印象笔记的野心

    过去五年里，数字笔记记录应用印象笔记（Evernote）可谓顺风顺水。41岁的菲尔•利宾是Evernote公司的联合创始人兼首席执行官。

    自《财富》（Fortune）于2011年秋季报道该公司以来，印象笔记的用户数已经增加了三倍多，达到了6,600万，其中有200万为付费用户。此外，这家公司从山景城的单层办公室搬到了位于雷德伍德城的一栋办公楼，现有320名员工。它还收购了至少五家初创企业，其中包括Mac绘图应用Skitch。同时还发布了一系列新功能，其中包括企业版Evernote，目前被5,000多家企业使用。随着Evernote投入巨资进行扩张，这家公司从T. Rowe Price、红杉资本（Sequoia Capital）以及莫根塔勒风险投资公司（Morgenthaler Ventures）等公司筹得了2.51亿美元。

    利宾接受《财富》采访时说：“如果你利润丰厚，那差不多意味着你江郎才尽了。”确实，这位生于圣彼得堡、长于布朗克斯的连续创业者一直表示，自己把Evernote看成一家“百年企业”，认为它有潜力屹立百年而不倒，因为它的业务是存储记忆：通过该应用，用户能键入文件、拍摄照片、保存网络报道、录制语音备忘录等等。这些数据储存在Evernote公司的服务器上，用户可通过自己的桌面和移动设备进行访问。因此，在iPhone上通过印象笔记录制的采访录音几乎马上就能在台式机上通过印象笔记收听。

    利宾暗示，印象笔记仅仅能记笔记。（至少在两到三年内，Evernote公司都没有上市的打算。）利宾谈到了一项全新的“非常性感的加密技术”，这可是他的原话。这项技术有望在今年底推出。更有意思的是，列宾还组织了一个内部团队开发硬件产品，以扩展印象笔记的用户体验。

    列宾的设想已经付诸于实现了。 Evernote公司与大名鼎鼎的传统笔记本厂商Moleskine合作制造的Moleskine笔记本就是一例。这款产品用特殊纸张制造，以确保手机或平板电脑上的印象笔记应用可以准确无误的扫描用户的手写笔记。

    “我们在设计该笔记本的同时，还设计了如何围绕它打造数字体验，”列宾解释说。“一些新东西会变成电子设备，还有一些则没必要，它们会变成传统的（实体）设备。不过，所有一切都是围绕着完整的用户体验。”

     列宾认为技术正回归原点，即再次从整体的角度思考设计。苹果（Apple）就是其中的典范，Nest恒温器和Fibbit跑步机也都是极具代表性的产品。列宾称：“当前世界即将迎来设计思维的大革命。”显然，如果列宾能任意施为，Evernote将在这场革命中扮演重要角色。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    For Evernote, the digital note-taking app co-founded by 41-year-old CEO Phil Libin, the last five years have been pretty damned good.

    Since Fortune profiled the startup in Fall 2011, Evernote has more than quadrupled its users to 66 million -- 2 million of whom pay -- moved from a one-floor Mountain View office to a Redwood City-based building with 320 employees, acquired at least five startups including the Mac drawing app Skitch, and released a slew of new features including Evernote for Business, currently used by over 5,000 companies. Evernote has raised $251 million in funding from T. Rowe Price, Sequoia Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures and others, as it invests heavily in expansion.

    "If you're vastly profitable, it kind of means you've run out of ideas," Libin tells Fortune. Indeed, the St. Petersburg-born, Bronx-raised serial entrepreneur has long said he views Evernote as a "100-year company," one that with the potential to endure that long because it's in the business of the storing memories: it lets users type documents, take photos, save Web stories, record voice memos, among other things. The data are stored on the company's servers and accessible on users' desktop and mobile devices. So, an interview recorded via Evernote on an iPhone is almost immediately available to listen to with Evernote for the desktop.

    Libin suggests there's much more to Evernote than just note-taking. (Going public is not something the company plans to do for at least another two or three years.) Libin talks of a new "super-sexy encryption" feature -- his words -- tentatively due later this year. More interesting: he has an internal team designing hardware products that expands the Evernote experience.

    One current product line that offers an idea of what Libin is talking about are the traditional Moleskine notebooks designed in partnership with the startup, with page materials that ensure capturing clean digital shots snapped by Evernote for the phone or tablet.

    "We designed it at the same time we were designing the digital experience around it," explains Libin. "So some of the new things are going to be electronic devices, and some are just going to be just [physical objects] that aren't necessarily electronic, but are designed together as a complete experience. But they're all about making you smarter, giving you elegant ways of being productive."

    Libin argues tech is returning to a point where design is thought of again holistically, pointing to Apple (AAPL) as the most obvious example, as well as products like the Nest thermostat and Fitbit. "The world right now is on the verge of a revolution of massive design thinking," says Libin. Clearly if Libin has his way, Evernote will have a large role in that.