15 ms·

How to win as a first time founder - a Drew Houston Manifesto

167 points by gatsby 13y ago

aresant 13y ago
DropBox is one of the most useful products to come out in the last decade. I still remember seeing the original 5 minute demo (1). My jaw was on the floor, I instantly needed it. And it's still the best, even at a premium price (marked in cost of GB of storage). The article has several interesting points, but the takeaway for me remains "[Solve] a worthy problem." (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE
- salient 13y ago
  If only they'd give users the option for 1-click encryption before uploading/syncing. It could work especially well with Dropbox since it has only native apps anyway. We already know they are "next" on NSA's list for companies to target (at least in an official manner, they've probably targeted them for a long time unofficially).
  - kingnight 13y ago
    I belive that might not have been initially viable since part of their service is the mirroring of files that are already uploaded. If you and I both have the same mp3 in our dropboxes, only one of us have to upload it initially, then the second person to add it would only have it 'synced' in their dropbox since the file checksum matches. If we both locally encrypted it with our own keys then the resulting file on the server would be different. It'd require more storage space and more bandwidth — more operating $. Maybe not though :-)
    - benologist 13y ago
      I think the key reason is it would be significantly slower for the end user rather than the incremental increase in storage cost. Bandwidth remains the same since Amazon doesn't charge for incoming and de-duping doesn't affect outgoing.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- cleaver 13y ago
  The key thing I noted when I visited the home page of DropBox is that I instantly understood what they do. I compared DropBox to the Box website. After wandering around several pages, I left without being 100% sure if they could do what I wanted. The ability to offer a clear, concise message should not be undervalued.
  - alttab 13y ago
    Its what stood out to me too. That said, even as a techie who has worked on and with dropbox products, ive come this far without ever really relying on it. And I dont see that need increasing over time. I love dropbox, but im a bear on it long term.
codex 13y ago
While I think it is much more useful to learn from others' success than others' failure (lessons from your own failures are invaluable), let's not forget selection bias. A lot of startup success is luck--or, in other words, factors outside of the control of the founders or their advisors. Many, if not most, founders aren't even aware of these factors, don't appreciate them fully, or won't acknowledge them out of ego. In many cases the advice should be "work hard, be smart, and buy the winning lottery ticket." My advice is to attempt startups in the center of a confluence of macrotrends; that will tilt the odds more in your favor.
- pg 13y ago
  "My advice is to attempt startups in the center of a confluence of macrotrends" My advice is to solve a problem you yourself have.
  - edw519 13y ago
    My advice is to solve a problem you yourself have. This is a subset of "solve a problem someone has". (Someone = You) is often a sufficient, but not necessary, condition. (Someone = Someone Else) is an equally sufficient condition, especially for those with subject matter knowledge and industry connections. Either way, solve a problem.
    - adam419 13y ago
      So what if my biggest problem is determining a valid problem to solve?
      - jpwagner 13y ago
        then it must be great to be you
      - nostromo 13y ago
        That problem can be a business, just like any other. Reference: Eric Ries. My advice is just to pick something and start. You'll probably end up someplace completely different, but you need to start to get there.
deleted 13y ago
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- deleted 13y ago
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sakopov 13y ago
All luck aside, i wonder how much being an MIT graduate played a role in successfully getting DropBox off the ground. I always get the thought that walking out of a reputable school opens a lot of opportunities like this, which is why i read articles like this with a grain of salt.
- pg 13y ago
  There is an advantage, but perhaps not the one you think. The advantage is not the brand, but that you know lots of smart people you can recruit to join you. Which Drew did, starting with Arash.
  - the_watcher 13y ago
    The brand is only an advantage in public perception (which usually means nothing in terms of company success at the startup stage), and maybe some level of increased respect from investors (which, as you have pointed out, really doesn't mean much, since they act as sheep. A great company is the way to get investors). Completely agree that the major value of great schools is better schools attract smarter people, who often make better founders.
    - dakrisht 13y ago
      Agree with this. Brand is a big advantage in public perception and it's easier for top-school grads to get coveted meetings/intros since they are part of the "family." But at the end of the day, all that matters is the quality of the work. And there are tons of people who never attended MIT/Stanford/Harvard/etc. that are extremely successful at what they do and have built. Like you said, great schools attract smarter people (not all of them!) and that makes for a more competitive environment, which in turn churns out more driven/analytical kids. I know a TON of idiots who went to Stanford and Berkeley. And I know a dozen or so extremely successful entrepreneurs who never went to college.
      - the_watcher 13y ago
        You know a ton of idiots who went to Stanford and Cal (and aren't including Cal athletes, had to, UCLA grad)?
benjaminwootton 13y ago
Good article - there's a lot to take away from this. However, if I ever read that Gladwell 10,000 hours quote again I think I'm going to go postal!
anish_t 13y ago
great and inspiring read! find ourselves in the same spot as when drew started - when he walked in to YC unprepared. Well we blew our YC 2014 application, it was so poorly written. So with a common starting point looking forward to cracking the code to success by - solving a problem that we have ourselves, and improving on things that are already around!
acoyfellow 13y ago
Incredibly informative article.. But the second I closed this, I saw the article about how BitTorrent is growing at a faster rate than Dropbox did. [1] It made me wonder how Drew/Dropbox is going to respond to such a competitor [1] - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/05/bittorrent-doubles-sync-userbase-2-million-month-says-dropbox-competitor-growing-twice-fast/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/05/bittorrent-doubles-...
- patrickk 13y ago
  I bet quite a lot of that growth is down to the NSA news. I switched to Dropbox sync because of it. The NSA is really hurting US based SaaS businesses.
inspectahdeck 13y ago
To be fair, Houston had already dropped out of school from a year to start an SAT prep company, so he's not entirely a first time founder. [0] [0] https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston
- brettcvz 13y ago
  I was going to mention the same thing, Drew wasn't quite a first time founder when he started Dropbox, just as Mark Zuckerberg was not a first time founder when he started Facebook
olavgg 13y ago
That 5 minutes long presentation movie from 2007 really explains why Dropbox is such a success. He just simply tell us about what his product does, what problem it solves, and how he has a good solution to "the file syncing problem". The presentation is so good that even my dad understands it.
dakrisht 13y ago
Kudos to Drew. Dropbox is simply a great product and that's why it's such a great success. I've tried so many different cloud-based storage services throughout the years and nothing really comes close in terms of ease-of-use, accessibility, sharing, speed, etc. Sure, DB has a few flaws here and there but nothing is perfect. I remember being bombarded with marketing emails from the AeroFS team two weeks ago when I tried their products and while they were great in asking how they "could help" me, their software was broken. It wasn't working properly, crashing on colleagues' systems, etc. Worst part: emailing support four times never got me a reply. And to me, that's just an awful product (aside from it being super buggy). But I digress. Great little read from Drew, someone who has created a simple product that we all need and use daily.
adamzerner 13y ago
This is much more about "how to win" than it is about "how to win as a first time founder". The only real "as a first time founder" material is his story about how he scrambled to find a cofounder for YC.
pencilcheck 13y ago
There is also a hidden factor: white male in his early 20s attending ivy league schools like Stanford and MIT
- jchonphoenix 13y ago
  Stanford and MIT are both not Ivy League schools... But your point is noted.

