Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat, Interview
Phil Libin at Startup School 2013
- Current co-founders are expected to remain together for the rest of their lives, with the speaker devoting their remaining time exclusively to Evernote and planning no other projects.
- The speaker anticipates that if a future venture is launched, the 50 people currently at Evernote are expected to join.
- Plans include building products exclusively for a personal target audience rather than a generic market, which is predicted to eliminate the need for an exit strategy, requiring only a liquidity plan if capital is raised.
- The speaker predicts that building a sufficiently epic product that they love will attract at least 10 million other users, potentially up to a billion, leveraging a tech world that has become more meritocratic due to app stores, smartphones, and social media.
- Starting a business is predicted to be increasingly difficult as a company grows, though the speaker expects cumulative monthly achievements to remain gratifying despite day-to-day challenges.
- Working 16-hour days for approximately two and a half years is expected to have been unsustainable.
- Advice to build for oneself is expected to be crucial starting now, whereas it would have been considered incorrect five years ago.
- Building for oneself is believed to provide founders with the advantage of being an honest judge of product quality, while the speaker expects Evernote to get closer to greatness every day despite not having achieved it yet.
- Attendees are predicted to be at an age for making life-long connections that pass quickly, leading to the plan to advise young founders to only cultivate friendships with potential co-founders.
- The speaker predicts that the role of one's own boss in consulting is an illusion that does not build lasting, long-term value.
- The speaker predicts that the market for government security and cryptography products will not evoke intense passion.