5 ms·

This is just a file sync. A good one. But 1500 employees for that? This goes way beyond my imagination.

shubb 9y ago
I agree it seems weird. Presumably relatively few of those people are really technical. The rest would be handling DMCA requests, support calls, enterprise sales, etc. Still seems like a lot of people. I think that a lot of the time, middle management argue for hiring staff because having lots of reports gives you credibility -> seniority -> more money. Sure, it reduces profits, but if the majority of your remuneration is salary then that doesn't matter.
product50 9y ago
it is an entreprise focused saas operation. 1500, most of them in sales or sales support, is justifiable.
- daxorid 9y ago
  What percentage of their revenue, would you guess, is generated by traditional sales operations? Anecdotal, but everyone I know who uses Dropbox is an engineer or engineering organization who has a healthy distrust of salesdrones.
  - jtmcmc 9y ago
    I'd guess that most of their revenue is enterprise generated.
albertgoeswoof 9y ago
Sales
whipoodle 9y ago
Yeah yeah. Every single time.
a2tech 9y ago
There’s a ton of stuff around that though. Tens of thousands of paying customers need support. Credit card teams. Data center guys. Guys to right deployment tools. Security guys to monitor the credit card system. Hacking together a proof of concept is simple, running a big business is complicated.
- mypalmike 9y ago
  Yeah, it surprises me how often even tech people don't understand the compounding complexity that comes with scale. Just consider the engineering involved in this story: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-amazon-cloud-empire/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-ama... That is just a portion of their infrastructure engineering activity. They also have product engineering - frontends, backends, mobile clients, integrations, etc. It's not just a server under some college kid's desk.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- 27182818284 9y ago
  >Tens of thousands of paying customers need support. This part really was highlighted to me when I contacted support over a bug. They linked me to an introduction to Dropbox which was kind of offensive since I've been a user for 8 years and they completely ignored the bug report it seems :-( I guess it hadn't registered in my brain that a company with as many users as they do has customer service not unlike a larger Acme Co. tech support desk.
- tex12 9y ago
  LOL, first/second tier tech support and data center guys should be nowhere near SF. It is overkill!
  - Caveman_Coder 9y ago
    > "...data center guys..." Where else would they be?
madamelic 9y ago
They also manage their own infrastructure now.

I agree it seems weird. Presumably relatively few of those people are really technical. The rest would be handling DMCA requests, support calls, enterprise sales, etc. Still seems like a lot of people. I think that a lot of the time, middle management argue for hiring staff because having lots of reports gives you credibility -> seniority -> more money. Sure, it reduces profits, but if the majority of your remuneration is salary then that doesn't matter.

product50 9y ago

it is an entreprise focused saas operation. 1500, most of them in sales or sales support, is justifiable.

daxorid 9y ago
What percentage of their revenue, would you guess, is generated by traditional sales operations? Anecdotal, but everyone I know who uses Dropbox is an engineer or engineering organization who has a healthy distrust of salesdrones.
- jtmcmc 9y ago
  I'd guess that most of their revenue is enterprise generated.

albertgoeswoof 9y ago

Sales

whipoodle 9y ago

Yeah yeah. Every single time.

a2tech 9y ago

There’s a ton of stuff around that though. Tens of thousands of paying customers need support. Credit card teams. Data center guys. Guys to right deployment tools. Security guys to monitor the credit card system. Hacking together a proof of concept is simple, running a big business is complicated.

mypalmike 9y ago
Yeah, it surprises me how often even tech people don't understand the compounding complexity that comes with scale. Just consider the engineering involved in this story: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-amazon-cloud-empire/ https://www.wired.com/2016/03/epic-story-dropboxs-exodus-ama... That is just a portion of their infrastructure engineering activity. They also have product engineering - frontends, backends, mobile clients, integrations, etc. It's not just a server under some college kid's desk.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
27182818284 9y ago
>Tens of thousands of paying customers need support. This part really was highlighted to me when I contacted support over a bug. They linked me to an introduction to Dropbox which was kind of offensive since I've been a user for 8 years and they completely ignored the bug report it seems :-( I guess it hadn't registered in my brain that a company with as many users as they do has customer service not unlike a larger Acme Co. tech support desk.
tex12 9y ago
LOL, first/second tier tech support and data center guys should be nowhere near SF. It is overkill!
- Caveman_Coder 9y ago
  > "...data center guys..." Where else would they be?

madamelic 9y ago

They also manage their own infrastructure now.