How the Russian inventor received $ 6 million from Apple and a call to Silicon Valley

Stepan Pachikov was born in the USSR, he dreamed of traveling and changing the world. Because of the interest in computers at the beginning of 90's, he was offered a job at Apple. Stepan was one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley, has developed a handwriting recognition technology. But the main invention of the entrepreneur is the Evernote data synchronization service. Revision MC Today translated material about Stepan Pachikove from the Medium blog.

Strategist, philosopher, pioneer of Silicon Valley. Although at times his ideas seemed ridiculous, they all came from the same source. It was he who created the software with which the computer can read hand-written. It was he who created the possibility of optical character recognition for the US Postal Service. And it was he who invented Evernote, considering it an extension of the human consciousness, both individual and collective.

“We have practically no chance of appearing in this world,” says Pachikov. “My parents met each other completely by chance. What makes us who we are is a combination of genes and experience, and the chance of being born is almost zero.”

Stepan Pachikov with his family as a child. Photo for medium.com

“The second side of the medal is one hundred percent chance that all of us will die one day. And what will people remember about us? Who can remember what I did to improve this world? This is the goal of life - to make the world a better place. ”

“My philosophy is that every person — no matter if you are a taxi driver, a cook or a scientist — has a chance to do it.”

Evernote was born out of the need to remember

The current concept of Evernote was born from the need of Pachikov to remember and be the one to be remembered. However, this happened long before Parkinson's disease struck him, which, in addition to everything else, causes memory loss, writes MC Today.

Pachikov accepts his fate humbly: “I’m not at all angry or even upset. The only thing I regret is that people see me not as I myself would like. ” Stepan looks down: "I had ideas that I wanted to bring to this world, but I wouldn’t do it anymore."

When he compares himself with such as, for example, Stephen Hawking, he feels that he is almost lucky. When he slowly typing on a computer with trembling hands, he thinks that Hawking could not do this at all. “He controlled the mouse and keyboard with a glance, and at the same time was able to write several books.”

Pachikov loves saying: “How is an optimist different from a pessimist? A pessimist believes that everything is already so bad that it cannot be worse. And the optimist knows what he can. ” Grinning, Stepan considers himself to be the second.

For him, Evernote is like a step that lifts you into the world of the future, in which it is important for humans, society and civilization to exist forever. “We have to admit that computers become twice as powerful every year and a half,” Pachikov predicts that day in the near future, when a person loses in a race with cars.

And this is not a dystopia. On the contrary - the opportunity to improve. “Computers don't do anything to make us smarter, better or faster. The only way to survive for human civilization is to improve your brain, and millions of times. ”

A dream to change the world

Stepan considers Evernote literally the continuation of the human brain, a kind of integrated chip. “We have no choice,” he shrugs. - It's just a different kind of harmony. After all, you already use a huge amount of technology that increases your potential. You wear glasses to see better, right? The same story with Evernote or, for example, your smartphone. "

As a young scientist of the Soviet Union, who received a Ph.D. degree for his work in the field of fuzzy logic, Pachikov lived a comfortable, quite satisfactory life.

He had friends, a good salary, a three-room apartment, beautiful children, a library, and many musical records.

“But at that time, if you were asked about whether you respect the state, your answer always had to be positive,” recalls Stepan. It was impossible to say: “I think it could be better. We thought one thing, but we had to sound completely different. ”

One of the things that Pachikov could not afford at the time was traveling around the world. “The idea that one day I will be able to travel to the United States, Britain, Italy or Mexico, was an unattainable dream. Just as you now believe that one day you will be able to fly to the moon. ”

Soviet past Pachikova

Pachikov, even though he himself was stuck in the Soviet Union, always allowed his mind to travel. His love of theater and opera gave his imagination wings, and a strong belief in the future of computers helped to understand that everything is possible. It only needs a little ingenuity, writes MC Today.

In the 1986 year, together with their friend, Soviet chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, they founded the first computer club in the country. At that time it was the only place in Moscow where ordinary people could use computers.

