Months after acquiring Evernote, Milan-based app developer Bending Spoons has cut back significantly on its note-taking and task management app.
On Friday, Feb. 17, layoffs took place at Evernote, an Evernote spokesperson confirmed to AapkaDost, with 129 people affected.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision as we pursue our ambitious plans for Evernote,” a spokesperson told AapkaDost via email. “The company has been unprofitable for years and the situation was unsustainable in the long run.”
The spokesperson does not want to confirm which specific departments are involved. But posts on LinkedIn and Blind suggest that the layoffs have affected many of Evernote’s core teams, including product design, engineering, HR, sales, customer service and marketing departments.
Indeed, Evernote has had its ups and downs over the past few decades, with massive layoffs in 2015 and 2018 — a year that also saw an exodus of top executives, including Evernote’s chief technical officer, chief financial officer, chief product officer, and head of HR. But the company seemed to have more or less turned things around, reporting $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) over the past five years.
It is unlikely that Bending Spoons, for its part, seriously damaged liquidity. The company recently closed a $340 million venture round, eclipsing $100 million in ARR last September.
So what’s the explanation for the cuts? It could be as simple as bending spoons preparing Evernote for profitability. The parent company undoubtedly wants a quick return on its investment and may feel additional pressure from investors. (Bending Spoons was bootstrapped until recently.)
But it’s also true that Evernote wasn’t particularly competitive. Despite its reported high ARR, prior to the acquisition the company largely failed to keep up with competitors like Notion – opting to rely heavily on a consumer-focused freemium model, while avoiding the types of collaboration features offered by its rivals. were embraced, shunned.
In any case, staff members are an unfortunate victim of circumstances.