Entrepreneurship lessons from Evernote success

Evernote started out as note taking app which envisions itself to be second brain. It helps its users to be more productive by helping jotting down thoughts on every device. It has 100+ million users and growing. It is an impressive growth story. what led to its success?

• Follow the users on any possible device: Since Evernote aspired to be second brain so from beginning it followed the strategy that it will support any device even if less popular. so when iPhone opened its app store, it was one of first business apps available on iPhone. This provided them a head start   
• Logo, brand is important: Evenote has a distinctive colored logo and was made to stand out on digital screens. In the beginning of app store, when apps were just 500 and evernote was one of them, it provided them visibility.
• Focus on users: Most of the startups focus on either a vertical or subset of features to get a start in the market due to financial and managerial bandwidth. Evernote focused on its product and users and  didn't tailor its product to specific set of vertical or users. so users found their own use cases. Their initial users were news reporters who used to jot their ideas and story n all its forms - verbal, voice, images etc. to prepare a report and clergy who needs to jot its ideas for sunday mass sermons. Luckily these are one of the best brand ambassadors ( Remember Connectors from book The tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell) 
• Power of WoM: it didn't spend any advertising dollars. It relied on word of mouth and focused on product. Later it went for partnerships.
• Competition helped evernote: When Google launched its note taking app, Google Keep, it was a basic product compared to Evernote so when users got aware of note taking app due to Google keep, they compared it with other available apps. Evernote easily won due to its vast set of features.