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Evernote's CEO on 'unlocking the potential of every idea'
Evernote carved out a name for itself in the startup world with its relentless focus on productivity, synchronization and mobility (it debuted on the iPhone with the App Store's launch in 2008). Today, almost 10 years since it was founded, the company has more than 200 million users. It wasn't an easy path to success, though: For years, its customers complained about unstable apps, it suffered a major security breach in 2013 and recent pricing changes and removal of key features caused an uproar. I sat down with the company's new CEO, Chris O'Neill, who replaced longtime exec Phil Libin, to chat about where things are headed.
Evernote CEO pledges to refocus on core features and fix buggy, confusing apps
There are several people here at Engadget that might actually die (or at the very least be unemployed) if it were not for their Evernote accounts. Which makes it all the more painful when the service lets us down by failing to sync notes or falling prey to hackers. Jason Kincaid, formerly of TechCrunch, posted a rather lengthy tirade on his blog about such an instance, in which the iOS app produced corrupted audio notes that were completely unplayable. And during the troubleshooting process with Evernote support, Kincaid came across a bug that captured entire notes in plain text in its log files -- the very files that a support person request when trying to diagnose a problem. Let's just say the self-proclaimed power user was understandably incensed. Well, the post caught the attention of Evernote CEO Phil Libin, who admitted that perhaps the company had focused too much on adding features and expanding its user base at the expense of the core experience. But those days are over Libin proclaimed. In fact, he says the staff quietly shifted its focus back to squashing bugs and improving stability a couple of months ago, but that there was still plenty of work to be done. In addition to boosting performance and fixing broken features, he says updates will be rolling out over "the next few weeks" that will greatly improve and simplify the user experience. He specifically said the engineers and designers will be targeting note editing, navigation, search, sync and collaboration features across all platforms. 2013 was a big year for Evernote, and it's safe to say it endured some growing pains. Lets just hope that 2014 is the year it grows up -- without getting too big for its britches.
Evernote gets physical: Why a software maker's turning to tangible goods
What the hell is Evernote doing selling backpacks and socks? That's a question asked by many yesterday, when Evernote revealed a plan to expand its business well beyond productivity software by opening up Evernote Market. The Market, revealed at the third annual Evernote conference in San Francisco, debuted selling a selection of high-end bags from Côte&Ciel, notebooks from Moleskine, a scanner from Fujitsu, a stylus from Adonit, plus a smattering of T-shirts, posters and the aforementioned socks. The stylus packs the smallest tip on the market and is designed to work with note-taking apps like Penultimate. And the scanner integrates tightly with Evernote software, too -- it can scan a pile of varied documents (business cards, receipts, invoices, etc.), then sort and deposit the results an appropriate notebook automagically. At first blush, selling physical goods seems odd for such a company. To hear CEO Phil Libin tell it, however, the move into retail is a logical one, should you be willing to make a bit of a cognitive leap. The key to this strategy was revealed during his day two keynote, when Libin said that his company is in the business of AI. However, those letters stand for augmented, not artificial intelligence.
Evernote expands with new product line: scanners, Post-Its, wallets and socks
Evernote has already ventured beyond apps with a Smart Notebook made by Moleskine, but the company's now kicked off a new initiative that'll see its logo appear on some decidedly more surprising products. As the company indicated previously, that includes hardware developed by a partner -- an Evernote-branded Fujitsu scanner and a stylus from Adonit, for starters -- but also a number of products that have little direct link to Evernote's core services. Those include a wallet, backpacks, a laptop case and, yes, socks -- all of which can be purchased through the Evernote's online store, which is said to also be coming to its various apps. Another new partnership also announced today will see 3M produce a new line of Post-It notes that are designed to be captured with a smartphone's camera, not unlike the aforementioned Moleskine notebook; in this case, Evernote apps will organize Post-Its based on their color. You can browse all the current offerings available in the Evernote Market at the source link below, and count on seeing plenty more in the future. Speaking at the company's conference in San Francisco today, Evernote CEO Phil Libin spelled it out: "we're a fashion brand now."
Phil Libin shares some insight on Evernote's future
Fortune has had a quick chat with our friend Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote, a company that has grown by leaps and bounds since we last talked. Evernote was popular back when it simply tracked notes and photos. Today the company has acquired Skitch and a few other companies, and is making inroads with services like Evernote for Business. Evernote claims 66 million users at the moment, and says that over 2 million of them are paying customers.The company is basically a software provider, but Libin says there are lots of other ideas in the works. He's got an idea for an encryption format of some kind, to be announced later this year. He sees possibilities for hardware products, too. Evernote recently released a notebook designed for easy scanning, and it's not hard to imagine other kinds of projects that would make uploading and browsing stored notes even easier. Libin also doesn't deny that going public is an option for Evernote, though the Fortune piece says it won't happen for another few years. Evernote has grown a lot in its short life (the service originally launched in 2008), and it sounds like there's a lot more growing to do.
