Gadgetory

Ben's Otto is the founder of cocoa box the company that made penultimate which just got acquired by Evernote for an undisclosed amount we have been here on the skype and I want to talk to him briefly about this acquisition first of all congratulations thank you very so Ben what are you going to be doing there over at Evernote now that they've acquired your business well we're gonna be we're gonna be taking penultimate from a one-person shop and and putting a team behind it and doing a lot of great things with with Evernote technology that's that it happened to be really complementary to what to what Pendleton's already been doing but this was really a one-person shop it was you wrote the thing and ran the business I did I had I had a I had some help along the way from some person pretty talented as geologists are independent freelance workers along the way but all the all the sort of product and the product management and engineering and you know business stuff was all me so tell us the history I mean why penultimate how did it start and win and what was in a nutshell the trajectory of the app from vente no all right um it's so so originally there was an there there used to be an iphone app that predated penultimate there was really very much a hobby project for me I was I like the idea of digital handwriting and having ink that looked really much like you might get from a really nice pen and so I sort of had as a hobby project but the ipad was announced in january of i guess was 2010 now and it sort of it sort of dawned on me that really this technology i built the sort of ink technology was going to make a lot more sense in the form factor of a tablet it really didn't make a lot of sense on the phone so the whole idea all along we said something very easy to use because I I thought that it is it's gonna be a mass-market problem everybody who owns an ipad is going to want to use something like this at some point they're gonna have some need for it was going to be notes in class or notes at work meetings or is it going to be keeping track of a keeping track of plans for things and kind of at this point uh you know a little while ago where it sort of the question starts becoming what's the how do you really take something this to the next level like what's the next step and I've been actually in touch with Phil Libin of Evernote for a long time he was an early fan of the app and easy I got you got to get you got to get getting on our API like this is a really natural fit we've got all this great handwriting technology I integrated with evernotes API several months ago because i had users who were rich demanding that like this was the nose natural fit and i did it went it was a high-quality integration and it was really well received so you know eventually we kind of realized that really you know strategically this was a really great compliment the additional value to is I'm excited about being here because I can take some of the type the penultimate technology and ideas and sort of ideas to sprinkle them you know into some of the rest of evernotes ecosystem and why are some of that through in a way that makes handwriting sort of first-class citizen really within within the Evernote ecosystem with all the existing kind of products you know it's interesting a last August Evernote acquired sketch which was a very useful screenshot and graphing graphics application that product to this day the integration is coming along but it's moving a little slowly filled told me in another interview that you know on the one year anniversary they're going to make a big splash so I'm looking forward to that it's it strikes me that penultimate is much more of a natural fit with Evernote and deserves to be integrated far more deeply and needs to be integrated far more deeply so how do you navigate that how do you think you're going to navigate that inside of Evernote and with a user base that is probably when they hear about this news going to say oh for God's sakes don't change a thing yeah I think I think it's important to note that like we're not going to break it and ultimate you know I think I think Skitch actually is an interesting model look at and it's it's a I think it should be reassuring for for penultimate users have you know Evernote there's a there's a lot of value here on what penultimate is and that and that that makes it that makes it exciting for me so penultimate sort of will remain the powerful app that it is today and you'll be able to continue to use it you know as you do today if you like but I think what's really nice is that as as you say there are huge opportunities for going really deep with what with what ever know it has to offer and what we're going to do is start plumbing these really these really powerful things in and I think that users are going to be they'll be pleased and I think actually many cases surprised by how much more powerful penultimate gets as a result of this relationship for people who have applications that I think might fit into the Evernote ecosystem or say any other ecosystem entrepreneurs who into small shops who have businesses they think deserve to be made part of a larger business what's your advice on the process of shopping your business around and dealing with the CEO and ultimately joining a larger team with your your starter product well I see you know Phil's not hard to deal with you he's a good guy um the it's you know I you know for me I it's you know I would I wouldn't I wouldn't describe you know what happened was definitely not a shopping around of the app it was very clear to me that there was a very naturally and we already had an integration you know I'd already sort of been I already should have been talking to Phil over a period of time it was very it became very clear that there was a really great strategic compliment there and that and and the the acquisition that we're announcing today is just sort of the the the next step in that basically in an accelerating accelerating the growth I mean in terms of you know advice to other two other entrepreneurs I mean just just as with any business you know being be in touch with with people who are in you know in the industry who are related and who are interesting do you write who are doing things that are related things that are interesting things are complementary those are always good people to kind of reach out to and and see if there's anything interesting there alright well listen again congratulations on the acquisition are you going to tell us how much it was for not disclosing numbers on it I didn't ask in a sneaky enough way congratulations on it good luck there at Evernote do not screw it up don't screw up Evernote either while you're at it and we'll look forward to seeing what you do next thank you it's very exciting there's a lot of there's a lot of great stuff coming down the pike and it's a it's a it's a really exciting I think step for the product or enfermera benz auto is the founder of penultimate just acquired by evernote thanks a lot Ben thank you