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Dropbox S-1

sec.gov

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Re: Dropbox S-1

#281

Post by varenc »

jest3r1 wrote: post #255
bad_user wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Email is moving that direction (Proton Mail, Tutanota) No it doesn't. I've never heard of Tutanota, but Proton Mail is hardly evidence of anything. In fact the attack vector for email is very different when compared with other channels, as for email I'm not afraid of my email provider as I'm afraid of hacking attempts. Yes, I value security over privacy for email. Therefore I would trust Gmail more than I would tru…

> Curious, which competition? I clearly outlined many competitors similar to Dbox that offer end-to-end encryption: (SpiderOak, Tresorit, Sync.com, pCloud). NextCloud (open source self-hosted Dropbox alternative) also just launched end-to-end encryption. >Therefore I would trust Gmail more than I would trust Proton Mail. Google: don't expect privacy when sending to Gmail: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/a…

As I said above, Dropbox's real competitors (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, Box) all follow a similar approach and don't use E2E. The ones you mentioned are very niche.

The technology just doesn't exist to give users an equivalent experience with equivalent features when using E2E. I wish this wasn't so but it is.

HTTPS is transport layer encryption that goes seamlessly over HTTP and doesn't change anything at all about what you can do online. With E2E giving users collaborative folders, shared links, online browsing, password reset, etc while still providing zero knowledge encryption is a huge technical challenge. If you're doing decryption locally in the browser you still have to trust the company not to just add some JS to siphon off you decryption key at any moment.

I really do want to live in a world where E2E is in more places, but with cloud file solutions there's just not a way to do it right now that gives people the features they want and the market share of these companies is showing that.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#282

Post by [deleted] »

stanfordkid wrote: post #256
throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

The guy majored in physics and computer science. There's nothing wrong with compensating people who have proven they can scale things (organizations) commensurate to their record.

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox S-1

#284

Post by murukesh_s »

throwaway93192 wrote: post #271
rdlecler1 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could try to start your own company. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

True, one option for everyone who thinks equity distribution is out of whack, is to start their own company. They can then create an imbalance in their own favor, allocating the lion's share for themselves. Then they can work to convince eager candidates to join their noble mission in exchange for a (razor-thin, shhh) piece of the pie. Another route would be for founders to expand option pools from the typical 8-12%,…

That's not always true. It may look easy to start a company and make it at least a moderate success in Silicon Valley today, perhaps due to the easy availability of money and helping mentality from peer companies who would jump into trying your product and even paying for that because they themselves got easy money from cash rich, aggressive investors.

But it is not the case in traditional markets other countries where you have to put lot of time, effort, our own money and mental stress into creating even a moderately successful business.. On the other hand employees get relatively less strain and a stable income and an option to leave the company anytime and move to better higher paying jobs.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#285

Post by drieddust »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #250
throwaway93192 wrote: post #247

I'll just point out that the SVP of engineering, a former Microsoft exec, received $34 million in compensation, since joining less than 6 months ago. For all employees that are considering joining a startup as rank-and-file engineers and putting in years of effort, remember that your compensation will be paltry compared to founders and top execs. When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Good…

It never was and never will be. We like to pretend that employees are so fairly compensated, and yet I had to fight tooth and nail to get a mere 2% equity. The thought of an equity stake closer to 10% was almost unheard of. But you bet I'd have had an impact large enough to justify those returns, in the sense of http://paulgraham.com/equity.html Except... It's not quite that simple. Most people don't care. The vast m…

Business owners form all sort cahoots and lobby for themselves so it's not a free market. Its just sold to us that ways.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#286

Post by varenc »

jest3r1 wrote: post #238

The risk factors fail to mention their inability to offer any kind of end-to-end encryption. Or that E2E encryption is the differentiator that most of their competitors offer. Dropbox (employees and trusted third parties) will always have access to your files. Before you downvote. This is not necessarily a bad thing. They can deliver more features and better performance as a result. Reliability is key, and it's certa…

Dropbox mentions their real competition in S1 filing: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Box. None of them seem to offer E2E. The competitors you cited aren't worth mentioning due to their small market share relative to the big players.

E2E might be feature customers start demanding in the future, but it sure doesn't seem like that now.

(though I wonder how many folks are using the big players on top of other encryption solutions like truecrypt/veracrypt/safe, etc)

Re: Dropbox S-1

#287

Post by [deleted] »

ironjunkie wrote: post #241
anonytrary wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Predictably irrational people exist! However, how is this different than a $30 donation? I think the real question you want to ask is: Why do people donate money to people who already have lots of money?

As you state, this comment equals to: "I like Drew, so let me make a donation of 30$ to Dropbox" That's why I like economics so much. A lot of irrational behavior come simply from the fact that humans are usually terrible to understand the underlying economic transactions taking place. One of my favorite irrational behaviour is the one in which people value object they got more than the equivalent price in which they…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox S-1

#288

Post by imbur »

throwaway93192 wrote: post #271
rdlecler1 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you could try to start your own company. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

True, one option for everyone who thinks equity distribution is out of whack, is to start their own company. They can then create an imbalance in their own favor, allocating the lion's share for themselves. Then they can work to convince eager candidates to join their noble mission in exchange for a (razor-thin, shhh) piece of the pie. Another route would be for founders to expand option pools from the typical 8-12%,…

If you start your own company you can distribute equity as you see fit

Re: Dropbox S-1

#289

Post by java_script »

beatpanda wrote: post #251
dragonwriter wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When your work finally pays off, it will mostly pay off for them. Well, it'll mostly pay off for major capital holders (which founders are likely but not certain to be, depending on the course of business before then, and top executives at the time may or may not.) Top executives as such (outside of their role, if any, as capital holders) may get more benefit than you, but even if so it will be much less than the c…

The Techies Are Finally Reading Marx

patio11's salary negotiation blog post is our Das Kapital.

Re: Dropbox S-1

#290

Post by gigogkggi »

ovrdrv3 wrote: post #154
mankash666 wrote: post #30

Just curious - how's a raw SEC filing preferable to a reliable article summarizing it in non-legalese, providing context with the competition, etc. Other than lawyers and economists, does anyone ACTUALLY prefer this raw filing? EDIT: Adding my preferred link: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/dropbox-ipo-form-s-1-prospec...

This may not be a very well-received comment due to the securities fraud he has been convicted for, but in Martin Shkreli's YouTube lessons on investing (Really aimed towards future day traders / full time investors, but good points are made) he says the sec.gov site is the best place to take in content and he showed after you get used to the ( ugly ) government site layout, you can actually get to the information yo…

It's weird though that people who actually cause their investors to lose money go Scott free because of connections and to my understanding shkrelis investors all made huge profits, one going so far as to say it was the best investment of his life.law is law but clearly there is something wrong here.
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