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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

#31

Post by mrmondo »

sandstrom wrote: post #16
tempestn wrote: post #8

> Evernote’s strength is in its core: notes, sync, and search. That’s where we’re going to focus. Well, like many others, I've been wishing Evernote would drop all the auxiliary stuff and focus on their core product. Hopefully that's exactly what will now happen. Evernote has become an absolutely critical part of my life. Even though I use it for business (along with everything else) though, I have no use for the maj…

What is the auxiliary stuff that they've dropped? (or will drop/reduce emphasis on) Genuinely curious. I've noted that they seem to have multiple apps in the AppStore doing similar things.

I'm hoping they're dropping the idea of chat. Spending time on that really never made much sense me when their core product is so strong but badly needs some features to better align with modern tech trends such as improved plain text and markdown support.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#32

Post by wrsh07 »

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…

Dropbox must have many more corp customers than evernote, no?

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#33

Post by pbreit »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #10

I know that it is the common vernacular, but you didn't let them go, you fired them. Surely they would prefer to not go and continue to pay their mortgage. I'm sure it wasn't easy to fire them, but don't try and make the situation rosey. The folks who decided on the direction of the company decided wrong and now they have to fire the people who executed those decision. Edit: Would you all prefer the word "Terminated"…

I think it's the opposite. Layoffs are when mgmt is at fault. Firings are when the employees are at fault.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#34

Post by adamb_ »

fwn wrote: post #3

I wish they would ditch the business focus and return to plain old "remember everything". Who on earth needs features like "work chat"?

Seconded. They pushed work chat pretty hard... Given what the CEO letter mentioned about product focus, I wonder if it's the employees that worked on that that are being let go

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#35

Post by trollian »

cyberpanther wrote: post #17
egusa wrote: post #5

businessinsider had a great article on evernote here, "Evernote, the first dead unicorn", which really foreshadowed this: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/evernote-the-first-dead-un...

My prediction, the next dead unicorn: Dropbox They are similar in that they haven't made anything note worthy in a while and their main product is really just a feature of bigger companies apps and services.

My favourite question to ask of start-ups: "have you built a product or a feature?"

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#36

Post by pbreit »

Anyone know which offices? How many employees does Evernote have? Were layoffs mostly from closed offices?

Edit: the Business Insider article (which maybe should be retained as the link?) has some of the information: 13% of workforce let go. Taiwan, Singapore, and Moscow offices closing. I couldn't tell if the 47 were from these offices mostly. I wouldn't think a note-taking app/website would need to be too dispersed around the world.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#37

Post by JustSomeNobody »

jmadsen wrote: post #21
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #10

I know that it is the common vernacular, but you didn't let them go, you fired them. Surely they would prefer to not go and continue to pay their mortgage. I'm sure it wasn't easy to fire them, but don't try and make the situation rosey. The folks who decided on the direction of the company decided wrong and now they have to fire the people who executed those decision. Edit: Would you all prefer the word "Terminated"…

It's more than common vernacular in English. "Fired" implies wrong-doing on their part. "Laid off" or "let them go" means the company couldn't afford to pay them, or didn't need them anymore. It leaves no black mark against their name.

Fired does not imply wrong-doing. Fired can be termination w/out prejudice.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#38

Post by ChuckMcM »

dangero wrote: post #14
egusa wrote: post #5

businessinsider had a great article on evernote here, "Evernote, the first dead unicorn", which really foreshadowed this: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/evernote-the-first-dead-un...

I believe Groupon is the first dead Unicorn

As I understand the definition that people have been bandying about, Groupon can't be a dead unicorn because they managed to go public. To be a Unicorn you have to be a privately held and venture backed company with a valuation (from your investors) of over $1B.)

While GroupOn went public, and continues to this day, just as Zynga did.

Re: Evernote cuts 47 employees and shuts down 3 offices

#39

Post by uptown »

kasey_junk wrote: post #25
jmadsen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than common vernacular in English. "Fired" implies wrong-doing on their part. "Laid off" or "let them go" means the company couldn't afford to pay them, or didn't need them anymore. It leaves no black mark against their name.

I've always found it striking to note how laid off has migrated over time. When my grandfather got laid off, there was an expectation that he would come back to the same job with the same company some time in the near future. When I get laid off there is no expectation that my job will come back.

The term for that is furlough.
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