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Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

blog.evernote.com

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Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#281

Post by dmfdmf »

dexterdog wrote: post #152
motti wrote: post #107

I've founded a startup that wants to tackle the digital notebook and save-for-later problem, for any content - not just web stuff. What's your wish list for your ideal notebook?

I like something that I can buy and host myself so that when the over-valued company decides to stop making it I can still use it. Then again, I'm probably not a target user base for somebody looking for the next big thing.

That's funny because when Evernote got... flaky... I started to think about self-hosting a Wordpress and wiki server for my notes.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#283

Post by dasil003 »

podgib wrote: post #149
dasil003 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did file sync become easy? I agree it's become commonplace with Google Drive and iCloud bringing respectable implementations to market, but I think it's still far from easy.

It's easy from a consumer point of view in the sense that it's readily available and easy to set up. The fact that it is still technically difficult to set up from scratch doesn't matter to consumers (or businesses) when there are multiple providers that hide that complexity for the end user. Hence Dropbox no longer has a competitive advantage from having produced a solid solution to a difficult problem.

Right, except the stories of data loss are an order of magnitude more common with Google Drive and iCloud compared to Dropbox, so even though at the surface level it may be a classic market for lemons, I still think Dropbox has a competitive advantage based on their reputation.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#286

Post by bduerst »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #265
twalling wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, auxiliary stuff like business socks. https://www.evernote.com/market/feature/socks-en_CA?sku=SOCK...

Unbelievable. Too much VC money sloshing around. I know that there's a lot of groupthink in the VC community, and so CEOs aren't always selected strictly on merit. But even I, with no executive experience whatsoever, would know not to OK something like that. As Saint Steven once put it: I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things. Why didn't t…

I'm pretty sure it came from branching out into workspace inventory, like monitor stands, and then jumped into business accessories, like laptop bags and (yes) socks.

The margins are already so thick that they probably only had to sell a few to break even.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#287

Post by skimpycompiler »

on_ wrote: post #29

Evernote is a note taking app in 2015. While slack and hipchat are somewhat iconoclastic, they have network affects and boost productivity. Evernote is competing with apple notes, google docs, whatever microsoft has, every password keeping app, a notebook, a text editor and using a blog. This is something that will likely happen to dropbox and box. You provide storage. Simple math will provide you with the cost of st…

MEGA might not be safe anymore. Kim Dotcom doesn't work there, there was a hostile takeover.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#288

Post by pmikesell »

stephen_g wrote: post #269
repple wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although nowhere near to your situation, I lost important meeting notes after a conference call. After making some formatting modifications (cut/copy/paste) to organize the notes, I found myself not being able to restore any text by undo-ing some of the inadvertent changes I made. Having been burned by a feature so basic to document editing as Undo, my next steps were basically to export all of my business notes and…

I had a similar experience. After two or three times losing large amounts of work, and finding absolutely no way to get back to an older revision in the free version, I stopped using the product. I may have gone to the premium service if it hadn't been so buggy.

I've had the same experience. If they'd literally done nothing but make sure the product doesn't lose data in the last two years since they last CEO announced a refocus on quality they'd be in a much better spot. With people's data you don't really get a second chance. Evernote seems to treat dataloss as "well, you know, it's only a couple of kbytes we lost of yours" - while to the customer what they lost has disproportionately more value than the amount implies.

As for me, I'm now a lifer anti-customer of Evernote.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#289

Post by sherifmansour »

bduerst wrote: post #286
PhantomGremlin wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unbelievable. Too much VC money sloshing around. I know that there's a lot of groupthink in the VC community, and so CEOs aren't always selected strictly on merit. But even I, with no executive experience whatsoever, would know not to OK something like that. As Saint Steven once put it: I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things. Why didn't t…

I'm pretty sure it came from branching out into workspace inventory, like monitor stands, and then jumped into business accessories, like laptop bags and (yes) socks. The margins are already so thick that they probably only had to sell a few to break even.

But I do think, this is precisely the point they are trying to fix. They all seem like logical moves in themselves, but when you look at them in combination, it's clear an overarching strategy is lacking. From Socks to Evernote Business to Recepie capture..

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#290

Post by dennisgorelik »

davidjgraph wrote: post #279
twhb wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sound like a cynic when I say this, but the root cause of failures like this is a principle fundamental to Evernote: data owned by an application, rather than data accessed by an application. If all your data exists in a file hierachy that you can browse, edit manually, and back up, then you have the safety of relying only on foundational systems for the survival of your data, and the power to use your data as you…

I fully agree, but as a vendor that only implements bring-your-own-storage, I can tell you it's not much fun from the supplier standpoint. Our no 1 support request is something along the lines of: "I've deleted my diagram, can you restore it for me?" "No. We don't store your data, we never even see it" "What a useless service, just get my data back or I want to speak to random escalation person " 99% of users don't c…

> So it's users pressuring suppliers

So may be managing data by product supplier is NOT the wrong direction?

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