I noticed the word "profit" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Will Dropbox ever make money?
How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
21–30 of 133 posts
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#22Have they ever made a profit?
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#23When Google Drive and iCloud and One Drive all cropped up, copying the same service with the addition of deeper integration into different devices and software, I was worried Dropbox would be unable to compete. But they've hung in there, and I remain a happy customer.
Out of curiousity, what does Dropbox do for you that they don't? Have you stayed because of price, service, features, laziness to switch? :) I personally don't have many storage needs so I just email myself important files, back up some things to USB, and sometimes will add things to Google Drive
The Dropbox client still syncs files much faster than the competitors.
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiousity, what does Dropbox do for you that they don't? Have you stayed because of price, service, features, laziness to switch? :) I personally don't have many storage needs so I just email myself important files, back up some things to USB, and sometimes will add things to Google Drive
Google Drive is like "I guess you can use the desktop client instead of the web one". One Drive is like "I guess you can use a Mac". iCloud is like "I guess you can have non-Apple devices". Dropbox just syncs your files from and to anything you have, equally well. I'm pretty sure none of the others even have a Linux client at all, but Dropbox does.
Along with that, there seem to be more useful integrations with dropbox, than with other services.
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've mainly stayed because I don't want to support the mega-corporations when there's a smaller ($12bn counts as "smaller" these days...) company doing a fine job. That aside, I appreciate that they've mostly stayed focused on the core task of syncing files between computers, that there's no bias in terms of devices or OSes, and that their client software tends to work just a little bit better than the competition.
Thank you for your quick and honest reply! I fancy myself as someone who supports "the little guy", and the Dropbox team's story is an example of how "the big guys" totally and completely fell asleep in a pool of their own money while Dropbox built something that people wanted before other bigger players. I therefore find it ironic that I don't support them with even just a little bit of money per month, when a big p…
Why do you like B of A?
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiousity, what does Dropbox do for you that they don't? Have you stayed because of price, service, features, laziness to switch? :) I personally don't have many storage needs so I just email myself important files, back up some things to USB, and sometimes will add things to Google Drive
The Dropbox client still syncs files much faster than the competitors.
Tell me about it. Google Backup and Sync is a horrendous mess, taking several hours just to start syncing every time the sync engine is relaunched.
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#27The fact that they were strangers is super surprising, especially given how YC seems to discourage that kind of "founder dating", suggesting instead you found companies only with people you trust deeply.
Yeah but the thing YC discourages even more than that is solo founders.
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#28I noticed the word "profit" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. Will Dropbox ever make money?
Also, will they ever encrypt files on the client side?
(Hey, it's been only nine or ten years evading that question ...)
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#29I once used a variety of services, but now use Dropbox (free version) exclusively. It does what I need and I prefer their privacy based model (in comparison to other set-it-and-forget-it solutions).
Re: How two strangers set up Dropbox and made billions
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiousity, what does Dropbox do for you that they don't? Have you stayed because of price, service, features, laziness to switch? :) I personally don't have many storage needs so I just email myself important files, back up some things to USB, and sometimes will add things to Google Drive
Google Drive is like "I guess you can use the desktop client instead of the web one". One Drive is like "I guess you can use a Mac". iCloud is like "I guess you can have non-Apple devices". Dropbox just syncs your files from and to anything you have, equally well. I'm pretty sure none of the others even have a Linux client at all, but Dropbox does.
Well said.