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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

#401

Post by p2detar »

thewebguyd wrote: post #294
stringfood wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is most consumers and businesses would rather pay for 1 product that does 7 things ok than 7 products that do 1 thing great each. The former is cheaper and often is easier to cross-integrate - I'd rather just use AWS or GCP storage options than ever touch drop box

> would rather pay for 1 product that does 7 things ok than 7 products that do 1 thing great each See Microsoft/Office 365. Aggressive bundling means one license gets you literally everything. Sure, it's all mediocre but it checks boxes and is largely "good enough." No reason to go out and buy slack, zoom, box.com/dropbox, 3rd party email gateways, 3rd party EDR, DLP, an MDM, etc. Microsoft will sell you whatever "ch…

And what do we do when Microsoft kills the competition and hikes up the prices? They already did some time ago by the way. [0]

0 - https://www.reddit.com/r/Office365/comments/1iwfgzn/with_the...

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#402

Post by sbarre »

pishpash wrote: post #347
dexwiz wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Files became an implementation detail.

It's mobile devices not having user-facing files as first-class citizens. The mobile era started just as Dropbox started to solve a computer era problem. Bad timing.

Is this still the case? I have a "Files" app on my iPhone that shows me files and folders stored on my device, I can save/load files from most apps (that have a concept of files) and it's even integrated with iCloud so when I save a file to my phone's Downloads, I can access it from my Mac (and vice-versa).

I don't know about Android but on iOS I feel like we've had a simple and ubiquitous user-facing file system for a while. I use it all the time.

I suppose it might not be top of mind for most users because it wasn't there for so long.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#403

Post by seanhunter »

watermelon0 wrote: post #55
sssilver wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the issue with iCloud?

It doesn't have a great cross platform support (no Linux client, and there are many complaints for the Windows client). Personally, I dislike that you cannot restore an older version of a file on laptop/phone, and must instead use their web app, for which you need to disable ADP, which defeats its purpose.

While there isn't a proper Linux client, if you find yourself on a Linux box and need to sync to or from iCloud, rclone[1] works great. Just putting this out there in the hope that it might help someone.

It's also (ironically given TFA) what I used to sync all my files off dropbox when I cancelled my subscription because of their misuse of root to re-add their thing to special permissions on macOs after I had removed it.[2]

[1] https://rclone.org/

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12463338 not trying to reopen a flame war, but for me personally, that was one of those things a company doesn't get to do to me twice. As soon as it happened, I copied my files off and cancelled. In fact I'm there somewhere in the comments on that article saying I was going to be cancelling and I immediately did.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#404

Post by willsmith72 »

Sammi wrote: post #387
4er_transform wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm surprised they've been able to keep the stock price and the revenue flat given they competitive environment they've been in for many years. They've been going head to head with the cloud infrastructure hyperscalers and mobile platform owners despite just being a file storage SaaS. It's weird to me that people ever expected more of Dropbox given who they were up against.

the knock on them is exactly that, 20 years later they're just a file storage saas. the idea was they must be able to expand the surface area over time

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#405

Post by goolz »

4er_transform wrote: post #379
jlarks32 wrote: post #279

I was lucky enough to work at Dropbox for a bit. Awesome engineering culture and such good people. Got to even grab a beer and rip karaoke with Drew. Thanks for creating such an awesome working environment Drew. I cannot say thank you enough for those memories or that experience. By far the best CEO and leader I've seen.

[flagged]

What a bleak worldview. You are right from the perspective of an avaricious dragon.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#406

Post by iamcalledrob »

price wrote: post #257
light_triad wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great product. They had the brand, the capital, and the user base to become what Slack, Zoom, or Notion became. Instead, they spent a decade fighting a losing battle over storage pricing with Google and Microsoft. Their lack of a second act is due to a failure of product vision and enterprise execution.

And they had Paper, which was an excellent product (I was at Dropbox a decade ago; we all used Paper constantly and it was great) very close to what Notion later became. They never got it over the hump to wider PMF — like you say, a failure of product and of enterprise execution. (Given that it was so close to Notion, I think Paper is one area where the product vision was on to something good; but they didn't succeed…

Another issue: Paper was tied to your Dropbox account.

From Dropbox's perspective, this sounds great. Accounts become more useful and valuable. The addressable market of a Dropbox account grows! Plus, everyone has a Dropbox account already, right?

Unfortunately, it turns out that business customers generally don't deploy Dropbox wall-to-wall. It's expensive. Not all employees need file sync.

A Dropbox account ends up being an obstacle to adoption.

And a distraction: a common account creates an irresistible urge to spend a lot of time finding ways to tie this new product into the old one.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#407

Post by carlmr »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #390
carlmr wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The mobile era started just as Dropbox started to solve a computer era problem. I still can't wrap my head around how people find their files in the non-filesystem world. Whenever I need to work with files I take out my laptop.

Even before mo lies people would say “I saved it in word”. Even if it was written to a floppy or usb drive. They didn’t have the concept of files The average computer user in 2000 was far more computer literate than the average one in 2010, and things have gone downhill ever since.

So it's not just me. I'm glad, I feel weird that I have to save links to every Google doc and every internal confluence page because there's no proper search across these.

Especially in a filesystem I know where I placed something, but not always the title, so even if the search function was ok, which it mostly isn't, having to know the wording used for the title is really inconvenient.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#408

Post by panta »

willsmith72 wrote: post #404
Sammi wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised they've been able to keep the stock price and the revenue flat given they competitive environment they've been in for many years. They've been going head to head with the cloud infrastructure hyperscalers and mobile platform owners despite just being a file storage SaaS. It's weird to me that people ever expected more of Dropbox given who they were up against.

the knock on them is exactly that, 20 years later they're just a file storage saas. the idea was they must be able to expand the surface area over time

I've been a paying customer since their early days. Their value, at least in my view, lies precisely in that they are just a file storage SaaS. They are focused on doing one thing and doing it well. The day this will change they'll lose me as a customer.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#409

Post by pbiggar »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #385
DuzAwe wrote: post #381

I turned my back on Dropbox when they add a war criminal on the board. Dove headfirst into open source alts. Never really looked back.

Are you talking about Condoleezza Rice ?

Definitely. Not to mention that their major investor, Sequoia, has been war profiteering and Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire has been publicly islamophobic and a huge supporter of the genocide and occupation in Palestine.

Re: Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down

#410

Post by biinjo »

4er_transform wrote: post #379
jlarks32 wrote: post #279

I was lucky enough to work at Dropbox for a bit. Awesome engineering culture and such good people. Got to even grab a beer and rip karaoke with Drew. Thanks for creating such an awesome working environment Drew. I cannot say thank you enough for those memories or that experience. By far the best CEO and leader I've seen.

[flagged]

A happy company culture sounds like an excellent result from a great leader.

If stock owners want more ROI come do the work instead of setting demands. (i know that’s unfortunately not how the world works).

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