However, its members had one prerequisite: they had to teach children how to use computers.

As a result, Pachikov was quickly surrounded, as he put it, by "dozens of magnificent people."

“With such talented and resourceful people, we could start building a company,” recalls Stepan. During the perestroika period, it became possible to open a semi-private business: the Paragraph appeared - a commercial project, the main idea of ​​which was handwriting recognition.

Stepan considered children as a target audience: “Our task was to motivate children not to lose their writing skills, which is very important for developing their mental abilities. Therefore, we wanted to make the children think that they are playing a game. ”

The idea so overtook its time that even the creators themselves did not fully believe in the implementation. But it aroused the interest of Apple, who asked Pachikov to work on creating handwriting recognition for the new Newton notebook.

Moving to California

Apple has offered Stepan $ 6 million for creating the technology, but only if he and the team move to California. Thus, they wanted to ensure the reliability and safety of their investments.

The following year, Pachikov and his family moved to Cupertino. Without intent to stay there. But California discovered the world that was previously closed to him. Theater and Opera in New York. Beaches and Tennis in Mexico. California is the place from which travel and freedom began, and even more - discoveries.

But the Newton project failed. Stepan had to postpone the idea of ​​handwriting recognition by computers. He returned to her a little later.

Instead, Pachikov decided to return to his tireless idea to develop the minds of children. Therefore, his company focused on developing a virtual time machine called Alter Ego. It was conceived as a tool for an interesting study of history.

“We created it ourselves, being pioneers in virtual reality and developing VRML (virtual reality modeling language). This made it possible for children to return to Ancient Rome and Greece with the help of technology, to meet Archimedes, ”recalls Stepan.

With wife Svetlana. Photo Wikipedia

However, the progress of the Silicon Valley of the mid 90-s again stopped Stepan's educational motivation. The company Pachikova ParaScript bought the company Silicon Graphics (SGI).

And although Stepan was against this transaction, he could not object to the board of directors.

Interestingly, the external success of Pachikov was in fact a deep depression. Later, ten years later, in one of his interviews, he said that money does not bring happiness: “I was rich, but unhappy because I did not do anything. Money should not be the goal. ” For Stepan, always the first place was the activity and contribution of man to the development of the world.

Unrealistic dreams Pachikova

Pachikov was simply obsessed with the human brain. But I understood that the idea of ​​making a copy of your brain and the potential possibility of resurrection of people could never be sold.

Therefore, he came up with a realistic alternative: “When you open a new business, you probably have an unrealistic goal, which is worth saving for and finding a more realistic one. I always use this approach - to create unrealistic plans. ”

In addition, Pachikov began to talk about a product that will help you quickly find what you are looking for and remember what you have forgotten about. “Can you imagine a smart young man with a bad memory?” But when you can't just remember someone's name, you look rather silly. ”

He noticed that human memory is quite fragile and not very reliable. “There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of information in our heads. But this is useless if we do not know how to use it and find the right one in time. The worst thing you can do in business is to say, “Sorry, I forgot your name.”

Success evernote

“This is a product that I need myself,” explains Stepan. Evernote Pachikov began working in the 2002 year. The first prototype of the product and the first beta for Windows came out two years later. The original version of EverNote (with the capital letter "N") was far from cloud technology and data synchronization.

But Pachikov managed to translate his idea of ​​recognizing handwritten texts, which was never fully realized in Apple's Newton. In 2007, Pachikov met Phil Libin, an American born in Russia, younger than 20 in years. He was impressed with Phil's business acumen, a feature that Pachikov himself lacked. "I was absolutely sure that Libin would be a better director than me."

As a result, Libin was able to transform Evernote from a nascent company into a product that millions of people know today. Pachikov firmly believes that the company needs one leader, not two. “Phil didn't need my participation. He hired a lot of new people, and developed versions of the product for Apple and the iPhone. ”

Pachikov still joins the company he founded as an active member of the board and shares his vision of the future of the company with the management.

Translate MC Today.

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