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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Evernote [wikipedia.org], makers of the note-taking web app of the same name, is going through a rough patch. As the company's pre-IPO valuation hit $1 billion in 2012, Phil Libin, its CEO, became accustomed to giving interviews dispensing advice on how to create a cool company [latimes.com] with a freemium business model [fastcompany.com] and a great corporate culture [nytimes.com].

Then came some serious problems [businessinsider.com], as recounted in a story in BusinessInsider. Recent releases of Evernote's flagship product have been buggy, with new features that were apparently shipped before they were ready. "Complementary" products and services acquired by the company haven't panned out, and critics have suggested that management tooks its eye off its core business. Meanwhile, revenue from the company's freemium business model hasn't keeping pace with its growing costs; although some 150 million people use Evernote today, product revenues (as of last year) were estimated by TechCrunch to be just $36 million. This year has brought layoffs, office closings, elimination of some audacious employee perks, and cancellation of the company's developer confererence. Libin resigned as CEO in July, replaced by ex-Googler Chris O'Neill.

So is freemium still a viable business model for a Silicon Valley "unicorn" ($1 billion-plus valuation) pushing a SaaS (as opposed to, let's say, a relational database, or programming language compiler plus IDE)? Or are too many of its target users just too cheap to make it viable?

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