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Comment by fastball | Hacker News Reader

Is this a case of mismanagement or over-estimation of market size (note-taking)?

For me, it's a case of the free alternatives catching up. Apple's Notes isn't as good as Evernote, but it's completely sufficient for many use cases. While Evernote is definitely better, it's not $7.99 per month better for most people.

Huge mismanagement. I used to be a loyal EN user. Even considered paying for the premium offering, but they just didn't price it properly for what was offered. They also went some weird directions that I didn't like, and removed features that I did like. Then they kept raising rates. They also never put in a dark mode or even themes and made constant changes to make it impossible for it to be done easily on the user side.

Edit: To be clear I'm paying for Standard Notes right now. So I'm not someone against paying for good things.

It's the funding meta-trap.

If Evernote did not take funding, they likely would have had a path to profitability, even a meager one.

But, if Evernote did not take funding, it's likely another note-taking app would have, and Evernote would not have been able to compete with free VC money and RSU compensation.

The company is very clearly mismanaged.

The product is very clearly a dud

No, it was decent and then they tried to make it social instead of focusing.

It was very popular for a long time. It was one of the first apps of it's kind and got some loyal users. Then stagnated while tons of competitors blossomed.

> Then stagnated while tons of competitors blossomed.

Which competitors have blossomed and are also cross-platform? I can think of OneNote, but the 'clip from web' feature in Evernote is superior IMO. But I hate Evernote's "rich" (my foot) text editor for being so dumb and so basic, and the lack of organisation that tags and notebooks give, and am always keen to find a replacement.

Replacements always seem to have better features, but the cost of getting a note into them is higher.

Seems to me that a lot of people have moved over to Bear if you use an iPhone and a Mac.

I have a Mac, but I use Windows and Android in equal parts.

Mismanagement and not exiting at the right time.

maybe a lack of focus as well. just look at those apps they brought out years ago, evernote food and the other contacts app

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