During the 7th edition of The Next Web Conference where the future of the web is discussed one theme bubbled up repeatedly: the geek meritocracy. In a true meritocracy problems aren’t solved by those who happen to be in charge but by those with the best skills and ideas to tackle them.

 

Phil Libin, co-founder and CEO of Evernote, spoke about the favorable environment for entrepreneurs today. Only five years ago startups were greatly disadvantaged when competing with big corporations. It wasn’t enough to make the best product because established companies could kill the competition with marketing budgets, distribution channels and infrastructure. Today, according to Libin, that isn’t true anymore. Making the best product is enough because some things have fundamentally changed.

 

Getting a product to the customer used to be difficult and time consuming because it required making deals with retailers to establish distribution channels. Today with app- and web stores anyone can get a product out to a customer anywhere in the world. Social media is a game changer too. Everybody has the tools to make their product known to the world.


 

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