I fondly remember Evernote talking about being a company that lives around for a hundred years. It had really great leadership, smart staff, a desire to be as i

I fondly remember Evernote talking about being a company that lives around for a hundred years. It had really great leadership, smart staff, a desire to be as independent as possible, keep data as belonging to the user as much as possible, and away from subpoena, and then a vision to help people become more productive. Sometime later the vision floundered and staff became bored. Lots of people left for something more exciting. And the product went through its dark period. Now the flaws are too many to mention and too well known too repeat but my question remains the same: what is there to do as a company that it makes sense to last a hundred years independently? No. More than that. How can a company become so important just by collecting thoughts and memories? FB survived because they had complete open access to how users were using the product. And they pivoted from their earlier promises. Evernote stayed loyal. They suffered.