This Week in Startups #101 - Phil Libin, founder of Evernote.com

Fresh off our 100th episode. This week via Skype Phil Libin, founder of Evernote.com joins us. More priceless advice is dispensed on Ask Jason and the lovely Kathy Choi gives us the latest in Startup and Investment news.



Show Notes

1:00-3:00  Last week on the show Lior Ron on Googles HotPot

6:00-10:00        Guest Phil Libin joins us via Skype from Evernotes San Francisco office. He explains why He created Evernote and how people are using it to collect and organize their     thoughts.

17:00-21:00       Phil opening explains conversion rates and how they effect a Freemium service like Evernote.

23:00-26:00      Phil explains how Evernote was 15 minutes away from being shut down before a foreign investor from Sweden helped out with 1/2 a million bucks

27:00 - 30:00    Jason and Phil give advice to new entrepreneurs

31:00-33:00      Evernote is BIG In Japan

33:00-36:00     3 Things you want to say when you've made it

37:00-40:00    Why Evernote decided to go Anti-Viral and Anti-Social

45:00-50:00    Ask Jason

55:00-60:00   News with Kathy Choi

Top Start Up Stories

Twitter announces the top ten most powerful tweets of the year.

http://yearinreview.twitter.com/powerful-tweets/

CityVille Hits 6 Million Daily Active Users In 8 Days
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/11/cityville-6-million/

Did Those Yahoo Layoffs Hit Early?
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/11/yahoo-layoffs-2/

Background on Phil Libin and Evernote


About Phil

• Became CEO of Evernote in May 2007


• Previously was founder and president of Core Street, Ltd. (acquired by ActivIdentity for $20M in Dec. 2009)


• Before that, was founder and CEO of Engine 5, a Boston-based software development company (acquired by Vignette Corp. for $26M in 2000)

About Evernote

• Designed to help users capture everything from both the physical and digital worlds, then store and organize it


• Service officially launched in 2008


• Free version was designed as the primary model; most people who upgrade to premium ($5) say they are doing so because they love the product


• In 2008, came within 15 minutes of deciding to shut down the company; fundraising was very difficult in the early years


• Had 5 million users by Nov. 2010


• Investors include: Sequoia Capital (series C, $20M), Morgenthaler Ventures, Troika Dialog, and DOCOMO Capital (all series B, total of $10M)


• Has raised $45.5M total


• Ritescript, a division of Evernote, products include ritePen (handwriting recognition), riteForm (software dev tool for handwriting recognition) and riteShape (software dev tool for shape and chart recognition)

FOLLOW ON TWITTER


Follow Phil Libin on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/plibin

Follow Evernote on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/evernote

Follow Jason on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Jason

Go to Evernote.com: www.Evernote.com

Comments

[Henry]

The worst news reading ever. 0 of 10.

It's unbelievable how one can be so ignorant that cannot even pronounce the word GNU right. It is 2011, not 1991.

And that desperate commentary about passwords: 'How can you track everything ...' -- what the heck was it? A show "this week in imbeciles"?

Please remove that "news reading" dudette and find someone with brain.

Lon Harris was in million times better.