4 ms·

YC Founders at Work Series: Dropbox interview today at 1:00pm PDT

80 points by jl 17y ago

jl 17y ago
For those you can't make it, I'll try to have a copy of the interview up on YC's blog by the end of the day!
- aditya 17y ago
  Thanks! These are amazing. How will they tie into Founders at Work v2, the book?
- jolan 17y ago
  Please ask if they're profitable and what % of users pay for their service.
  - arashf 17y ago
    we can't tell you that! :-)
    - jolan 17y ago
      Worth a shot :)
    - modoc 17y ago
      How come? Honest question. Would making that information available hurt your business somehow? Don't get me wrong, my typical impulse is to play numbers very close to the vest, but I'm realizing more and more that the real risk of transparency is usually pretty low.
      - patio11 17y ago
        I think I probably have enough transparency-is-groovy street cred to say this: they don't owe you a number, and they don't owe you an explanation, unless you are credibly trying to buy their company. (This is the generic "you", not the specific "you" here.)
        modoc 17y ago
        I'm certainly not suggesting they owe me/anyone else anything! I was just curious what their rationale was for holding back. Maybe it's a really good reason I hadn't considered.
        imp 17y ago
        If they make a ton of money, then it might encourage competition. If they don't make any money, then it might be embarrassing.
        deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
      - smanek 17y ago
        Yes. If they aren't profitable, I would hesitate to pay them for my backups, since I might doubt they would be around N years from now.
    - mjhnghfh 17y ago
      It's the only part of an interview with Dropbox that would be interesting. I have a business plan where I send out a dollar free to anyone who logs onto my site. With $5M of funding from YC I think I could also get 4million 'customers' As it stands I use dropbox for free. When they/or their vc decides to start charging me I will switch to the next free competitor, this is not a business model.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- rlpb 17y ago
  Am I the only one who is getting the Weebly interview instead?
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
stevederico 17y ago
very excited for this
zaveri 17y ago
Curious to know if Dropbox intends to approach academic institutions in the near future to replace their current home directories/centralized file repositories.....
spencerfry 17y ago
Can anyone else not hear Jessica's audio?
- evansolomon 17y ago
  It's back on!
- jl 17y ago
  Sorry. Another technical difficulty on my side. For some reason my new microphone stopped working during the broadcast! When I post the mp3 file, I will also include my questions in the text.
dmpayton 17y ago
I'm watching the live feed now, but unfortunately the audio is borked and Jessica is muted. Since I can't read lips, I'll have to hope this is fixed when it's put up later. Edit: It's fixed.
herdrick 17y ago
I'd like to hear from Arash too.

80 points by jl 17y ago

jl 17y ago

For those you can't make it, I'll try to have a copy of the interview up on YC's blog by the end of the day!

aditya 17y ago
Thanks! These are amazing. How will they tie into Founders at Work v2, the book?
jolan 17y ago
Please ask if they're profitable and what % of users pay for their service.
- arashf 17y ago
  we can't tell you that! :-)
  - jolan 17y ago
    Worth a shot :)
  - modoc 17y ago
    How come? Honest question. Would making that information available hurt your business somehow? Don't get me wrong, my typical impulse is to play numbers very close to the vest, but I'm realizing more and more that the real risk of transparency is usually pretty low.
    - patio11 17y ago
      I think I probably have enough transparency-is-groovy street cred to say this: they don't owe you a number, and they don't owe you an explanation, unless you are credibly trying to buy their company. (This is the generic "you", not the specific "you" here.)
      - modoc 17y ago
        I'm certainly not suggesting they owe me/anyone else anything! I was just curious what their rationale was for holding back. Maybe it's a really good reason I hadn't considered.
        imp 17y ago
        If they make a ton of money, then it might encourage competition. If they don't make any money, then it might be embarrassing.
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
    - smanek 17y ago
      Yes. If they aren't profitable, I would hesitate to pay them for my backups, since I might doubt they would be around N years from now.
  - mjhnghfh 17y ago
    It's the only part of an interview with Dropbox that would be interesting. I have a business plan where I send out a dollar free to anyone who logs onto my site. With $5M of funding from YC I think I could also get 4million 'customers' As it stands I use dropbox for free. When they/or their vc decides to start charging me I will switch to the next free competitor, this is not a business model.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
rlpb 17y ago
Am I the only one who is getting the Weebly interview instead?

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

stevederico 17y ago

very excited for this

zaveri 17y ago

Curious to know if Dropbox intends to approach academic institutions in the near future to replace their current home directories/centralized file repositories.....

spencerfry 17y ago

Can anyone else not hear Jessica's audio?

evansolomon 17y ago
It's back on!
jl 17y ago
Sorry. Another technical difficulty on my side. For some reason my new microphone stopped working during the broadcast! When I post the mp3 file, I will also include my questions in the text.

dmpayton 17y ago

I'm watching the live feed now, but unfortunately the audio is borked and Jessica is muted. Since I can't read lips, I'll have to hope this is fixed when it's put up later. Edit: It's fixed.

herdrick 17y ago

I'd like to hear from Arash too.