DropBox it just works
9-811-065
JANUARY 19, 2011
THOMAS R. EISENMANN
MICHAEL PAO
Dro opbox: "It Jusst Work ks" h a formu ula: Limited life experiencces +
Paaul Buchheit, creator of Gmail and FriendFeed, has overgeeneralization = advice. Let’s say you hire a product manaager as employyee #3, and you u succeed. Doees that mean that the product manager droove your succeess, so every staartup should hire one early?
— Drew
D
Houston n, Dropbox Co-Founder
C
& CEO old co-foundeer and CEO of o Dropbox, a downloadab ble application n that
Drrew Houston,, the 27-year-o allow wed users to ea asily synchronize and sharre files acrosss personal com mputers and smart s phoness, saw the fo og rolling oveer the hills intto San Franciisco during his h drive up US
U 101. It wass June 2010 an nd he had ju ust finished a board meetiing. Things were w going weell: Dropbox had plenty of cash in the bank, activaations continu ued to ramp p, the compan ny’s freemium business model m was working w welll, and
Dropb
box was wideely viewed ass a leader in itts space. How wever, Housto on had plenty y on his mind..
Hee reflected on n the board’s discussion of o Dropbox’s product straategy. The com mpany stored d and trackeed tens of billlions of files for a user baase of severall million userrs, two-thirdss of whom reesided outsid de the US. Drropbox, found ded in April 2007 and lau unched to the public in Sep ptember 20088, had reached this scale without cond ducting much h formal marrket research on users and d their prefereences. port forums su uggested thatt many custom mers relied on n Dropbox fo or specific task ks, for
Exchaanges in supp examp ple, backing up photos, running r a staartup, or collaaborating on Office docum ments. Users were constaantly requestting new feattures, many of which wo ould violate the t company y’s commitmeent to offerin ng a simple, easy-to-use product. p Shou uld Dropbox stay the courrse, or should d it evolve beeyond file sh haring and syncing, for example, e by targeting
t
JANUARY 19, 2011
THOMAS R. EISENMANN
MICHAEL PAO
Dro opbox: "It Jusst Work ks" h a formu ula: Limited life experiencces +
Paaul Buchheit, creator of Gmail and FriendFeed, has overgeeneralization = advice. Let’s say you hire a product manaager as employyee #3, and you u succeed. Doees that mean that the product manager droove your succeess, so every staartup should hire one early?
— Drew
D
Houston n, Dropbox Co-Founder
C
& CEO old co-foundeer and CEO of o Dropbox, a downloadab ble application n that
Drrew Houston,, the 27-year-o allow wed users to ea asily synchronize and sharre files acrosss personal com mputers and smart s phoness, saw the fo og rolling oveer the hills intto San Franciisco during his h drive up US
U 101. It wass June 2010 an nd he had ju ust finished a board meetiing. Things were w going weell: Dropbox had plenty of cash in the bank, activaations continu ued to ramp p, the compan ny’s freemium business model m was working w welll, and
Dropb
box was wideely viewed ass a leader in itts space. How wever, Housto on had plenty y on his mind..
Hee reflected on n the board’s discussion of o Dropbox’s product straategy. The com mpany stored d and trackeed tens of billlions of files for a user baase of severall million userrs, two-thirdss of whom reesided outsid de the US. Drropbox, found ded in April 2007 and lau unched to the public in Sep ptember 20088, had reached this scale without cond ducting much h formal marrket research on users and d their prefereences. port forums su uggested thatt many custom mers relied on n Dropbox fo or specific task ks, for
Exchaanges in supp examp ple, backing up photos, running r a staartup, or collaaborating on Office docum ments. Users were constaantly requestting new feattures, many of which wo ould violate the t company y’s commitmeent to offerin ng a simple, easy-to-use product. p Shou uld Dropbox stay the courrse, or should d it evolve beeyond file sh haring and syncing, for example, e by targeting
t