Evernote founder says Boston shouldn’t try to be Silicon Valley
The Boston University alumnus spoke about entrepreneurship at his alma mater.
Although vibrant, Boston’s startup culture doesn’t quite engulf its city’s social orbit.
That’s a good thing, according to the co-founder of Evernote.
Phil Libin, co-founder and executive chairman of Evernote, spoke at his alma mater Boston University on Tuesday for a conversation with WBUR reporter and co-BU alumnus Curt Nickisch as part of an entrepreneurship series hosted by BU’s BUzz Lab.
Though Libin never actually graduated from BU—he had only four more credits to fulfill when he dropped out in 1994—he still founded three startups, including Evernote, the popular organizational app.
At the event, at which Nickisch selected the highest-voted audience questions through a real-time Q&A app, one attendee asked Libin if he thought Boston could replicate the increasing innovation of Silicon Valley, according to the Daily Free Press.
“If you want to be socially acceptable in Silicon Valley, there’s only one path, which is you make or work at a startup,’’ Libin said, after acknowledging that it was hard for him to point to well-known, brand-name Boston startups. “In Boston, there are other things that you can do and still be a respectable human being. The goal is maybe just to keep doing what Boston does really well.’’
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Libin founded and sold two startups, Engine 5 and CoreStreet, with friends between 1997 and 2007 before launching Evernote in 2008. Now, the app has 150 million users worldwide and is worth more than $1 billion. Libin was CEO of Evernote until 2015, when he became executive chairman of the company.
Libin is also a venture capitalist, and told the audience at the BU auditorium that he’s most impressed by startup founders who are passionate, want to improve the world, and can answer ‘“Why this idea? Why you? Why now?’’
“I look for someone who can paint a very vivid picture of what the world looks like if your company is successful and make that a place I want to live in,’’ Libin said, according to the Daily Free Press. “Very few people can do that.’’
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