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Ferrari: Bending Spoons rejects brilliant candidates if work is low priority

Luca Ferrari · Inside Bending Spoons: Finding Talent, Leveraging AI & Driving Operational Excellence | Luca Ferrari · Sep 13, 2026 · at 51:02

Luca Ferrari, co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons, discusses the cultural requirement of high personal commitment with David Senra.

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“We'd rather not work with someone who's really, really smart, very competent, but for whom doing well here would only be priority number three or four, you know, like we have seen it time and again. We've had people who were probably close to genius level IQ fail here because ultimately they saw their job as a way to make you know, to earn a living, to make ends meet rather than actually transcending apparent limitations and winning and being amazing at work.”

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