Evernote and the risks of the VC path
Today, Evernote announced it would be sold to Bending Spoons, a maker of a couple video and photo editing apps. Even when I squint it's hard to see the 'synergy' of this deal but I'll reserve my judgment until I have a chance to do more research. For now, I wanted to share a few thoughts about this outcome for the app that has been the hub of my digital life since 2007.
Early users Evernote might remember the original CEO Phil Libin talking about building Evernote into "A 100 year company." I loved this idea, especially for an app that was supposed to be "for your life's work" (another tagline they used).
I wish they had embraced the beauty of building something that lasts generations. There's a name for these companies in Japan: "Shinise". Japan has the highest concentration of these companies that have been around for a 100+ years, with some having been around for 1000! We do not understand this approach to business in the west. We only know the goal of being the biggest, best and getting there ASAP – everyone wanna be a rocketship.
This could have turned out differently for Evernote. Instead of trying to compete at the tip of the spear, they could have embraced what made them unique: their simplicity. There's something to be said for simple, stable, and understandable. I always thought of Evernote like a paper notebook, but infinitely large, easily searchable, and available anywhere. And there was a version of the future where Evernote, like paper notebooks, could have been around forever.
I do understand why this is happening though, which is why I'm lamenting it. Evernote is a victim of the game it signed up for. Having raised a lot of money, it needed to grow, but it got into trouble when it tried to get fancy – e.g. building multiple micro-apps, making hardware (bags and desktop printers), pushing into the enterprise. The investors supported these efforts but eventually got impatient. According to Crunchbase, Evernote raised $290M, with the last round being in 2014 and the biggest one in 2012. With most VC funds having a 10 year lifecycle, it's safe to assume this sale was forced by investors. There was little anyone inside the company could have done.
Who knows what happens to Evernote going forward. With 30,000 notes in mine, I'm hopeful the new owners are good stewards and continue to develop it (although I'm not optimistic). I'm also seeing that for some products, a simple one with a transparent and sustainable business model is more desirable than one on the cutting edge.
Time to go export my life's work.