Here's how Dropbox founder Drew Houston grew his company from a startup to a billion-dollar enterprise.

 

Drew Houston is known by everyone in cloud technology. This is because he is the founder of Dropbox, a firm that has an estimated worth of over $10 billion. What few know is that this was not a quick, overnight success. Houston actually had a few different failed ventures but he was determined to be successful.

 

Houston was heavily courted by Steve Jobs after he realized the huge potential Dropbox had. Jobs was right to be interested but Houston would not bulge. He was courted to go back to Apple but sticking with Dropbox is definitely one of the most important and wisest decisions he ever made.

 

• Drew Houston’s Evolution

When he was only 14 Houston was beta testing an online game. As he highlighted security flaws, he quickly got hired as a networking programmer. Even though he was young, it was then that Houston knew that he wanted to “run a computer company”. Throughout college and high school, he took different jobs at startups. Dropbox was the sixth job.

 

Before working on Dropbox, Houston worked on a number of other startups which include Bit9, Accolade, and HubSpot.

 

Houston was very good at his job and knew a lot but he was not ready to become a CEO. He identified this problem and quickly started learning, becoming focused on the business running side of things.

 

• A great idea

Dropbox appeared as an idea while riding a bus. That was because he really wanted to work on the trip but he forgot the needed USB memory stick. Instantly he decided to start working on technology that would synch files online. After four months he pitched the idea to Y Combinator’s Paul Graham.

 

Graham appreciated the idea but said Houston would need a partner. That partner became Ferdowsi. With the partnership in place, Y Combinator offered Houston $15,000. This was enough to buy a MAC computer and rent an apartment. After that, he spent 20 hours per day working on the code.
Eventually, Dropbox was ready.

 

The main reason why Dropbox worked is that it solved a huge problem many had. This was the first app that allowed people to store files instantly in the cloud, only to then allow them to access them again whenever they wanted them through the internet. Synchronizing machines made it so useful that businesses started to use the system with their remote staff.

 

In February 2020, Houston joined the board of directors of Facebook, replacing Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who left in May 2019.

 

• Conclusion

Drew Houston’s story is similar to that of the most successful tech startup entrepreneurs in history. He worked really hard, kept learning and improving while not giving up when things got tough. This is the true success story Houston has to be remembered for.