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Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

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Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#121

Post by anovikov »

prklmn wrote: post #21

A major difference between between this tech boom and the dot com boom of the 90s is the general public had a real shot at investing in serious growth potential during the dot com boom. Now most of the growth is experienced under private ownership, then the grossly overvalued company is pawned off for the public to invest in. VCs have figured out how to extract most of the exciting gains.

If you want to replicate 90s experience of the dot-com boom, buy into ICOs now. And the end result will most probably be... well also same to 90s.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#122

Post by [deleted] »

imron wrote: post #93
puranjay wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see similar comments on virtually every ShowHN thread. "You can just take these 5 extra steps and do it yourself! This product will fail" Somehow, HN seldom seems to grasp that people are inherently lazy and any solution that cuts work for them will find at least a few takers.

They also fail to grasp that the know-how and ability of a technically minded person is different from most people who use computers. My mum can use Dropbox. She could not set up an ftp account, mount it locally with curlftpfs, and then use SVN or CVS with it.

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#123

Post by sah2ed »

sgustard wrote: post #30
prklmn wrote: post #21

A major difference between between this tech boom and the dot com boom of the 90s is the general public had a real shot at investing in serious growth potential during the dot com boom. Now most of the growth is experienced under private ownership, then the grossly overvalued company is pawned off for the public to invest in. VCs have figured out how to extract most of the exciting gains.

"Investing" in those days was "speculating." Hundreds of dubious companies made it to IPO that would never make it that far today, and most of those lost all their public investors' money. https://mattermark.com/technology-company-ipos-then-now/

John Bogle's investment philosophy [0], which I agree with, boils down the difference between investing and speculating to the time horizon: "The main difference between investment and speculation lies in the time horizon."

So in a way, I think you and the parent are both right -- you are talking about different sides of the same thing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Bogle#Investment_philo...

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#124

Post by IshKebab »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #40

I used Dropbox for a few years, but ultimately switched to another big-name company service. Consumers now have great options available from all the big-name companies: Amazon Drive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. Meanwhile, in the enterprise world it looks like Box is dominating. Given this, I think it's reasonable to ask: what's their value proposition in 2017? I hadn't been following them for…

I've only used Dropbox and Google Drive, but Dropbox is much less buggy and also supports Linux. Shame it is so much more expensive.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#125

Post by lmm »

jakubp wrote: post #83
vecter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? People use it as a form of communication. It makes people feel closer to their friends. That has enormous value.

So this is interesting. You may feel closer to people you haven't seen for a while when they are always "with" you on Snapchat -- I have certainly experienced that with people I don't talk to often or people who live on another continent. But then again, I can't shake the feeling that this is more about fun than really being close. I remember having close friends in high school and at the university. We spent many ho…

If you define "real" friendship as spending hours in each other's physical presence then of course you're going to say snapchat isn't "real" - that's just circular reasoning though.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#126

Post by Scea91 »

flunhat wrote: post #9

They've come a long way from their Show HN 10 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863 From a demo hacked together over a few months (written in Python, IIRC) and posted on HN to an IPO. Pretty cool, honestly.

Thanks for the link, it was really enlightening read. It is interesting to read the elaborated comments of some naysayers there who are stuck in their old ways and can't see the value of it yet.

One of them describes his solution with FUSE and FTP that 'basically achieves the same' and has doubts that anyone would want to use Dropbox if they can use FTP.

Same stuff surely happens here today.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#127

Post by pjc50 »

ksec wrote: post #80
synaesthesisx wrote: post #49

If I had anything to do with Dropbox I'd be scrambling to cash out ASAP. It’s a matter of time before Apple rolls out iCloud file/folder sharing (which currently exists in some form already). In addition, they recently announced iMessage "Business Chat" which will likely later include other enterprise functionality.

But in the real world, no one has done it better then Dropbox for simple store and sync. Which is sad but true. iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, GDrive, Box aren't any good at all. Dropbox is only better because all of their competition aren't great. I have six 2.5" HDD sitting here, along with two 3.5" HDD, all with photos, video, files etc, many are duplicated. There are currently no easy way to sort through this mess.…

I've been contemplating building such a thing, but without (or making very optional) the Cloud aspect. Not sure whether or how it could be monetised, especially if I also wanted it to be open source.

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#128

Post by zimpenfish »

puranjay wrote: post #85
speedplane wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember that comment vividly, and love it. What better example of tech not understanding design and product-market fit?

I see similar comments on virtually every ShowHN thread. "You can just take these 5 extra steps and do it yourself! This product will fail" Somehow, HN seldom seems to grasp that people are inherently lazy and any solution that cuts work for them will find at least a few takers.

> HN seldom seems to grasp that people are inherently lazy

I would dispute "inherently lazy" in favour of "have better things to spend their time on than crafting a personal solution to an already solved problem".

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#129

Post by TeMPOraL »

PKop wrote: post #24
justboxing wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about the code, but here's the original Demo Video Drew had on their getdropbox.com landing page. It presents the features in a very entertaining way :) [ Sep 15th 2008 ] DropBox Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE

This is one of the best product demo's I've seen. The product is just so fully formed, even back in 2008. Really is presented as "it just works". "Why do you keep sending me this crap" without comment, made me lol.

This video is really great. Lots of easter eggs - including the contents of the pictures and the Dropbox Trade Secrets folder (I laughed hard at "Pets.com Executive Summary.pdf").

Re: Dropbox Is Getting Ready for IPO

#130

Post by mothers »

vecter wrote: post #71
j7ake wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the public benefit of snapchat ?

Seriously? People use it as a form of communication. It makes people feel closer to their friends. That has enormous value.

It does have enormous value, but it was going to happen regardless. Snapchat does not provide much additional utility beyond the alternatives in which people would already be using (phones, computers). You should also disclose that you work for a company that does equally useless things, sharing screenshots with friends.
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