Evernote culls 15 percent of its staff in bid for increased efficiency

Posted:
in General Discussion
Productivity app Evernote has made a major reduction to its workforce, eliminating approximately 15 percent of its employees in a bid to make the company more efficient, shortly after the departure of key employees from the business.




Confirmed to employees in an all-hands meeting on Monday, CEO Chris O'Neill advised the company was laying off 54 people. TechCrunch reports O'Neill advised it was part of a plan to refocus its efforts on specific functions, such as product development and engineering.

In a note sent to staff members, O'Neill calls the move a "necessary decision to set Evernote up for future success," but also an "extremely difficult decision and one that we did not take lightly."

The CEO highlights that he has set "incredibly aggressive goals for the year" over the last few months, but despite noting the company's significant growth so far, he claims "at the same time we invested too far ahead of that growth."

The layoffs follow a series of high-level employee exits from the company over the last two months. Key staff including CTO Anirban Kundu, CFO Vincent Toolan, CPO Erik Wrobel, and HR head Michelle Wagner are no longer working for the firm, with existing employees shifting roles instead of Evernote externally sourcing personnel.

A blog post from O'Neill intended to provide an explanation to its customers advises new leaders are in place for its Engineering team, as well as for its People and Legal functions, the Product and Marketing teams are united under one leader, and a hiring process has been launched for a new CFO.

The post also warns of future streamlining, including in sales, in order to scale other areas.

While recent reports point to a company in trouble, including a claim the company is raising more funds, the CEO's note insists otherwise. After growing 20 percent in the first half of the year, the third-quarter revenue is anticipated to end north of $27 million, with Evernote also having over $30 million in cash on its balance sheet and expected to exit 2018 generating more cash than it is spending.
superk9

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    I used to toil for Hatehouse Media. They made us so efficient I was pernt near the only employee. It certainly streamlined flowcharts and payroll. 
    christopher126
  • Reply 2 of 15
    GETCARTERcaGETCARTERca Posts: 8unconfirmed, member
    I've moved everything over to MS OneNote O365. I used to also use Apple notes but just easier to have everything in one location.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    They should focus on the enterprise perhaps, if they are to survive.
    superk9
  • Reply 4 of 15
    I've used Evernote for years and have saved invoices, receipts, bills, emails, pics, and hand written notes.  I've also saved hundreds of news articles and snipped excerpts from websites, which are critically important for my line of work.
    This past year, when my MacOS crashed my MacBook Pro Retina mid-2012, all of that saved stuff was recovered because it was in the Evernote cloud.  In other words, Evernote has been invaluable.  So watching the speculation and warnings about the potential demise of Evernote caused me to search for alternatives to save what had been stored. 

    After many evaluations of alternatives, DevonThink Pro was my clear choice and it took only an hour or two to download all documents from Evernote into Pdf or other formats.  Meanwhile, I'll continue to use Evernote, but DevonThink has provided me a secure path to save what could be lost...  


    Rayz2016leehammsteveau
  • Reply 5 of 15
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    superk9 said:
    I've used Evernote for years and have saved invoices, receipts, bills, emails, pics, and hand written notes.  I've also saved hundreds of news articles and snipped excerpts from websites, which are critically important for my line of work.
    This past year, when my MacOS crashed my MacBook Pro Retina mid-2012, all of that saved stuff was recovered because it was in the Evernote cloud.  In other words, Evernote has been invaluable.  So watching the speculation and warnings about the potential demise of Evernote caused me to search for alternatives to save what had been stored. 

    After many evaluations of alternatives, DevonThink Pro was my clear choice and it took only an hour or two to download all documents from Evernote into Pdf or other formats.  Meanwhile, I'll continue to use Evernote, but DevonThink has provided me a secure path to save what could be lost...  


    I tap you as ‘informative’.


  • Reply 6 of 15
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    I think they now have too many, cheaper competitors. 
    leehammsuperk9
  • Reply 7 of 15
    NB: there is a big difference between someone having an idea and someone having a plan. Lotta tech stuff out there are great ideas. 
  • Reply 8 of 15
    Using Apple Notes now. They beg and beg for me to come back.

    Nope.
    steveau
  • Reply 9 of 15
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Appleish said:
    Using Apple Notes now. They beg and beg for me to come back.

    Nope.
    I’m starting to wonder if this might be a safer alternative. 
    superk9
  • Reply 10 of 15
    eightzero said:
    NB: there is a big difference between someone having an idea and someone having a plan. Lotta tech stuff out there are great ideas. 
    Too true
  • Reply 11 of 15
    I'm pretty sure that notes are not encrypted in Evernote's cloud.
    leehamm
  • Reply 12 of 15
    Notion is almost viable as an alternative. It syncs amongst Mac, Windows, iOS, Android devices. There are still a few things missing:
    • email to a personal address to create a new note
    • screen clipping
    Notion can import from html but not from enex, Evernote's file format.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    fred1fred1 Posts: 1,112member
    And of course the CEO took a pay cut, right?
  • Reply 14 of 15
    ireland said:
    They should focus on the enterprise perhaps, if they are to survive.
    I think they were trying that, with the 'Teams' promotion. Too late. Companies already have sharing methods like OneNote, Sharepoint, Slack etc.

    They got distracted redesigning the elephant and forgot to fix the broken and mismatched parts of the products, imho. There was an article on medium recently about their 'rebranding'. Nearly all the comments criticized them for the lack of product improvement.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    The problem with moving to Apple Notes is it's a one way street. AFAIK, exporting from Apple Notes isn't easy should you leave the ecosystem some day. 

    Its a shame to see EN in decline but One Note is a jarring experience. I appreciate EN's (relative) simplicity. My two main criteria are a web clipper and cross-platform. The presenter view in EN is maybe a 3rd. Something like Bear notes would work if they add cross-platform. 

    edited September 2018
Sign In or Register to comment.