Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#41

Post by tim333 » Sat, Mar 19, 2016, 5:08 AM UTC

msoad wrote: post #19

The bigger story is that Dropbox is trending down in general. Look at Google Trends[1] for Dropbox searches. I used to have files. But now I don't really have any files. I use Spotify for music. A collection of streaming services for movies and shows. Google Photos for my photos. Google Docs for storing my spreadsheets and "word" documents and Google Drive to dump some useful PDF files. I don't pay for any storage se…

On the other hand

"The service hit 100 million users in November 2012, 200 million in November 2013, 300 million in May 2014, and 400 million in June 2015." and 500 million in Mar 16.

So still growing merrily. Also the shared folder connections have gone from 1.3bn end 2014 to 3.3 billion recently.

They are changing focus from personal file storage to enterprise collaboration stuff which may be why there is less on google trends, perhaps.

>That’s one of the big evolutions in terms of what people are doing when they have a platform like ours, going from access into connections and a huge collaboration network.

>The second big evolution has been the evolution from being an end-user tool into an enterprise tool

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/2016/03/11/dropbo...

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#42

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 19, 2016, 8:30 AM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #41

msoad wrote: post #19

The bigger story is that Dropbox is trending down in general. Look at Google Trends[1] for Dropbox searches. I used to have files. But now I don't really have any files. I use Spotify for music. A collection of streaming services for movies and shows. Google Photos for my photos. Google Docs for storing my spreadsheets and "word" documents and Google Drive to dump some useful PDF files. I don't pay for any storage se…

On the other hand "The service hit 100 million users in November 2012, 200 million in November 2013, 300 million in May 2014, and 400 million in June 2015." and 500 million in Mar 16. So still growing merrily. Also the shared folder connections have gone from 1.3bn end 2014 to 3.3 billion recently. They are changing focus from personal file storage to enterprise collaboration stuff which may be why there is less on g…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#43

Post by Silhouette » Sat, Mar 19, 2016, 9:06 AM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #36

bogomipz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? I feel like this is a dirty secret and double standard at high profile tech startups - management and those with preferred stock regularly sell to the secondary market while the common workers are supposed to be wait for some distant pay day that may or may not arrive. Why shouldn't you be able to take money off the table? If the company is really that solid and the IPO is such a "sure" thing as you are lead…

Most people probably agree with you, but it doesn't mean founders or start-up execs will see it that way. And there's no way to know why they might cause a problem over it. It could be that they've seen a lot of people selling and view it as a bad signal and they just take it out on you ... or it could be that they are just psycho and see their company like a cult and suddenly you're "not a team player" if you want t…

If you have management that think like that, you might well be better off taking the money and looking elsewhere anyway.

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#44

Post by themartorana » Sat, Mar 19, 2016, 11:32 AM UTC

jmathai wrote: post #40

msoad wrote: post #19

The bigger story is that Dropbox is trending down in general. Look at Google Trends[1] for Dropbox searches. I used to have files. But now I don't really have any files. I use Spotify for music. A collection of streaming services for movies and shows. Google Photos for my photos. Google Docs for storing my spreadsheets and "word" documents and Google Drive to dump some useful PDF files. I don't pay for any storage se…

Dropbox's recent gamble and failure with Carousel has to be a big blow. Especially considering how successful Google Photos has been so far. When they launched Carousel I had hopes that they'd really capture the market [1]. But nearly 2 years later I think Google ended up out Carouseling Dropbox [2]. [1] https://medium.com/@jmathai/thoughts-on-dropbox-carousel-e5a... [2] https://medium.com/@jmathai/my-automated-photo…

Google Photos is so far and away technically superior that Carousel just got out-competed. I was a Carousel user (after Adobe Revel and a bunch of other "store them all here for one price" services) and none had caused the fundamental shift in photo storage thinking (for me) that Google Photos does.

I just wish they'd charge me something. Free services scare me (yes I know they're data mining my photos).

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#45

Post by scurvy » Sat, Mar 19, 2016, 4:43 PM UTC

p4wnc6 wrote: post #30

maaku wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't the right of first refusal mean that company has the right to buy the shares (at the same price)? Still not a wise thing to do if you're employed there.

Yes, that's correct. The point is that your employer gets to be alerted to this -- not that they could block you or something. If you're happy to sell the shares and work somewhere else, then there's no real problem either way. But if you actually like your job and you just simply prefer to realize a cash distribution from the compensation you earned in the form of equity, and your employer would disapprove of you ha…

They can definitely block you. Right of first refusal clauses make no mention of timeliness. You notify your company that you found a buyer and they just ignore it. Supposedly this is very common with Uber. Only the selected cool kids and favorites get to sell.

I work for a YC company and wanted to sell some shares. EquityZen said it would be easier to sell if I didn't work there any longer, because suing your employer isn't fun. A lawsuit was going to be the easiest way forward.

Also take into account that investors only buy the big name hype companies right now. They're not buying anything small but with good fundamentals. Why? Because they don't get to see the books and why should they trust anyone at their word? But hype? Hype sells. This is the last time I work at a small, but slightly profitable startup that just drifts along. It can't go public and we can't sell. Except the founders who sold at series A.

Re: Dropbox Shares Offered at 34% Discount in Secondary Market

#46

Post by jmathai » Fri, Mar 25, 2016, 3:05 PM UTC

themartorana wrote: post #44

jmathai wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dropbox's recent gamble and failure with Carousel has to be a big blow. Especially considering how successful Google Photos has been so far. When they launched Carousel I had hopes that they'd really capture the market [1]. But nearly 2 years later I think Google ended up out Carouseling Dropbox [2]. [1] https://medium.com/@jmathai/thoughts-on-dropbox-carousel-e5a... [2] https://medium.com/@jmathai/my-automated-photo…

Google Photos is so far and away technically superior that Carousel just got out-competed. I was a Carousel user (after Adobe Revel and a bunch of other "store them all here for one price" services) and none had caused the fundamental shift in photo storage thinking (for me) that Google Photos does. I just wish they'd charge me something. Free services scare me (yes I know they're data mining my photos).

I pay for Google Drive where my Google Photos are stored. They probably still mine my data, I'm sure.