167 points by gatsby 13y ago

DropBox is one of the most useful products to come out in the last decade. I still remember seeing the original 5 minute demo (1). My jaw was on the floor, I instantly needed it. And it's still the best, even at a premium price (marked in cost of GB of storage). The article has several interesting points, but the takeaway for me remains "[Solve] a worthy problem." (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QmCUDHpNzE

salient 13y ago
If only they'd give users the option for 1-click encryption before uploading/syncing. It could work especially well with Dropbox since it has only native apps anyway. We already know they are "next" on NSA's list for companies to target (at least in an official manner, they've probably targeted them for a long time unofficially).
- kingnight 13y ago
  I belive that might not have been initially viable since part of their service is the mirroring of files that are already uploaded. If you and I both have the same mp3 in our dropboxes, only one of us have to upload it initially, then the second person to add it would only have it 'synced' in their dropbox since the file checksum matches. If we both locally encrypted it with our own keys then the resulting file on the server would be different. It'd require more storage space and more bandwidth — more operating $. Maybe not though :-)
  - benologist 13y ago
    I think the key reason is it would be significantly slower for the end user rather than the incremental increase in storage cost. Bandwidth remains the same since Amazon doesn't charge for incoming and de-duping doesn't affect outgoing.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
cleaver 13y ago
The key thing I noted when I visited the home page of DropBox is that I instantly understood what they do. I compared DropBox to the Box website. After wandering around several pages, I left without being 100% sure if they could do what I wanted. The ability to offer a clear, concise message should not be undervalued.
- alttab 13y ago
  Its what stood out to me too. That said, even as a techie who has worked on and with dropbox products, ive come this far without ever really relying on it. And I dont see that need increasing over time. I love dropbox, but im a bear on it long term.

codex 13y ago

While I think it is much more useful to learn from others' success than others' failure (lessons from your own failures are invaluable), let's not forget selection bias. A lot of startup success is luck--or, in other words, factors outside of the control of the founders or their advisors. Many, if not most, founders aren't even aware of these factors, don't appreciate them fully, or won't acknowledge them out of ego. In many cases the advice should be "work hard, be smart, and buy the winning lottery ticket." My advice is to attempt startups in the center of a confluence of macrotrends; that will tilt the odds more in your favor.

