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Congrats Dropbox

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: Congrats Dropbox

#191

Post by confiscate »

dhouston wrote: post #90

Thank you Paul and Jessica for taking a chance on us — we wouldn’t be here without you and YC :) And thank you HN — I’m pretty sure the upvotes on the original screencast helped us get into YC and on Paul & Jessica’s radar to begin with! Even you BrandonM — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 — my favorite HN comment thread of all time :)

well you can't be too hard on Brandon

if every Brandon out there was able to see the big picture, Dropbox would have had A LOT more competition, when Dropbox was still in the early stages. It would have made it a lot harder for Dropbox to succeed, right?

So in a way, the fact that the millions of Brandon's out there who think curlftpfs is the best, and are not capable of seeing the true value of Dropbox--perhaps that was a positive thing for Dropbox, right? Otherwise they might have tried to make a similar product and competed with you years ago :)

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#192

Post by amelius »

pjc50 wrote: post #75
amelius wrote: post #20

This is nice from a business-perspective. But, stepping back ... I'm sure that a lot of the folks here would agree that something as basic as file-sync should be a standard part of any OS, and follow a non-proprietary protocol. So whereas they have turned something that should have been a commodity into a profitable business, I'm not sure what we have achieved here.

The secret is that it's not basic. If it were basic, then it would be standard as you say. Therefore it must be a lot more complicated.

It's basic in the sense that git and rsync are basic: they are standard tools that everybody expects nowadays. I'm not saying the tech is trivial.

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#193

Post by corobo »

BrandonM wrote: post #156
dhouston wrote: post #90

Thank you Paul and Jessica for taking a chance on us — we wouldn’t be here without you and YC :) And thank you HN — I’m pretty sure the upvotes on the original screencast helped us get into YC and on Paul & Jessica’s radar to begin with! Even you BrandonM — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 — my favorite HN comment thread of all time :)

It's funny how often that comment—which I made as a 22-year-old undergrad—resurfaces. Someone even reached out to me 2 weeks ago because they wanted to use it in an article as an example of "the disconnect between the way users and engineers see software"! I like to think that I've gained a lot of perspective over the last 11 years; it's pretty clear to me that point #1 was short-sighted and exhibited a lot of tunnel…

Your comment was one of a handful that lead to me registering for an account on HN instead of just lurking, I love that this got closure in my mind. Thank you for responding to this

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#194

Post by jychang »

graeme wrote: post #182
BrandonM wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how often that comment—which I made as a 22-year-old undergrad—resurfaces. Someone even reached out to me 2 weeks ago because they wanted to use it in an article as an example of "the disconnect between the way users and engineers see software"! I like to think that I've gained a lot of perspective over the last 11 years; it's pretty clear to me that point #1 was short-sighted and exhibited a lot of tunnel…

Well put. Also, one thing I think people ignore is that BrandonM's comment was notable because it was voted to the top . Which means that the people reading and voting on the thread, at the time, thought it was the best reply. But no one will ever point a finger at them, because they're anonymous. They also have less chance for self-reflection - who remembers an upvote?

I think the biggest issue with people is a lack of introspection, and this example shows the issue here. Most interactions are too meaningless and therefore difficult to self improve on.

I don't know what's the best system to make people reconsider their actions, however. After all, giving a single upvote and walking away is incredibly easy. Coming back to recognize your mistakes is hard.

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#195

Post by xlance »

BrandonM wrote: post #156
dhouston wrote: post #90

Thank you Paul and Jessica for taking a chance on us — we wouldn’t be here without you and YC :) And thank you HN — I’m pretty sure the upvotes on the original screencast helped us get into YC and on Paul & Jessica’s radar to begin with! Even you BrandonM — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 — my favorite HN comment thread of all time :)

It's funny how often that comment—which I made as a 22-year-old undergrad—resurfaces. Someone even reached out to me 2 weeks ago because they wanted to use it in an article as an example of "the disconnect between the way users and engineers see software"! I like to think that I've gained a lot of perspective over the last 11 years; it's pretty clear to me that point #1 was short-sighted and exhibited a lot of tunnel…

I think your initial comment, your reply - and now this all say the same thing.

You seem like a great person & I wish you well with your own projects.

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#196

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

evanb wrote: post #115

dhouston, what ever happened to the option of "an additional passphrase (or private key) when installing in order to encrypt your data before it leaves your computer." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8889

> what ever happened

Rice happens.

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#197

Post by freehunter »

myth_buster wrote: post #164
BrandonM wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how often that comment—which I made as a 22-year-old undergrad—resurfaces. Someone even reached out to me 2 weeks ago because they wanted to use it in an article as an example of "the disconnect between the way users and engineers see software"! I like to think that I've gained a lot of perspective over the last 11 years; it's pretty clear to me that point #1 was short-sighted and exhibited a lot of tunnel…

I see you getting some flak here but for what it's worth, I read it as a very grounded discussion and feedback. I appreciate the fact that you conceded the points that seemed reasonable post Drew's comment.

To be honest I like seeing some posts like that where the entire concept of the idea is being challenged from the ground up, especially if the creator has to step in and defend it. Oftentimes I get more perspective into a product from the defense of its perceived shortcomings than I do from any marketing material.

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#198

Post by peripitea »

boto3 wrote: post #70
defen wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably around 0.06 * 10,000,000,000 Assuming no subsequent investments, dilution, selling of shares, etc.

So 600M is the upper bound. Drew Houston owns roughly 25% of the company now, and he probably owned ~75% at when YC invested, for a dilution rate of 3. I'd say YC investment probably has dilution rate of 10, for the real amount of 60M. Not bad, but not Whatsapp scale either.

Dumb question: Why would YC get diluted so much more than DH? I've started to read up on venture financing and this doesn't match my mental model for any of the mechanisms I've learned about. (Like if anything I'd expect YC to have less dilution due to follow-on/pro rata investments, if they did any.)

Re: Congrats Dropbox

#199

Post by FSharper »

dhouston wrote: post #90

Thank you Paul and Jessica for taking a chance on us — we wouldn’t be here without you and YC :) And thank you HN — I’m pretty sure the upvotes on the original screencast helped us get into YC and on Paul & Jessica’s radar to begin with! Even you BrandonM — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 — my favorite HN comment thread of all time :)

This is a problem with Linux users in general. They dismiss everything as just a simple script in Linux. I get told by Linux people that I'm a fool for using Synologies because I could use Linux and ZFS, or I'm an idiot for having a Drobo because I could use MythTV, etc.

I'm glad I'm not FTP and CURLing files around and that I have a cloud storage solution that someone else worries about.

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