Appointment of Barak Berkowitz as CEO, New Features and More Than One Million Installations
Recognizing its single focus on helping people get things done, the company’s name has been changed to the name of its flagship personal assistant app
Barak Berkowitz is a Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur who was most recently Managing Director of Wolfram|Alpha and CEO of Blogging leader Six Apart. Evi Founder William Tunstall-Pedoe, will become Evi’s Chief Product Officer and will continue to concentrate on product leadership, innovation and breakthrough consumer products.
Berkowitz brings a rich pedigree of consumer technology success. He started his career at Macy's, where he built the world's first chain of consumer computer stores. He subsequently went to Apple, where he worked in the Advanced Technology Group and ran multiple consumer marketing programs. In 1997, he became Executive Vice President and General Manager of Disney’s Go Network, which he helped build into one of the Top 5 web portals at that time. In 1999, he co-founded and became president of OmniSky, the wireless Internet innovator, which went public in 2000 and was later acquired by EarthLink.
"Our early success has naturally led us to seek an individual who can take us to the next level. Barak’s 30 years of experience bringing highly-interactive consumer technologies to market and strong network of connections in the U.S. entrepreneurial community makes him an outstanding choice for Evi,” said Tunstall-Pedoe.
As part of its growth Evi will add a new Silicon Valley office in the early summer.
Evi has been enhanced with new phone control features on both the iOS and Android platforms, including:
The ability to ask Evi to initiate a phone call. e.g. “call William”
Sending texts. e.g. you can say to Evi “text William to say I’ll be there in 10 minutes”
One Million Installations
Rounding out its announcements Evi announced that its personal assistant app for iOS and Android platforms has been installed more than one million times since Evi’s January 23rd launch. The million-user milestone – which roughly calculates to a new user installing Evi every ten seconds since her debut-- is a combination of total installations through all services where Evi is available, such as iTunes and Google Play.
The Evi app skyrocketed to popularity the week it launched, winning #1 popularity status in the iTunes App Store in both the U.S. and U.K. It continues to be a leader in the personal assistant space.