Ep 87: Building Evernote, Startup Success is Worse than Startup Failure & Why Blockchain is Bullsh*t | Phil Libin (co-founder, Evernote, mmhmm & All Turtles)

STIMY 87 features Phil Libin. Some things he’s most known
for: 


Co-founder and CEO of Evernote, which he grew to become a
beloved product for hundreds of millions of users

Managing Director at General Catalyst

Co-founder and CEO of All Turtles, a globally distributed
product studio 

Co-founder of mmhmm, an all-in-one platform for making,
watching, and talking on videos 






This is an episode that’s all about startups, growth, regret and
why Phil hates the metaverse & thinks blockchain is bullshit
and “communist propaganda”.





Here’s a little background:


Phil Libin was 8 years old when he moved from Leningrad (now St
Petersburg) to Parkchester, New York as a refugee. His parents
were both classical musicians and he lived in a fairly dangerous
neighbourhood in the Bronx. 





Despite being a self-described “punchable” kid (he was poor, very
physically uncoordinated and didn’t speak English well), he did
well in school, earned good money doing repair work and freelance
programming and sold his first company, Perseus Data systems, for
$500.





But at the same time, he also got fired from his job selling
ice-cream and took 30 years to get his Bachelors degree!





Why?





How?





What?





Here are the highlights:


3:43 Moving to New York as Russian immigrants

4:52 Being fired from his job selling ice-cream

6:11 Taking 30 years to complete his degree?!

8:15 Working with essentially the same core group of friends
to build 5 startups

11:13 Selling Engine5 for $26 million, Hollywood-style

15:52 Building something for himself (Evernote)

18:19 Startup failure is brutal; startup success is much
worse & much harder

20:57 Three types of regret

22:48 Maintaining his principles & ethics 

24:53 Metrics used to measure impact

26:30 3-year game plan for mmhmm

28:13 How mmhmm improves lives 

31:07 Why Phil hates the metaverse

32:27 Crypto blockchain is bullsh*t

33:45 The promise of blockchain is just communist propaganda?

37:14 Training himself to like what he hates, including
durians! 

39:57 How listeners can help Phil Libin









Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/87





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