Video interview from Silicon Valley. Interview with the CEO of the company, worth> 1,000,000,000 $. Phil Libin - CEO of Evernote

With you a new issue of informative interviews and reports from Silicon Valley. This time, an interview with Rock Star, the company's CEO, which at the end of last year was valued at $ 2 billion , was the most important thing. More recently, a small startup founded by a native of the USSR (Stepan Pachikov, Phil joined the company later) is now worth more than a billion and is launching his start-up accelerator this year. In a short interview, Phil Libin says a lot of very interesting things about trends, self-education, about Evernote plans and how to maximize the chances of creating a successful startup (see under the cut in Russian). The interview was made at the SVOD Summer 2013 conference (Silicon Valley Open Doors, held twice a year), a prestigious conference that traditionally brings together major investors from the US and Russia, as well as being an excellent springboard for Russian start-ups in the US (I will later post a full report with conference when we mount more videos). It was with the help of the SVOD conference that Evernote received the first major investments, which Phil also said in an interview.

What gives investors and entrepreneurs participation in conferences like SVOD?

This is where you go and learn everything you need to know about the foundation of the company, you meet with investors, my education, basically, took place at such conferences. Moreover, participation in the SVOD conference was an important part of the fact that Evernote "left the ground" - I am sure that this conference can also be useful for many other people.

Let's talk about trends. What are the most favorable areas for startups?
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The best companies have always started out of current trends. It’s probably too late to start something that is already a trend. A startup has to start in the realm of your life, something that you constantly do, but which is not pleasant. Look around for a few days, watch everything you do, find what you or someone you know well, do things all the time that you don’t like, and find a way to do it a little better. This will be the best idea for a startup. And if you specifically look for what is in trend, it will be you and 10 thousand others - too late.

What are Evernote plans for?

We have a lot of plans. Everything moves very fast. The main idea is that we want to make Evernote “smarter” - when we started, it was just an application for taking notes, searching and fixing. Now it's autonomous intelligence - when you use Evernote, you feel that it complements your thoughts. Many additional features will soon be added to make you feel that Evernote is an extension of your brain. We have an excellent API, which now employs about 25,000 independent developers, whose number is increasing.

What about your startup accelerator?

This is really a very interesting thing. We do it for the first time this year. We are going to gather 6 teams from all over the world in Silicon Valley for a month to “live with us”, we pay for housing and other expenses. There is a specific program for them, but they can also work with any of Evernote - any type of advice or help for their business. We don’t know yet what to expect, because we’re doing it for the first time - so far there are only 6 teams, we hope that everything will work out, and next year we will make it much larger.

Your personal advice to entrepreneurs

I think the most important thing is to do (build) something for yourself. To do something that you will love, not to worry about pleasing the market and other people. To do something that you understand that you yourself will use, because the world is becoming very demanding, where the most important thing is to have a good product. Therefore, especially if this is your first experience, your best chance is to make a good product for yourself. If you do not do it for yourself, you will not understand how good it is. But if you make a good product for yourself, there is a good chance that what you like will be enjoyed by a billion other people.

Thank you for your attention and for the positive feedback. Subscribe to the channel to follow video updates (reports and interviews). We need help with the installation (we took more than 40 videos during the last trip - we don’t cope with the installation), if someone wants to cooperate, write me on Twitter .

Previous issues:
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Ilya Semin: "I do not need investors" - how to build a business in IT without attracting investment
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Alex Debelov is a graduate of YCombinator, leader and co-founder of Virool, an online video promotion service.
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Sergey Burkov - a serial entrepreneur, mentor 500 Startups, the first head of the Google development center in Russia
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Members of Council of AmBAR, the largest business association of Russian-speaking high-tech professionals in the United States
Report from Silicon Valley. Blackbox - American startup accelerator focused on non-American startups
Report from Silicon Valley. Hacker Dojo Tour - Free Coworking Center
Video interview from Silicon Valley. Max Skibinsky - serial entrepreneur, business angel and incubator mentor 500 Startups