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Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

blog.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#361

Post by burglins »

rco8786 wrote: post #54
soared wrote: post #18

> In an ideal world, we’d simply shift people from one team to another. And we’ve done that wherever possible. However, our next stage of growth requires a different mix of skill sets, particularly in AI and early-stage product development. We’ve been bringing in great talent in these areas over the last couple years and we'll need even more. Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatg…

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

They're a *backup* service.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#362

Post by culopatin »

kerkeslager wrote: post #321
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

> Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working there or having any sort of insider knowledge. Imagine I'm a shareholder and the product strategy is either bad or being communicated to me unclearly. > It's also not much of a reach to imagine use cases here. It's also not much of a reach to imagine the same breathless magical…

Wouldn’t you be in a shareholder meeting instead of a HN post? I mean, if you are a substantial shareholder, or this are only for private equity? Honest question.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#364

Post by ergocoder »

spamizbad wrote: post #141
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

Having worked in this industry for two decades (and a Dropbox user since its public launch) the "product strategy" of most of these companies is close to just spitballing. If you want a recent example you can look at Facebook lighting almost $40 billion with their Metaverse product. To add to that, Product leadership at technology companies has evolved to be much less technical, so they aren't going to have any deep…

> But hey, if in a few years Dropbox launches a popular AI-based feature

Ooh betting on a failure? That is the easiest bet ever. If I bet on everything failing, I would win 99% of the time.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#365

Post by ramraj07 »

roncesvalles wrote: post #227
ramraj07 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love to be able to just ask dropbox what my passport number is, or to find the file my auditor gave me last year with recommendations.

I can get my passport number by pressing the Windows key, typing "passport" and pressing Enter. I don't know if I'd want AI to come into the mix, or even Dropbox for that matter. There is no substitute for being organized.

There is absolutely a substitute for being organized :) ask me how! Dropbox plays a big role in it ever since it started indexing pdf contents.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#366

Post by ramraj07 »

yadascript wrote: post #208
ramraj07 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love to be able to just ask dropbox what my passport number is, or to find the file my auditor gave me last year with recommendations.

Would you use the passport number without double checking it ?

If it looks mostly correct, yes.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#367

Post by coldtea »

okdood64 wrote: post #192
coldtea wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working there or having any sort of insider knowledge. Snark incoming. Imaging a society so shitty that you have to try to "understand the product strategy for a 14 year old publicly traded company" That is, one society in which companies dont go about their business,…

> in which companies dont go about their business, aiming for sustainable growth and a healthy profit, but pivot to whatever unrelated technology (or, more often, bullshit fad) comes next, to prop their stock or to increase their valuation when they're sold. Meh. You could've said the same thing about companies leveraging dot-com, or going mobile first. All these were a net gain for investors and society. "The future…

>Meh. You could've said the same thing about companies leveraging dot-com, or going mobile first. All these were a net gain for investors and society.

You'd be surprised.

>"The future is now old man."

Well, September 4, 476 AD was also "the future" of much better pasts for Romans.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#368

Post by rco8786 »

spamizbad wrote: post #141
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

Having worked in this industry for two decades (and a Dropbox user since its public launch) the "product strategy" of most of these companies is close to just spitballing. If you want a recent example you can look at Facebook lighting almost $40 billion with their Metaverse product. To add to that, Product leadership at technology companies has evolved to be much less technical, so they aren't going to have any deep…

> the "product strategy" of most of these companies is close to just spitballing

Literally every company. That doesn't mean that a strategy doesn't exist and is actively curated and maintained by people whose full-time job it is to do so. It's always an educated guess at best. But it's pretty silly to come into a thread like this and be like "psh they store files what could they possibly do with AI".

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#369

Post by rco8786 »

johnfn wrote: post #248
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

> Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working there or having any sort of insider knowledge. I worked at a similarly sized company to Dropbox, and when I questioned product decisions I would often receive similarly smug put downs. How could you possibly think you know more than the CEO? And then I watched over the next few…

The difference is that you worked there. You knew the company. You knew the industry. You knew what the actual current strategy was!

This is just some rando internet person making reductive statements about a company whose current offerings they are unaware of and future product roadmap they have never seen.

Re: Dropbox to reduce global workforce by about 16%, or 500 staff

#370

Post by rco8786 »

coldtea wrote: post #180
rco8786 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine building a company that lets users store files online, seeing chatgpt released, and then laying off 16% of your company to.. use ai to store files better? I really don’t see how new ai capabilities lead to big layoffs and new opportunities for Dropbox snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working t…

> snark incoming - Imagine thinking you understand the product strategy for a 14 year old, publicly traded company with thousands of employees without working there or having any sort of insider knowledge. Snark incoming. Imaging a society so shitty that you have to try to "understand the product strategy for a 14 year old publicly traded company" That is, one society in which companies dont go about their business,…

I don't really understand what you are saying. That companies shouldn't have product roadmaps? That product roadmaps are mutually exclusive to sustainable growth or healthy profit? That companies using new tech are only doing so to prop up stock prices?

Something else?

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