spoons emphasizes individual responsibility for wellbeing, with employees expected to manage their own schedules and notifications.

This approach, combined with a low employee turnover rate of 0.6%, suggests that Bending Spoons' rigorous selection process and unique work environment yield high-quality employees.