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 usersManaging Director at General CatalystCo-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 immigrants4:52 Being fired from his job selling ice-cream6:11 Taking 30 years to complete his degree?!8:15 Working with essentially the same core group of friends to build 5 startups11:13 Selling Engine5 for $26 million, Hollywood-style15:52 Building something for himself (Evernote)18:19 Startup failure is brutal; startup success is much worse & much harder20:57 Three types of regret22:48 Maintaining his principles & ethics 24:53 Metrics used to measure impact26:30 3-year game plan for mmhmm28:13 How mmhmm improves lives 31:07 Why Phil hates the metaverse32:27 Crypto blockchain is bullsh*t33:45 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🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 💌 Get the latest STIMY alpha/exclusive updates: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605