The Company of the Year is rejecting industry trends, getting customers to pay for something that's free, and reinventing the way we remember.
Phil Libin remembers the moment he left childhood behind. It was nearly four years ago, when the funding for his Internet start-up fell through. He was 35.
Exhausted and demoralized, he was reaching for the light switch when his e-mail dinged. A momentary blast of hope--but no, just a message from a fan, something he had been getting more and more of lately. This one was from some guy in Sweden, a fellow software entrepreneur, and it was the usual "Evernote has changed my life" sort of thing. Libin almost missed the last line: "If you ever need any money let me know."
Phil Libin, the CEO of note taking app Evernote, is sitting on a $1 billion valuation and plans for an IPO, and while it may be a while yet before it follows through on going public , today at LeWeb in London he revealed new numbers for just how much the service is getting used, and how much money different platforms are bringing into the pot.
“I’m pretty sure that we’re the fastest growing company ever in terms of new users, that’s not growing virally or paying for new customers.”
Put that down as a vague, difficult-to-measure honor if you like, but as the company rolls out its new business-focused product and an expanded Ambassador program – not to mention a new $85m funding round and eyes on an “inevitable” IPO in the future, Libin has reason to be bullish about his company’s lot in life.
In a video announcement, Evernote CEO Phil Libin admitted that he originally created Evernote for himself, but as the software proliferated and the company grew, it became clear that from his own personal perspective, he had to add features to Evernote to make it more business friendly.
