Dropbox rejected more than $ 100 million from Steve Jobs two years ago
Forbes magazine has published a wonderful article about the history of Dropbox - one of the most successful startups in the global IT industry in recent years.
The idea of a startup was born to Drew Houston in a bus from Boston to New York. The road took four hours, the guy took a laptop with him, but forgot the flash drive, so he had nothing to do with an empty laptop. Irritated, Drew started writing code to synchronize files over the Internet right on the bus. Four months later, he flew to San Francisco to present technology in the incubator of startups Paul Graham (Y Combinator), but he refused to accept the project until Houston found a co-founder. Only after that allocated $ 15 thousand for development. Enough money to rent an apartment and buy a "poppy".
One of the highlights in Dropbox history is a meeting with Steve Jobs in December 2009, when the head of Apple tried to convince the young founders of a startup to sell the project. Like, Apple will soon enter this market, and Dropbox, according to Jobs, "is a feature, not a product."
The dream of many startups is to sell a large company for millions of dollars. It is very difficult for founders of any business to resist such a proposal. And certainly 99 out of 100 businessmen would agree to a deal that will enrich them and become the final chord in the success story.
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However, Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston found the strength to refuse. This is how the meeting took place in Jobs’s office.
"When Houston pulled out his laptop for the presentation, Jobs, in his crown jeans and black turtleneck, calmly stopped him with a palm movement:" I know what you are doing guys. "
At that time, Jobs prophetically predicted that the young startup Dropbox could be a key asset for Apple. However, Houston categorically rejected such an opportunity: he said that he was determined to build a large company and was not going to sell it, despite the status of the buyer (Houston considered Steve Jobs his hero) or a nine-digit amount. Jobs smiled warmly and said that he would come to their market with his own product. ”
On the one hand, having refused then, the founders of Dropbox did not lose. Now their business is estimated to be much more expensive than $ 100 million. Just yesterday, the company announced the closure of the next tranche of investments in the amount of $ 250 million. The company's overall estimate is likely to be about $ 4 billion (at least, this figure is shown on the cover of the fresh Forbes number next to with a photo of Drew Howton).
On the other hand, Dropbox prospects look hazy. Apple has just launched free cloud hosting with iCloud synchronization, Google Drive and similar services from other large companies (maybe Microsoft) are just around the corner. Moreover, these giants have virtually unlimited resources, and Dropbox will be hard to compete with them.
The idea of a startup was born to Drew Houston in a bus from Boston to New York. The road took four hours, the guy took a laptop with him, but forgot the flash drive, so he had nothing to do with an empty laptop. Irritated, Drew started writing code to synchronize files over the Internet right on the bus. Four months later, he flew to San Francisco to present technology in the incubator of startups Paul Graham (Y Combinator), but he refused to accept the project until Houston found a co-founder. Only after that allocated $ 15 thousand for development. Enough money to rent an apartment and buy a "poppy".
One of the highlights in Dropbox history is a meeting with Steve Jobs in December 2009, when the head of Apple tried to convince the young founders of a startup to sell the project. Like, Apple will soon enter this market, and Dropbox, according to Jobs, "is a feature, not a product."
The dream of many startups is to sell a large company for millions of dollars. It is very difficult for founders of any business to resist such a proposal. And certainly 99 out of 100 businessmen would agree to a deal that will enrich them and become the final chord in the success story.
')
However, Arash Ferdowsi and Drew Houston found the strength to refuse. This is how the meeting took place in Jobs’s office.
"When Houston pulled out his laptop for the presentation, Jobs, in his crown jeans and black turtleneck, calmly stopped him with a palm movement:" I know what you are doing guys. "
At that time, Jobs prophetically predicted that the young startup Dropbox could be a key asset for Apple. However, Houston categorically rejected such an opportunity: he said that he was determined to build a large company and was not going to sell it, despite the status of the buyer (Houston considered Steve Jobs his hero) or a nine-digit amount. Jobs smiled warmly and said that he would come to their market with his own product. ”
On the one hand, having refused then, the founders of Dropbox did not lose. Now their business is estimated to be much more expensive than $ 100 million. Just yesterday, the company announced the closure of the next tranche of investments in the amount of $ 250 million. The company's overall estimate is likely to be about $ 4 billion (at least, this figure is shown on the cover of the fresh Forbes number next to with a photo of Drew Howton).
On the other hand, Dropbox prospects look hazy. Apple has just launched free cloud hosting with iCloud synchronization, Google Drive and similar services from other large companies (maybe Microsoft) are just around the corner. Moreover, these giants have virtually unlimited resources, and Dropbox will be hard to compete with them.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/130747/
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