Brownbag with Phil Libin, the CEO of EverNote

These are my tweets from the brown bag with Evernote CEO, Phil Libin.
June 9, 2010

• Best product does win. Conventional wisdom that "best product does not always win" is getting less and less true.
• Platforms are diverging. Not converging.
• People who use desktop and mobile version of your apps are more likely to pay.
• If a friend invites a friend another to use #evernote the invitee tends to continue to use the product longer.
•  For 89 cents u can buy a user download. But users u 'buy' are one tenth as good as users who find you.
• About 2 % of all users pay. About 6% of active users pay. Premium users r growing faster than free users
• 16 Engineers at #evernote.
• In a 'cohort' of users who join #evernote those who use it for two months, continue to use it for years
• It is far more important for users to stay than to pay.
• Premium users say that they pay because they love #evernote
• Older (not by age) users are far more valuable for #evernote
• Premium users do not use the 'premium-only' features. But there is an uptick when premium features are announced
• Google checkout and paypal were not very reliable. We built our own ecommerce.
• People are genuinely suspicious of free. #evernote
• The longer u keep free users, the more likely they pay. So focus on keeping ur customers. They will pay.
• You can buy #evernote premium in shrinkwrapped boxes in Japan #ceo
• #Evernote sees users as part of monthly cohorts. - Interesting way of looking at user data.
• Freeium model works if u have long term retention rate. Works for prodducts that increase in value over time. Works if low variable costs.
• Only active users cost #evernote money.

Thanks to my friend, Terence Chesire for compiling my tweets.


If you are interested in finding out more about Evernote, here is a video of Phil Libin talking about Evernote to Mashable.