Evernote looking to create its own hardware, first with partners then internally
Evernote may be known for its flexible suite of cloud software, but the company is apparently looking to hardware as its next evolution. CEO Phil Libin told IDG that his company won't create hardware internally at first, but with partners. "We won't actually do the manufacturing, but we'll do the co-design together," he said. That isn't to say Evernote is staying out of the internally produced hardware business forever; Libin estimates his company will get there "in a few years -- three, four, five." Evernote partnered with Moleskin earlier this year to create the "Smart Notebook," so the California-based company's certainly no stranger to working with collaborators. And that's to say nothing of Evernote's functionality on virtually every smart mobile device available (including Google's Glass project). It's not clear what Evernote's hardware ambitions could be, but we'll be sure to keep asking as the next few years roll along.
Evernote introduces Evernote Business, updates iOS application to version 4.4
Having already conquered the general consumer market on multiple platforms, Evernote's now taking its handy software tools to a more biz-oriented audience. Earlier today, the company proudly introduced Evernote Business, which, according to CEO Phil Libin, is "the same Evernote that's great for individuals, except now it's optimized so that you can use it in your small and medium-sized business environment." The newfangled Evernote Business will be launching later this December, with the note-taking outfit accepting early applicants on its website as we speak. That's not all the news, however, since Evernote's also updated its iOS application for the second time during August; bringing page and multi-shot camera features to the mix, while faster download times and improved PDF support on iPads can also be found inside the fresh 4.4 version. You'll find both the sign-up and download links gravitating below.
Evernote buys Penultimate app developer Cocoa Box
Evernote is on the move, reporting a US$70 million financing round last week and plans to "grow its user base in new regions, expand its offering into new verticals and enable the company to make strategic acquisitions." One of those strategic acquisitions was just announced -- Evernote has purchased Cocoa Box, the developer of iPad note-taking app Penultimate. It's a perfect match of two products. Evernote (free, paid subscriptions available) brings not only storage and access of "everything" (notes, business cards, photos, drawings, web pages, food experiences, travel documents, ad inifinitum) to the Web, but also provides cross-platform apps to search and add to the data store. Last fall Evernote added Skitch to its stable of apps, and now the acquisition of Penultimate ($0.99) brings even more power to the Evernote ecosystem. Penultimate was recently listed by Apple as the fourth-best selling iPad app of all time in the United States. Considering that two of the best sellers are Angry Birds editions and the other is Apple's own Pages, you could say that Penultimate is simply the best-selling productivity app for the iPad. I had a chance to talk to both Evernote CEO Phil Libin and Cocoa Box founder Ben Zotto last Friday, and both are ecstatic about the marriage of the two firms. Both Evernote and Cocoa Box are located in the Bay Area, which made the acquisition even more convenient. Phil noted that handwriting is about a quarter of all of the content on Evernote. Cocoa Box added Evernote integration to Penultimate in January, and many Evernote staffers use the app on a daily basis. Now that Penultimate is part of the Evernote family, it will be much easier for Ben and his team to add Evernote functionality. One of the early benefits of the acquisition should be improved handwriting recognition. At this point in time, Penultimate users can send their handwritten notes to Evernote, where they're transcribed to editable text via picture-based handwriting recognition. Now Penultimate can be tweaked to capture handwriting stroke information and send it to Evernote for faster and more accurate recognition. Ben mentioned that up until now, Penultimate has been a fairly self-contained piece of software. Plugging it into a system like Evernote will make the app a view into an Evernote world, bringing along such improvements as better search capabilities. He also noted that their plans include getting Penultimate onto more platforms; unfortunately, I neglected to see if the iPhone was one of those platforms. Along with the many other apps that are part of the Evernote ecosystem -- Evernote Food, Evernote Hello, Evernote Clearly, Skitch, Evernote Web Clipper, Evernote Peek, and a growing number of third-party apps -- Penultimate adds to the overall usefulness of Evernote. Phil Libin once noted that he wants Evernote to last for at least one hundred years, and with tools like Penultimate added to the mix, that dream is getting more likely every day. Show full PR text EVERNOTE ACQUIRES DIGITAL HANDWRITING APP PENULTIMATE Penultimate is the Fourth Best-Selling iTunes App of all Time in the US Mountain View, CA – May 7, 2012 – Evernote, the company that's helping the world remember everything, today announced the acquisition of Penultimate, the most popular digital handwriting application for iPad, and the fourth best-selling iPad app of all time. The acquisition will allow Evernote to expand its handwriting capabilities, while also making Penultimate available on more platforms and devices. "Digital handwriting has been around for decades, but it has never gone mainstream because the hardware and software simply weren't aligned. Thanks to Penultimate and the iPad, that's all changing," said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. "For the first time ever, writing on a tablet is really great, which is why we chose this moment to make the acquisition. We have big plans for Penultimate that will both enhance the app and bring more capabilities into Evernote. It's already the best handwriting app out there, and it's only just getting started." The Penultimate app is designed to resemble a physical notebook. Individuals can use a finger or stylus to take notes wherever they like. The application allows users to choose from a variety of paper types, ink colors and line thicknesses. Notes taken in Penultimate can be saved directly to Evernote with a single tap. "Technology often distances us from things that feel natural and human. With Penultimate, our goal was to use the most advanced tools to enable something that was at once powerful and familiar," said Ben Zotto, creator of Penultimate. "I'm thrilled to join the Evernote family. Their vision and expertise will help bring exciting improvements to Penultimate, and together we'll elevate the importance of handwriting within Evernote." Availability Penultimate is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store. About Evernote Evernote is helping the world remember everything by building innovative products and services that allow individuals to capture, find and interact with their memories. Evernote apps are available on all major computer, web, mobile, and tablet platforms. For more information, please visit: www.evernote.com
