Key Takeaways

  • Bending Spoons acquired digital whiteboard maker Miro for $1.79 billion, an 89% collapse from its peak private valuation of $17.5 billion.
  • Miro still pulls in $600 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), is cash flow positive, and retains over 750 enterprise accounts spending more than $100,000 annually.
  • A multi-year drop to 5% annual growth compressed Miro's valuation multiple to under 3x ARR, down from near 30x at its peak.
  • Software rollups are shifting toward cross-product bundles, where tools like Miro and Airtable can be packaged together to protect enterprise accounts from point-solution cuts.

The 5% Growth Trap for $600M ARR Giants

When tech valuation multiples detach from growth rates, the fall is swift. Jordi Hays and John Coogan looked at the numbers behind the Bending Spoons purchase of Miro, and the headline math is stark.

As Hays pointed out: “Bending Spoons acquires Miro for 1.79 billion.” That price tag marks an 89% decline from the peak. Coogan recalled the market top: “Miro was valued at 17.5 billion. Yeah, that's really high.”

The shock is not that Miro failed as an operating business. The company generates $600 million in ARR, generates positive cash flow, and counts over 750 customers spending at least $100,000 every single year. The business runs fine, but it stopped expanding quickly.

As Hays observed, quoting investor Jamie Quint: “paying 3x ARR at 600 million of ARR over 750 customers paying over $100,000 a year. Cash flow positive, man. But Jamie Quint says multiple years of 5% ARR growth will do that.”

When growth slows to single digits, the market stops pricing a software vendor as a compounding tech asset. It prices the business as a mature cash cow. A 30x multiple turns into a sub-3x multiple almost overnight.

The Rollup Playbook: Bundles Over Standalone Point Solutions

Miro became an essential collaboration tool during the remote-work surge, but standalone products face a harsh enterprise environment. CIOs want fewer vendors, fewer contracts, and lower administrative overhead. Single-purpose apps get cut first when budgets tighten.

That dynamic creates an opening for portfolio operators like Bending Spoons. Instead of selling a single whiteboard tool, an aggregator can build an enterprise software suite that defends against corporate vendor consolidation.

Coogan pointed out where this strategy leads: “For the first time, I'm seeing glimpses of something that could be like a portfolio or a rollup where if you have Airtable, you get Miro for free or vice versa.”

If you run a product that only does one thing well, you are vulnerable to large platforms that offer a good-enough version inside an existing contract. Aggregators solve this problem by bundling complementary apps together. They buy profitable software assets at depressed multiples, strip out redundant sales overhead, and package them as an all-in-one suite.

What to Do With This

Audit your revenue cohort retention and net new ARR growth rates this week. If your top-line expansion rate is dipping toward single digits, stop spending on top-of-funnel customer acquisition campaigns that do not convert. Shift your roadmap toward workflow expansion and cross-selling into your existing account base before your multiple reprices to private-equity reality.