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Evernote Slashes 15 Percent of Its Workforce (techcrunch.com) 63

Evernote, one of the most popular productivity apps on the market, is struggling to stay on top of the charts. TechCrunch, after reporting two weeks that the company "lost several of its most senior executives," is reporting that Evernote's CEO Chris O'Neill on Tuesday laid off 54 people -- roughly 15 percent of the company's workforce. O'Neill said it is now focusing its efforts around specific functions, including product development and engineering. From the report: We've just been in touch with Evernote. It pointed us to a newly posted piece by O'Neill in which he outlines the company's strategy going forward, which includes to "operate with a more focused leadership team," to "operate more efficiently," and to "double down on product development -- both quality and velocity." As for its funding situation, an Evernote representative insists that things are far from dire. The company is not fundraising, says this person; further, we're told Evernote has $30 million on its balance sheet and will exit the year without burning cash. This comes after "a person who tipped TechCrunch off to the executive departments two weeks ago characterized Evernote as 'in a death spiral,' saying that user growth and active users have been flat for the last six years and that the company's enterprise product offering hasn't caught on."
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Evernote Slashes 15 Percent of Its Workforce

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    How many people do you need to develop a productivity suite?
    This isn't even the first time Evernote has laid people off. In 2015 they slashed 18% of their workforce [businessinsider.com]. Oh and closed three of their ten global offices. Why the hell do they need ten global offices, or seven for that matter? Sounds like they were using the VC money to buy hookers and blow and give jobs to their snot nosed family.

    Meh.

    • depends... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mschaffer ( 97223 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @09:52PM (#57345846)

      It clearly depends on the number of useless features that nobody asked for are being developed. Added to that are the side projects most of the developers spend all of their time one (as if they worked for Google).

      How much do you want to bet that the people that were laid off were the majority of the "bread and butter" developers?

      • This. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by aussersterne ( 212916 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:38PM (#57346188) Homepage

        The basic note-taking functionality has gone backward. Harder to make notes, harder to find notes, harder to scroll through and read notes, harder to export notes.

        A lot of other stuff that I don't care about has been added. Apparently a lot of people don't care about it.

        You have a captive audience of millions with their data in your platform. Hard to screw that up, but Evernote did, and they continue to get worse.

        • Re:This. (Score:4, Informative)

          by tungstencoil ( 1016227 ) on Thursday September 20, 2018 @08:52AM (#57347616)
          Exactly. I was going to say much of the same thing, but you said it really well.

          When it was still very new, I used EverNote quite a bit. Every new feature made the application more difficult and more intrusive. Not what I wanted.

          I'm no expert in their business, and am even more casual than an armchair quarterback for it, but it seems to me this kind of venture would almost have to be an acquisition target... early. There are simply to many other entrenched organizations - in business, in dev, in engineering, in virtually anything that has the money to pay for it - along with email (for the consumer) - to make a new vertical. I've seen these other verticals introduce new, integrated features that make EverNote and applications like it pretty irrelevant.

          I stopped using EverNote when it became more difficult and other application stacks I was already using served its purpose.

          Bye.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        It clearly depends on the number of useless features that nobody asked for are being developed. Added to that are the side projects most of the developers spend all of their time one (as if they worked for Google).

        This is why I use systemd for all my note taking needs, instead of Evernote.

  • I use them weekly to keep my grocery list. If I had a job I'd send them money but, well, I'm broke. I've got other lists I update once in a while (books I want to buy, video games I want to buy), but my weekly shopping list is my killer app.

    I've got 3-4 apps I use all the time on my phone, if Evernote goes away it will really hurt. The rest? Who cares.
    • by rojash ( 2567409 )
      Screw EN...after them I used milk whatever, then OneNote then Keep etc etc Decided they were all shit, now just use Vivaldi with notes.
    • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

      I used them for a bit back when I first got an iPad. I tried keeping lists and notes on it but it needed internet access to get the notes. I switched to the ipad notes app for notes which sync to all my devices and a shopping list app for groceries and things I want to remember to buy.

      [John]

    • Re:That sucks (Score:4, Insightful)

      by draxbear ( 735156 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @09:28PM (#57345758)
      Take a look at https://simplenote.com/ [simplenote.com] instead. It's free, multi-devices supported incl Linux and just does text (very well). Markdown is also baked in if you're after some formatting. I'd love them to have a donate or subscription option just to ensure they keep on keeping on. The text only nature of it all makes it sustain-ably cheap to run on cloud and free to users I guess!
      • i moved from evernote to simplenote as there wasnt a way in evernote to default to non-formated

        copypasta from terminals would always lead to something horrific

        simplenote IS the best thing ever and i love it

        • by Hadlock ( 143607 )

          This is why I stopped using evernote. It wants (wanted? haven't checked in 2-3 years) to preserve all the RTF stuff. Text color, background color, weird fonts, etc. No way to revert easily to plain text.

