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My first instinct on seeing the title was "What does someone like this (or Al Gore, or any other politician) have to offer a tech startup?" Then the article ma
by mathattack 13y ago
My first instinct on seeing the title was "What does someone like this (or Al Gore, or any other politician) have to offer a tech startup?"
Then the article makes it more clear: "What’s interesting about bringing Rice onto Dropbox’s board is how normal it feels. Dropbox needs people with international experience to help it at once deal with foreign governments that have blocked its use — China, for example — and as it works to spread a product developed in one country to others that are culturally different."
Her connections at Stanford may help, though perhaps they're not as hard to find.
- alttab 13y agoOh, she's there for her skills in manipulating foreign govetnments. That makes me feel better.
- mathattack 13y agoIf you were a VC or investor in the company, it should give you confidence that someone is around that can give the CEO advice on managing geo-political minefields. The last thing you want is the overseas political issues that Microsoft and Google have had to deal with.
- zimpenfish 13y agoGiven how well she did giving advice about previous overseas political issues, I'd wager you'd want her as far away from your CEO as it was possible to get without sending him to the moon.
- mathattack 13y agoHere we are getting a little out of my element, but... How well do we know that she gave bad advice, versus him not listening? I do know that her speciality was Russia, not the Middle East, but after all that time in DC I am pretty sure she's learned a lot. Sometimes you learn from political failures, just like entrepreneurial ones.
- alttab 13y agoSo you don't hire against track record? Past performance is still the leading indicator of future success.
- mathattack 13y agoIn tech entrepreneurship aren't we allowed to fail? And she is in an advisory role, not managerial.
- alttab 13y agoWhen your social startup fails, it's not the Iraq war.
- wreegab 13y agoIt sounds just like typical PR filling, which is supposed to explain why they brought her on board. Will people really buy into this non-explanation?
- mathattack 13y agoIs there a better explanation? I'm sure that it took a lot of effort and money to bring her on board when other candidates are available.
- hkphooey 13y agoDropbox will have zero impact in China. Forget the trust and security angle and just look at the local competition - TenCent offer 10TB of free storage! Google, Facebook and Twitter are all banned in China and there is nothing they can do about it.