“My startup before Bending Spoons, we worked at it for three years, and you know how we failed? It clearly wasn't working. We were trying to use AI way too early, to write diaries for people automatically. People weren't using it, certainly weren't paying for it. But we kept pushing, we raised a little extra money and pivoted and pivoted and pivoted.”
a16z Podcast · Startups & Venture · November 2026
Context
Asked how stuck founders can tell when to quit, Luca answers with the story of his earlier failed startup, which he says ended only when an expected tax refund didn't arrive. He admits he can't advise on knowing when to stop.
Transcript
…produce ideas or options that you wouldn't otherwise have considered. But you don't pick those simply because you got them in the spur of a moment and you're super excited about them. You want to ponder them and determine whether that excitement is justified. And if so, yeah, go for it. Absolutely.
…on behalf of founders who feel like they're stuck. You know, the definition of hell is never winning and never quitting. How should founders know when it's time to kind of move on versus, and of course this is a difficult question versus, hey, maybe you're three months away from the next increment?
Yeah, I wish I had a good answer. You know, I'm probably awful at that because my startup before Bending Spoons Built, we worked at it for three years. And you know how we failed? So it clearly wasn't working. We were trying to use AI way too early, clearly, to write diaries for people automatically. Clearly wasn't working. People weren't using it, certainly weren't paying for it. But we kept pushing, we raised a little extra money to keep going and pivoted and pivoted and pivoted. And then at some point, we were left with maybe something like maybe $250,000, $300,000. But much of that was meant to be through a tax return from the Danish government at the time we were based in Denmark. I don't remember exactly the bureaucratic aspects of it, but something like that. And then we got a message from the government that refund either wasn't due ultimately or was due 12 months later. Something that would basically put us out of business. And so you could argue that red tape made the decision for us. So I'm not very good at that. I feel I can't advise.
Bureaucracy created bending spoons. Yeah. You heard it here first. Okay, final question. Look at the next rate technology company that comes from Italy or even from the region, what do you think they should learn from bending spoons? And what do you think that they should think about for
themselves? Yeah, they should definitely think with their own heads. 100%, there's no, I've never seen a great entrepreneur, a great inventor, a great engineer, a great artist, a great anything who doesn't ultimately take responsibility for their own decisions and is intellectually independent. But…
Look, you built one of the most unique and successful companies in the world. Congratulations and thank you for spending time with us today.
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