Phil Libin on the past, present, and future of Evernote
It must be nice to be Evernote CEO Phil Libin right now. His company's product / service, Evernote, is about to break 2 million customers, they're past the days of initial development and beta testing, and the future is looking bright. I had a chance to chat with Mr. Libin last Friday about Evernote, the service that acts as a cloud-based repository for all of the information in your life. Last year during the closed beta test of the service, TUAW's Brett Terpstra interviewed Libin, who called Evernote "universal human memory extension." Whatever information you want to put into the Evernote cloud -- text, photos, voice memos -- is available for searching and viewing from your Mac, PC, or iPhone. Handwritten or printed text runs through a recognition routine that makes it searchable text, something that I've found incredibly useful when storing my business cards in Evernote. You can send web pages to Evernote from Firefox with the click of a button, or tweet notes to Evernote by addressing them to @myEN. Libin ran me through a short history of Evernote, mentioning that many of the first reviews and discussions of it were provided by TUAW. The Mac app and the service began a closed beta in February, 2008, moving to an open beta in June of that year. As Libin noted, "We never really told anyone when we came out of beta; we just gradually removed the word 'beta' from the site and the software." Since then, Evernote has signed up almost 2 million users. When I asked Libin if Evernote was meeting the company's expectations in terms of growth, he replied that "we're right where we thought we'd be now." In terms of the present and near future, there's a lot going on. Localized versions of Evernote will be available by the end of 2009 for several European countries, with a Japanese localized version on tap for early 2010. Libin noted that "the Japanese market is huge! Evernote is listed in many Japanese magazines, half of our Twitter traffic is in Japanese, and we're even thinking about opening an office in Japan."
Evernote + Screencast ready for prime time and paid use
Two of my preferred Mac-friendly cloud services have now made the jump to actually accepting money from subscribers, which is a good thing (really, it is!). TUAW favorite Evernote has moved from private to public beta, and Techsmith video hosting site Screencast.com is now at 1.0 release status. Both services are now offering trial/free plans alongside their premium plans for paid subscribers. The Screencast.com site is already integrated with the free Jing Project capture tool for Mac and the pro-level (and, at least for the moment, Windows-only) Camtasia Studio app; you can also upload screencasts that you create with almost any tool you like (including ADA multi-winner Screenflow) in a variety of formats for hosting on the service. Selecting which of your screencasts to share and which to password-protect is very easy, and the service automatically sets up RSS and iTunes feeds for the folders you choose to make public.The 60-day trial account includes 200 MB of storage and a 1GB transfer limit; paid plans start at $6.95 a month. Evernote's private beta grew to include over 125,000 users (ahem), and the new public beta includes an option for a $5/month premium user plan that increases your monthly transfer quota/new note cap from 40 MB to 500 megabytes and gives you SSL for all data, priority access to the text-recognition queues and tier 1 customer support. Plus you get a snazzy t-shirt while supplies last (pink elephants on parade!). The web interface to Evernote has also gotten a facelift, with full drag-and-drop support and an improved clipper feature. Can't say yet if they've fixed the session timeout issue that ate a long note my wife was writing last night, but I surely hope so. In a conversation a couple of weeks back, Evernote CEO Phil Libin shared some future directions for the product with us as well as a couple of tips from his personal use of Evernote. First, what many are waiting for will be coming very soon: a native iPhone client for Evernote (shipping shortly after the App Store opens), including one-button publishing to Evernote and location tagging for every item you create from your phone, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading you back to that favorite restaurant or bargain spot. (Phil's tip: whenever he parks his car at the airport, he takes a picture of the parking spot and sends it to Evernote to help jog his jetlagged brain.) Second, the upcoming platform-wide features for Evernote will soon include more granular controls on publishing and sharing, a revamped Windows client, Evernote for Blackberry, and audio notes. (Phil's tip: he uses Evernote notebooks to share collections of photos or screenshots, like this accidental poetry from CNN rundown.) Later this summer we should expect to see the first public release of the Evernote API, which will permit third-party devs to add features to the service (personally I'd love to have a business card postprocessor tool, which Libin sees as a good 3rd party opportunity). Other future features are yet to be publicly disclosed, but Libin hinted that the image-processing power of Evernote's servers may be bent to teasing out specific features of photographs. Faces? Product barcodes? Geotagged landscapes? Can't wait to find out. Meanwhile, the free Mac version of Evernote (read Brett's original review here) is downloadable at evernote.com.
