Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote on “Vision and Values”
Entrepreneurship in general:
– So you want to be an entrepreneur? Don’t!
– Wrong Reasons:
> Money! Get a real job instead …
> Power! You are a actually at the bottom … (employees, customer, … are all your bosses)
> You’re bored! Keep collecting your paycheck until you figure out what you want to do …
> Flex time! Don’t make me laugh …
– Right Reason: change the world / save humanity (from boredom) -> create a meaningful and enduring technology business … and you are slightly abnormal (prerequisite for a startup ;-))
Priorities:
– 1. Customer, 2. Employees, 3. Shareholders
– Always remember: the best product does not always win … is wrong today!
Master Plan:
– 1. Make an amazingly great product
– 2. Charge money for it
Scarcity:
– SCARCITY used to be a concept underpinned in all economies of this world
– other prime mover is LOVE (pay for what you love – people love evernote not a typical feature)
– Consumer internet, cloud etc. lives in the “love based” economy space
– for many products: combination of scarcity + love (scarcity: e.g. shortage of screens & other comps, etc.)
Three types of business:
– find out about your business model and the type of business
– perceived value vs. time
– #1: 90% of the world is in this category: perceived value decreases over time (get money when you deliver) -> model: purchase
– #2: perceived value stays constant (newspaper situation, value every week) -> model: subscription or advertising
– #3: perceived value increases over time (core of evernote bus model) -> model: freemium
– love: people fall in love with products whose perceived value increases with time: the longer you use it, the more you love it
Four characteristics:
#1 Deep personalization (evernote)
#2 connectedness (twitter, facebook)
#3 Prestige (status, respect, honour -> foursquare)
#4 Mastery (the more you use it, you more you feel like a master -> accomplishment, e.g. Photoshop)
Samples: Game Center (Connect. Compete. Compare) -> Connectedness, Prestige
Mobile Application Areas:
– Entertainment (Apple, Sony)
– Information (Evernote)
– Social (Facebook, Twitter)
=> Evernote’s goal ist to be the moste important service for information-centric consumers
Values:
1. No assholes
User growth:
– spend market on product, not marketing -> 95% of users acquired organically (word-of-mouth, social media, blog, etc.)
Goal:
– Customer retention: People who use Evernote for a couple of months, almost never leave afterwards
– Growing revenue: every month, a larger percentage of remaining users converts to Evernote premium, the longer someone has been using Evernote, the more valuabe they are => finally had 20% conversion
Most common question:
Q: What % of your users are premium … but actually care more about the total number!
Final note:
– Choose your business wisely
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