Evernote

Phil Libin traces the lessons from three startups: choose co-founders carefully, avoid building a consulting business when you want lasting value, and make a product the founders care deeply about. He explains how the Evernote team formed by merging with Stepan Pachikov’s company, and how an overly clever company structure made fundraising difficult. A last-minute investment from a Swedish user helped Evernote survive the 2008 financial crisis, after which product traction attracted investors who were already fans. His central advice is to build something sufficiently meaningful to keep working on for life, and to use your own enthusiasm as a guide to product quality.