My last six months at Evernote

After Evernote was acquired by Italy-based Bending Spoons in January 2023, an engineering manager describes witnessing the company's transition under new leadership, where the Italian delegation's business playbook—characterized by cost-cutting and staff reductions—resulted in nearly everyone being laid off. The author, who quit voluntarily and thus wasn't bound by non-disparagement clauses, shares this insider account of how Bending Spoons systematically acquired and restructured companies by cutting costs and raising prices. The piece reflects on Evernote's decline from a once-prominent startup that raised over $200M to become what the author calls "the first dead unicorn."