          I would be interested in an evernote-type product that just did markdown and embedded images.

          Now I just keep a private notes file in a private "notes" github repo in markdown, with folders for personal and work. It is about the same price at $7/mo and I get the revision history and it uses an

      • "free to users"

        You are the product.

      • Someone has to pay the cost to keep the servers running.

        What would be ideal would be a note utility that worked as a web page, and an Android/iOS/macOS/Windows app, which would use one's cloud provider of choice, be it GDrive, Box, Dropbox, even Tencent, Yandex, and other providers which have ground in a region. The note utility would use its own encryption [1], ensuring that even if the cloud account got compromised, the notes would be protected.

        The closest to this are utilities like enPass, 1Password, Sa

    • by bjwest ( 14070 )
      Take a look at OurGroceries [ourgroceries.com] (not affiliated, just love the app). You can have multiple lists to keep track of whatever you want to buy and share among devices, including your computer via the browser. There's no way to keep notes on the items, but it doesn't sound like you do that anyway with Evernote.
    • If your shopping list app goes away, it'll hurt, but realistically: for how many seconds? It's not like you can't get another shopping list app.

      Every time I hear of a tech company layoff, I am just amazed at how enormous their staff is. That a shopping list app company even had 54 people to layoff is hard to believe. And that 54 people turns out to only be 15% is just stunning. It sounds like something that ought to have one single human being as the developer. (Ok, make it two developers, to cover for vac

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @09:04PM (#57345682)

    Exponential growth was the pitch I heard from them about 6 years ago when I attended a local dev meetup in their office. The CFO-at-the-time was trying to convince us that their growth was exponential and wouldn't stop. A few people chuckled, one person "coughed" the phrase "s-curve" and then we all sat in a small bit of awkward silence. I'm not surprised they reached market saturation shortly there after.

  • Recently canvased other Android/Windows options and cannot find anything better. I use EN both for notes and web clipping. Just to cite one example, OneNote fell flat on its face. I shared a web I was reading on my Android smartphone and it only clipped the URL and not the page content. Bzzzz. Strike one. I then shared from Pocket and it created an image of the page. An image? Really? Bzzzz. Strike two. I then tried to search for text in the saved image and it couldn't find it. Bzzzz. Strike three. I'm stic
  • I kind of feel for them. I used Evernote since it first was hatched and also did the paid-subscription thing for a year or two before I cancelled that.

    The problem is there is just too much competition from the OS vendors. Apple has all its iCloud stuff, Microsoft has OneDrive, and Ubuntu has UbuntuOne (I think they call it that) and they both work on each others and other platforms (browser mode if necessary).

    Try as I might I just can't think of anything Evernote brought to the party other than they w

  • I have their paid service and for the most part it Just Works(tm) and does a great job. The only real complaint I have is the lack of a proper Linux client. None of the OSS clients I have tried worked well. NixNote was closest but not great. On all the other platforms I use it on it has a great and consistent experience and handles things like checklists very well.

    I hope they are able to find a way to keep everything going. Granted I don't have anything critical on there but it would be inconvenient to swit

  • The world needs a good open source editor. May as well go full open source and then federate it so you can e.g. sync to the evernote cloud. Free and easy money there...

  • I do not see the value of Evernote everything they say they do on their web site I do in email now. I assume this is for people that do not have a modern email account?
  • So ... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Hugh Jorgen ( 4906427 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @10:41PM (#57345990)
    It may be time to resurrect fuckedcompany.com
    • It may be time to resurrect fuckedcompany.com

      Oh hell yeah. That site keep me laughing during the entire dot-bomb era. My employer at the time even made an appearance on it. That site was priceless. Was sorry to see it fade away.

  • I hate Evernote (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aussersterne ( 212916 ) on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:29PM (#57346162) Homepage

    because I want so badly to love it.

    In 2008, it was still a killer app. In 2018, it has squandered its position.

    The app has gained zero new killer functionality, which itself isn't disqualifying, but the UI hasn't even bothered to remain stagnant—it's gone backward. Evernote is far less usable and user-friendly for its core purposes than it was back when I started using it. Compare:

    https://mediafrenzy.files.word... [wordpress.com]
    https://i0.wp.com/thenerdystud... [wp.com]

    I hate all the wasted screen real estate. The lock-in to the same idiosyncratic and clashing colors. The way in which basic information organization have been buried in favor of a "just use the search box" mentality, requiring extra clicks for anything. The fact that data is incredibly difficult to get out in bulk (you can export it to a kind of soup that can be sorted out if you're willing to spent a month of your time doing development on your own). It used to be a pleasure to use, for what it was. Now it just sucks.

