How Obsidian took on VC-backed note apps by choosing trust over growth
By 2020 the note-taking market was already dominated by well-funded players like Evernote, Notion, OneNote, and Roam . Instead of trying to build a better notes feature set, Obsidian's founder framed the strategy around a different question: how do you build people can trust for decades?
On the surface the market looked healthy — users could write notes, organize documents, and collaborate — but underneath, many competing companies had started for investors rather than users. Taking venture funding came with expectations of faster growth, bigger visions, larger teams, more users, and eventually bigger exits, and those expectations reshaped how those products evolved.
Key points
- By 2020, Evernote, Notion, OneNote, and Roam already dominated the note-taking market
- Obsidian's founder set the goal as people can trust for decades, not just better notes
- argue VC-backed ' products evolved to match investor expectations for growth rather than user needs