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Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

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Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#21

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Simucal wrote: post #15
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #9

Hm. I guess it works for Enterprise etc, but not for small groups. I've got a high school club, 12 members. We use(d) Dropbox until we "ran out of space". Its $9.99/mo to "upgrade" and we ALL have to pay it. So the business model (from our point of view) is: pay nothing until you're hooked, then its $1,400/year. Ouch! We have to find a different solution. And what is that money paying for? Of course from Dropbox's po…

It isn't just your disk drive. They keep a copy of all your data on their servers. Not just a copy, but the change history of every file so you can revert to previous revisions of individual files.

Ah. How unfortunate. So because they chose to change Dropbox into some repository/history thing, instead of just file-sharing, now they have to charge everybody.

Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#23

Post by nodata »

soyelmango wrote: post #16
nodata wrote: post #13

The reason I don't recommend dropbox, is that it's not clear from the homepage how someone can send a big file with it. I can watch a video or sign in to an account. Great, but the people I am recommending this to want to share a file: why is there no file upload widget on the homepage?

Perhaps you should be recommending yousendit.com or similar

I do recommend yousendit instead. For me, the "sending big files to someone" is a great hook to get them using the rest of dropbox' features.

Judging by the downvotes, I guess nobody agrees with me :)

Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#24

Post by Simucal »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #21
Simucal wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't just your disk drive. They keep a copy of all your data on their servers. Not just a copy, but the change history of every file so you can revert to previous revisions of individual files.

Ah. How unfortunate. So because they chose to change Dropbox into some repository/history thing, instead of just file-sharing, now they have to charge everybody.

Again, you are mistaken.

Dropbox didn't change their business model to a "repository/history" type thing. It has been this way from the very beginning.

It sounds like you just didn't understand the original intent of Dropbox and were using it for a purpose that it is not entirely designed for.

Dropbox syncs all of your files with their servers. Lets say you have 2 computers with Dropbox installed and under the same account. You can add FileA to one of the Dropbox folders. It will sync that file with the server and then all Dropbox clients sync with the server. This is useful in that you could format both computers and lose all physical copies of FileA. However, as soon as you re-install Dropbox it will sync with the server again and download FileA from Dropbox.

It has always been a lightweight and easy to use cloud-backup solution. The collaboration and shared folders have been just sort of a bonus.

If you want to just keep several machines in sync without the middleman then you are going to need to look into other solutions. Something like rsynch might be a good option.

Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#25

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Simucal wrote: post #24
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah. How unfortunate. So because they chose to change Dropbox into some repository/history thing, instead of just file-sharing, now they have to charge everybody.

Again, you are mistaken. Dropbox didn't change their business model to a "repository/history" type thing. It has been this way from the very beginning. It sounds like you just didn't understand the original intent of Dropbox and were using it for a purpose that it is not entirely designed for. Dropbox syncs all of your files with their servers. Lets say you have 2 computers with Dropbox installed and under the same a…

Dropbox's feature list calls out File Sync and File Sharing as the major features. Forgive me if I took that at face value. "Sync Windows, Mac and Linux computers" sure sounds like what it says.

In fact the word "server" doesn't occur until the 18th bullet point. If this is a the major feature point, they need to talk pointedly with their marketing guy.

Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#26

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Simucal wrote: post #15
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #9

Hm. I guess it works for Enterprise etc, but not for small groups. I've got a high school club, 12 members. We use(d) Dropbox until we "ran out of space". Its $9.99/mo to "upgrade" and we ALL have to pay it. So the business model (from our point of view) is: pay nothing until you're hooked, then its $1,400/year. Ouch! We have to find a different solution. And what is that money paying for? Of course from Dropbox's po…

It isn't just your disk drive. They keep a copy of all your data on their servers. Not just a copy, but the change history of every file so you can revert to previous revisions of individual files.

Again, why do all 12 people pay for 1 copy of this (insignificant amount of) data on their server? The model just isn't working for a small club.

Re: Dropbox Startup Lessons Learned

#27

Post by JoeAltmaier »

unexpected wrote: post #12
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #9

Hm. I guess it works for Enterprise etc, but not for small groups. I've got a high school club, 12 members. We use(d) Dropbox until we "ran out of space". Its $9.99/mo to "upgrade" and we ALL have to pay it. So the business model (from our point of view) is: pay nothing until you're hooked, then its $1,400/year. Ouch! We have to find a different solution. And what is that money paying for? Of course from Dropbox's po…

As for another solution - wouldn't a private github repository work for your needs? You could do this for $25 a month, and would do the same thing you're doing now, wouldn't it?

Sure, we can do any number of things - Dropbox just isn't one of them. That's my point.
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