    Even all of this would have been okay if basic features hadn't been gradually migrating behind a paywall even as prices continued to increase—but both things are true.

    In short, Evernote started way ahead as a product that was great relative to everything else and very useful. It just needed some polish and iteration. Not only did they stagnate, they went backward, while jacking up the price. The one and only reason to stick with Evernote now is that it supports the five major platforms—Browser, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac OS—and syncs between them relatively seamlessly.

    Evernote reminds me in a lot of ways of Livescribe. A company with a great idea out the gate that then stumbled and ran in reverse, creating the impression that they hold their most committed users in deep contempt. Which is fitting, because the two partnered together for some time, so they deserve each other. Most of all, Evernote, like Livescribe, is a company that in no way needs—for the functionality that they ought to deliver—the corporate bloat they seem to have developed.

    The moment something else comes along that (1) creates rich notes and (2) can sync to always-up-to-date status on all of the platforms mentioned above, I'll jump ship right away. I'll even pay more, just to spite Evernote for holding my data (practically speaking) hostage.

    • Your screencaps are telling. Thanks for sharing them. I want our old Evernote back!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I see an OS X application and then an iPad application. It makes sense that they have different UIs since one is operated with a mouse, other with a finger.

    • by chrish ( 4714 )

      I switched from Evernote to OneNote around the time a Mac port was released.

      OneNote supports all of those platforms (and syncs via OneDrive), but they're doing the same sort of idiotic UI redesign that makes things worse unless you're running full-screen or on a touch device.

      I know you're pretty much stuck with full-screen on touch devices, but why would anyone run anything full-screen on a 4k monitor?

      UI/UX devs, please stop making things worse on high-res screens.

  • Installed Evernote and used it for many notes. Phone updated, had to reinstall. Ever-note I wrote is gone.

    The second time that happened, I never installed that pos again. What is the point of a note system that stored your stuff in the cloud to maintain it wherever you go if it doesn't work.

    Worst pos since I bought a Casio electronic address book. After the second time it mysteriously reset, losing every contact I had re-re-entered, I turned it off permanetly.

  • But unfortunately, over the years, Evernote has been trying their damnest to drive me away to competing services by constantly introducing features that I never asked for and that are on by default and/or cannot be hidden away in the UI. At the point where the UI became like 3 times as complex as it used to be when I started using Evernote, I just gave up and moved on.

  • Since like a lot of people here I use them too. I just don't need it for more than two devices (home, and my phone).

    I use it to keep notes for work and store non-critical (i.e. not privileged) account passwords and other stuff and it has been a boon.

    The interface does in fact feel like it has gone backwards since its creation- adding more complex abilities is cool, but so is KISS. You just kinda have to settle on one or the other and iterate properly and Evernote hasn't done that. It's a shame too because n

  • Evernote laid off more people (54) than the message count of a front-page Slashdot thread trumpeting its downfall (currently at 44). RIP.

  • Evernote romped when it was unique in its field. You could build a hierarchy of notes and reminders, classified in whatever way you wanted, synchronized over all your devices and computers. You could embed web links. It was an ideal tool for developing research notes for any kind of writing project.

    Then Apple upgraded its Notes app t include the same set of features in both macOS and iOS, and has recently added more. If Evernote went the way of Skype and traded out useful features for social media interface

  • I am really starting to despise this "we have to be #1" thing. Nobody can just be good anymore, and the lure of being the best is like a death-knell.
    Why? Is being successful and 2nd or 3rd so bad? What happened to longevity and simply building a great product?
    The company I am at used to be #1 in our market for our product, for like 5 years in a row... then we were bought by a large company, and they royally screwed us up... e.g. moved our client support team into the corporate structure, so not only was

  • Like... what is it?

  • Evernote was dead the day they switched to a subscription model. It is just insane that anyone pays as much for a notetaking app with a few gig of cloud storage as MS charges for Office365 with TB of cloud storage.

    The sooner evernote finishes its death rattle and vanishes from the planet the better, before other devs think their business model has some merit.
  • Evernote has their logo at the top of an office building in Redwood City. It's been there for a few years. I've never used it. I googled what it is one time because I was curious about the logo. It's something that could be coded up in free time by a few smart high school students. So many things in the "app" world are like that, and yet they build huge companies based on it, with logos at the tops of office buildings. That's what always boggles me. It never makes sense; but the market can remain irr

  • I would use Evernote more if they could provide better assurance that they're not harvesting my data for god knows what.

    I'm fed up with companies treating me like the product, ESPECIALLY when I'm already paying them money for their services.

As you will see, I told them, in no uncertain terms, to see Figure one. -- Dave "First Strike" Pare

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