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Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

cnbc.com

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Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#261

Post by whiplash451 »

mplewis wrote: post #258
jagraff wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at some point in the human civilization journey we'll have to be content with something instead of chasing clouds all the time. Surely we're not even close to this point though? I can think of a lot of things that would be incredibly good for humanity to have, and which are achievable with enough economic growth, but which we are currently very far from because our economy does not have the necessary productive cap…

What does any of that have to do with Dropbox?

The point is that we should be directing our energy in a direction that’s net useful for human kind which should translate into growth. Dropbox is not one of those because there are many viable alternatives.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#262

Post by Bootvis »

xyst wrote: post #229
s_dev wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I went to prison for 18 months, my digital and physical life was stolen from me This is wild phrasing.

[flagged]

He went to prison, served his time, paid his debt to society. There is no need for further punishment.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#264

Post by dtbnernertn »

layer8 wrote: post #175
ajkjk wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an individual sure, but the vast majority of their business is corporate contracts which don't think that way. Generally it is impossible to understand Dropbox's strategy if you think about individual purchasers as significant. Iirc they mostly serve as a marketing funnel for team- and business-sized contracts. (although this varies from year to year, sometimes they do focus on e.g. family plans for revenue)

Yeah, I understand that Dropbox isn’t thinking how I think. My argument is that even if they lose these corporate contracts, it should still be a viable (if much smaller) business to serve those users that do care. In other words, it wouldn’t force Dropbox to entirely stop existing.

[flagged]

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#265

Post by joshmn »

s_dev wrote: post #253
joshmn wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844197

Appreciate the context, however if I was to follow up on my own comment. You were sentenced to prison, I went to the grocery store yesterday. It's the casualness of the phrasing that is jarring.

The shame has passed and I served my time. What I owe now is not doing it again—which I'm not.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#266

Post by cindyllm »

dtbnernertn wrote: post #264
layer8 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I understand that Dropbox isn’t thinking how I think. My argument is that even if they lose these corporate contracts, it should still be a viable (if much smaller) business to serve those users that do care. In other words, it wouldn’t force Dropbox to entirely stop existing.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#267

Post by urams »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #151
urams wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point 3 was not "'viral' or income generating" and DBX pioneered one of the most viral campaigns (give-get) and generates almost $1B a year in free cash flows? How is that vindication?

Their roadmap doesn't exist beyond their one-hit-wonder. CEOs are stepping down because there is no future for the company unless you count acquisition by Amazon or Google or Apple, which will result in the entire company being walked to the grave.

This is really a non-answer. If your point is "Dropbox is a struggling company and therefore all criticism of it ever is fully validated no matter the timeline" then any criticism of any company ever will be validated eventually which is absurd.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#268

Post by philipallstar »

giwook wrote: post #231
Ekaros wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a strange outdated idea. Stay where you are and start paying dividends? Well, somehow that is now unacceptable idea.

Unfortunately this is the case when a company is beholden to investors. Investors aren't getting into the business of "making a steady stream of money without outsized growth" unless you are Warren Buffett. Most investors are focused on multiplying their investment many times over, and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in net income a year is not big enough. And this is one reason why the world is burning (l…

None of this seems to be the case.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#269

Post by throwaway894345 »

asdff wrote: post #254
throwaway894345 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exponential growth can’t last forever, and I do worry about what will happen when the gravy train stops. Maybe we can figure out interstellar travel before it does so the limiting factor becomes “the galaxy” rather than “our planet”.

Not everything is in the exponential growth model. Most small businesses in your town for example. Margins might afford an upper middle class lifestyle for the owner and that is a good enough business model for this company to last decades, even pass down through the family.

On the micro level, I agree. On the macro level, I don't know how viable those businesses will be when the wider economy is no longer growing exponentially (and frankly that may well be the least of all concerns).

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#270

Post by philipallstar »

Barbing wrote: post #252
bachmeier wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a tough market that has cut off the consumer end because all the big players have their own deeply integrated solutions: Apple (iCloud), Google (Drive), Microsoft (OneDrive). A huge unforced error though is that the starting price for individual plans is $20/year versus $10/month for Dropbox and Box. At a certain point you have to recognize that the rules of the game have changed. Once a customer has their fo…

They probably have to prove to me nobody can read my files besides me & the NSA (no “our 134 advertising partners …”) unless they really want to wait for iOneGDrive to enshittify Edit: as it stands, sounds like uploading already encrypted files to AWS is the option for privacy hawks who still want cloud - such a small market but think it should grow

I think it makes loads of sense to be able to bring your own S3.
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