Drew Houston reflects on the difficult decision to shut down Dropbox apps Mailbox and Carousel to refocus the core company.
Insight
Founders need thick skin for critics but thin skin for users
“I think where it gets a little harder is you have to simultaneously have thick skin and be able to tune things like that out. But you also have kind of thin skin, and if your customers are unhappy or your team's unhappy, you have to respond to that.”
Insight
Houston: A CEO's role changes constantly and early strengths become hindrances
“Your job as CEO changes every six months, every year, every couple years. Just nobody tells you that. And in fact, some of the things that made you good at the prior stage are becoming a hindrance for the next stage.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Houston: Viral Loops Drove Half of Early Dropbox Sign-ups
“Coming up with things like, ah, the referral program, and which had this two-side incentive where if I give you, if I tell you about Dropbox, you get free space, I get free space. That drove, like, 30% of our sign-ups for a while. Shared folders inherently vir…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Arash Ferdowsi dropped out of MIT the day after meeting Drew Houston
“Where Arash just said, hey, let's meet up, and we hung out in the Student Center for a couple hours, and he dropped out of school the next day.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Drew Houston built a working Dropbox prototype in six to eight weeks
“Probably about, I'd say a couple months. It was six weeks, six to eight weeks. You know, when it's early you can make massive product, progress like that.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dropbox still runs some of Drew Houston's original code in production
“Some. I think they've done some analysis. That's, there's still stuff in there.”