I can't read the article due to paywall, but why does a note-taking app need to be a unicorn in the first place? It just seems so excessive.
Like couldn't 80% of the value of Evernote be written as a simple, intuitive piece of software that a middle-aged programmer in Boise could maintain in his free time?
While that may be a slight exaggeration, Wikipedia's numbers of 251-500 employees sounds quite massive. I'm not obviously privy to all things the company does but it makes one wonder.
The programmers who maintain MediaWiki, the programmers who write the backend and frontend of Wikipedia, and the people who run the organization that raises money to fund Wikipedia, are all seperate organizations. Giving users the tools to view and edit Wikipedia in every language and on a variety of mobile devices is actually a lot of work.
Like couldn't 80% of the value of Evernote be written as a simple, intuitive piece of software that a middle-aged programmer in Boise could maintain in his free time?