ETEC 522 – Sept. 2011

Evernote falls ever short on pitch

As an EVA I was not particularly captivated by the Evernote pitch. While I found the idea of an “external brain” intriguing (being a person with limited space for remembering things) too much was lacking in this short pitch. The presenter started off by immediately identifying himself, CEO Phil Libin and gets straight into the concept of the product but what is devaluing to this presentation is the lack of passion, persuasiveness and enthusiasm required in selling an idea in such a short period of time. This enthusiasm is particularly lacking during the most important times such as when he outlines the flexibility of the product (can be used with both Windows and a Mac) and the ability of the user to use with existing devices. Several times throughout the pitch the presenter breaks eye contact either looking down or to the side which to myself signals a sense of unpreparedness or lack of confidence neither of which I want to sense as an EVA.

I am also left wondering what sets this product apart from other services that do exactly the same thing and the presenter fails to leave the audience with any type of distinguishing feature that this product has to offer. The biggest question that I might have as a potential consumer considering this product is around security. If I am uploading and storing large amounts of personal data on this server, where is the guarantee in protection and privacy?

Lastly this pitch seems to be aimed at the consumer rather than the venturer or investor. If this is a pitch to investors it leaves out all the important information that they want to hear such as competition and why Evernote is better than the competition. Libin also mentions the two subscription options of the product: Free and five dollars a month. Firstly, the free part would make me cringe as an investor blinding me from the ability to see any profit and return on my investment. Secondly Libin only brushes over the five dollar a month option muttering unlimited storage space and a bunch of other goodies. What are these goodies? Is the mention of goodies enough to hook interest from an investor or potential customer? I’m not convinced it is.

While the pitch did make me go to the website to investigate further it was due to a lack of understanding about what this product really looked like and how it might be used. This is partly due to the limitations of an elevator pitch but I believe that the enthusiasm and persuasion in this pitch was really lacking as well as a few other key elements outlined above.