When we asked customers, How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use Evernote? They received a product-market fit score of 23%, meaning that only 64 of 277 people we surveyed would be disappointed if they could no longer use the service. Limiting accounts based on number of notes or storage size could potentially have the same negative impacts on customer perception of their brand. While both Hiten and I don’t know if limiting syncing on devices was the best choice when they updated their plan, it’s hard to see if there is another value metric that would have been a better choice.

Had Evernote made these changes earlier in their lifecycle, customers would have been trained to expect more changes in their plans. By adding limits to the number of devices a user can sync to on their free plan, they effectively alienated a big part of their user base. Their biggest mistake was waiting too long to revamp their pricing model, giving free users a significant amount of time to get used to and rely on certain features. Riding that leading curve helped propel their growth early on, but when they didn’t change with the times, it put Evernote in a really difficult position. They were also one of the first companies to double down on mobile apps.

How freemium acquisition can go wrong over timeĮvernote was one of the first big freemium players in 2008, and they executed that acquisition strategy better than anyone else.

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