542: In Retrospect - How I Built Dropbox Into a $12B Unicorn | Drew Houston

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 662 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

By now, the story is legend. When Drew Houston boarded a bus from Boston to New York and discovered that he had—yet again—forgotten to bring his thumb drive, he was frustrated. So frustrated that he sat down and began writing the first lines of code of what would eventually become Dropbox. After over a decade of changing the way files are stored, synced, and shared, Houston is changing the way people work, once again. This time, to solve a problem that likely plagues every single knowledge worker today: our fragmented, overcomplicated workspaces. In this episode, you’ll learn more about Houston’s journey—from ideation to launch—with Dropbox Spaces, as well as the most important lessons he’s collected while building a multibillion-dollar company. Listen to Nathan and Drew discuss: The relatable experience that inspired Houston to come up with the idea for Dropbox Why Houston doesn’t believe there’s any “magic” involved in building a multibillion-dollar company The importance of decision making and learning continuously on the job How a conversation with a SpaceX engineer sparked the vision behind Dropbox Spaces Houston’s advice on “harvesting” versus “planting” when it comes to your business Why Houston is such a huge believer in intentionally designing your environment—at work and with your personal relationships Click here to start your business for $1. You’ll get all-access foundr+, where you’ll find more in-depth, proven strategies from founders like our guest today and support and advice from our global community of 30,000 founders. If you loved this conversation and learned something new, rate and review this episode. Stay in touch with us, follow foundr on your favorite platform: Foundr.com Instagram YouTube Facebook X LinkedIn Magazine

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey founder fam, today we're jumping back into the archive to revisit our interview with Drew Houston,
0:07.4	the co-founder of Dropbox. From starting Dropbox on a bus ride after forgetting his thumb drive to
0:13.5	building a multi, multi, multi-billion dollar company with hundreds of millions of users, Drew's story
0:19.7	is packed with learnings.
0:21.6	Drew shares how he turned frustration into innovation, his approach to decision-making as a leader,
0:27.4	and the powerful lessons he's learned about focus, strategy and scaling a business.
0:32.5	Drew's perspective on navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and managing growth
0:37.3	is something every founder
0:38.8	can learn from. All right, let's jump in.
0:41.3	Hear the stories. Learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through
0:46.9	entrepreneurship. Welcome to the founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
0:54.7	So the first question I ask everyone that comes on is, how did you get your job?
0:59.6	How did I get my job?
1:01.8	On a bus ride.
1:04.3	So I kept forgetting my thumb drive and the whole Dropbox founding story is I got really sick of having to carry my thumb drive everywhere and
1:12.0	and if it wasn't a bus ride i was i was putting in the about to put in the washing machine or
1:16.5	it was always one step away from disaster and then uh i was on a ride from boston and new york
1:23.2	forgot my thumb drive couldn't get any work, and started writing the first lines of code
1:27.7	for what became Dropbox, even though I had no idea where that was going to go at the time.
1:33.6	Billions of dollars in annual revenue, hundreds of millions of users, you've had incredible success.
1:40.3	And, you know, some people would say that you're, you know, the success that you've had,
1:43.5	you're an anomaly.
	...

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