pg 13y ago
"My advice is to attempt startups in the center of a confluence of macrotrends" My advice is to solve a problem you yourself have.
- edw519 13y ago
  My advice is to solve a problem you yourself have. This is a subset of "solve a problem someone has". (Someone = You) is often a sufficient, but not necessary, condition. (Someone = Someone Else) is an equally sufficient condition, especially for those with subject matter knowledge and industry connections. Either way, solve a problem.
  - adam419 13y ago
    So what if my biggest problem is determining a valid problem to solve?
    - jpwagner 13y ago
      then it must be great to be you
    - nostromo 13y ago
      That problem can be a business, just like any other. Reference: Eric Ries. My advice is just to pick something and start. You'll probably end up someplace completely different, but you need to start to get there.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

sakopov 13y ago

All luck aside, i wonder how much being an MIT graduate played a role in successfully getting DropBox off the ground. I always get the thought that walking out of a reputable school opens a lot of opportunities like this, which is why i read articles like this with a grain of salt.

pg 13y ago
There is an advantage, but perhaps not the one you think. The advantage is not the brand, but that you know lots of smart people you can recruit to join you. Which Drew did, starting with Arash.
- the_watcher 13y ago
  The brand is only an advantage in public perception (which usually means nothing in terms of company success at the startup stage), and maybe some level of increased respect from investors (which, as you have pointed out, really doesn't mean much, since they act as sheep. A great company is the way to get investors). Completely agree that the major value of great schools is better schools attract smarter people, who often make better founders.
  - dakrisht 13y ago
    Agree with this. Brand is a big advantage in public perception and it's easier for top-school grads to get coveted meetings/intros since they are part of the "family." But at the end of the day, all that matters is the quality of the work. And there are tons of people who never attended MIT/Stanford/Harvard/etc. that are extremely successful at what they do and have built. Like you said, great schools attract smarter people (not all of them!) and that makes for a more competitive environment, which in turn churns out more driven/analytical kids. I know a TON of idiots who went to Stanford and Berkeley. And I know a dozen or so extremely successful entrepreneurs who never went to college.
    - the_watcher 13y ago
      You know a ton of idiots who went to Stanford and Cal (and aren't including Cal athletes, had to, UCLA grad)?

benjaminwootton 13y ago

Good article - there's a lot to take away from this. However, if I ever read that Gladwell 10,000 hours quote again I think I'm going to go postal!

anish_t 13y ago

great and inspiring read! find ourselves in the same spot as when drew started - when he walked in to YC unprepared. Well we blew our YC 2014 application, it was so poorly written. So with a common starting point looking forward to cracking the code to success by - solving a problem that we have ourselves, and improving on things that are already around!

acoyfellow 13y ago

Incredibly informative article.. But the second I closed this, I saw the article about how BitTorrent is growing at a faster rate than Dropbox did. [1] It made me wonder how Drew/Dropbox is going to respond to such a competitor [1] - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/05/bittorrent-doubles-sync-userbase-2-million-month-says-dropbox-competitor-growing-twice-fast/ http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/05/bittorrent-doubles-...

patrickk 13y ago
I bet quite a lot of that growth is down to the NSA news. I switched to Dropbox sync because of it. The NSA is really hurting US based SaaS businesses.

inspectahdeck 13y ago

To be fair, Houston had already dropped out of school from a year to start an SAT prep company, so he's not entirely a first time founder. [0] [0] https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston

brettcvz 13y ago
I was going to mention the same thing, Drew wasn't quite a first time founder when he started Dropbox, just as Mark Zuckerberg was not a first time founder when he started Facebook

olavgg 13y ago

That 5 minutes long presentation movie from 2007 really explains why Dropbox is such a success. He just simply tell us about what his product does, what problem it solves, and how he has a good solution to "the file syncing problem". The presentation is so good that even my dad understands it.

dakrisht 13y ago

Kudos to Drew. Dropbox is simply a great product and that's why it's such a great success. I've tried so many different cloud-based storage services throughout the years and nothing really comes close in terms of ease-of-use, accessibility, sharing, speed, etc. Sure, DB has a few flaws here and there but nothing is perfect. I remember being bombarded with marketing emails from the AeroFS team two weeks ago when I tried their products and while they were great in asking how they "could help" me, their software was broken. It wasn't working properly, crashing on colleagues' systems, etc. Worst part: emailing support four times never got me a reply. And to me, that's just an awful product (aside from it being super buggy). But I digress. Great little read from Drew, someone who has created a simple product that we all need and use daily.

adamzerner 13y ago

This is much more about "how to win" than it is about "how to win as a first time founder". The only real "as a first time founder" material is his story about how he scrambled to find a cofounder for YC.

pencilcheck 13y ago

There is also a hidden factor: white male in his early 20s attending ivy league schools like Stanford and MIT

jchonphoenix 13y ago
Stanford and MIT are both not Ivy League schools... But your point is noted.