Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons • Hacker News Board

Re: Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons

#351

Post by dotcoma » Sun, Nov 20, 2022, 8:37 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #173

baron816 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ex Evernote employee here. Someone else posted this: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bending-spoons-raises-340-mil... Employee shares are (apparently) being priced next to nothing. My understanding while working there was that if the company sold for $300m or less, we’d get nothing. So, $340m sounds about right. It’s a fire sale.

Seems unlikely they'd spend that whole round of funding on one app. I bet it was much, much less.

But how much was Evernote bringing in in revenues ?

Re: Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons

#352

Post by kjs3 » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 6:03 AM UTC

fairity wrote: post #209

kjs3 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying recurring for an app should make this problem non-existent. If $5/mo or whatever doesn't allow you to deliver a stable, performant product, then you need to reconsider your pricing or your business model. Evernote isn't a startup and they should have this figured out by now. And do not do a release that amounts to "look at this whizzy, non-core feature we've been working hard to add (see: chat) which means we…

I'm imagining that $50 raised from 10 million people ($500m raised) would allow for an outright recap of the entire company, including bringing in new management that serves the users' best interests. I agree it isn't ideal, but as a user, it's far better than allowing Evernote to get sold to someone whose goal is to raise prices and squeeze profits. Many Evernote users like me are in a situation where the switchover…

$500 million is something on the order of the annual opex budget of my entire division of ~800 people. Are you seriously proposing that an app like Evernote requires that kind of a nestegg to deliver on users best interest in addition to a subscription model? Better than "maybe we should charge $1 more a month" or similar? Color me dubious.

Re: Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons

#353

Post by agos » Mon, Nov 21, 2022, 10:45 AM UTC

sharkweek wrote: post #254

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really, really want to know what kind of person sees a pair of socks with a productivity app logo on them and thinks "I need these in my life."

I worked at a startup that gave “store credits” away as, try not to laugh, morale boosters so employees could buy company swag. It was pretty hilarious.

same, I think we might have been colleagues!

Re: Evernote to be acquired by Bending Spoons

#354

Post by fairity » Thu, Nov 24, 2022, 3:05 AM UTC

kjs3 wrote: post #352

fairity wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm imagining that $50 raised from 10 million people ($500m raised) would allow for an outright recap of the entire company, including bringing in new management that serves the users' best interests. I agree it isn't ideal, but as a user, it's far better than allowing Evernote to get sold to someone whose goal is to raise prices and squeeze profits. Many Evernote users like me are in a situation where the switchover…

$500 million is something on the order of the annual opex budget of my entire division of ~800 people. Are you seriously proposing that an app like Evernote requires that kind of a nestegg to deliver on users best interest in addition to a subscription model? Better than "maybe we should charge $1 more a month" or similar? Color me dubious.

Huh? You're misunderstanding my point. It's not that a crowdsourced financing is required to achieve some outcome. I'm simply pointing out that it would have been a better option for all stakeholders than what just happened.