
Dropbox's Summer 07 YC Application - revorad
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/2/app.html
======
pg
What happens when I read this:

File syncing. Superset of backups, which people will pay for. Good. Single
founder. Bad. But at least he's looking for more people. Went to MIT, 1600
SAT. Probably fairly smart. Wrote a poker bot. Now I'm starting to get
interested; has the right attitude. Description of the software sounds
plausible but generic. Maybe it's good, but who can tell. But little sister
uses it; that's impressive. Scroll down to what he understands that
competitors don't get. Wow: very concise and unequivocal. I'm now basically
sold. Scroll through the rest. No red flags. Did not make the usual joke
single founders make when asked how long the founders have known one another.
Good answer to what might go wrong. A-. (Would be an A with a cofounder.)

~~~
pg
I went back and looked at this application in our system, and I did in fact
give it an A-.

An A- means "I want to interview." An A means "I want to interview, even if
Rtm and Trevor don't."

I only gave 2 As in s2007. (We funded both those companies, and both did
badly.)

~~~
ivankirigin
You should give founders these notes from the application during YC. It's
gotta be brutally honest, probably more so than you are to someone's face.

~~~
pg
I don't actually write this stuff down. That was just what my train of thought
was while reading the application.

------
dcurtis
_"Dropbox synchronizes files across your/your team's computers. It's much
better than uploading or email, because it's automatic, integrated into
Windows, and fits into the way you already work. There's also a web interface,
and the files are securely backed up to Amazon S3. Dropbox is kind of like
taking the best elements of subversion, trac and rsync and making them "just
work" for the average individual or team. Hackers have access to these tools,
but normal people don't."_

That is probably the most amazingly succinct and interesting elevator pitch I
have read/heard. It clearly defines the product, the problem it solves, and
provides metaphors for better understanding.

~~~
jpeterson
If you already know what subversion, trac, and rsync are.

~~~
whatusername
And since he was pitching to PG - then it was completely appropriate. Your
elevator pitch can change based on who you are talking to.

case in point, the pitch to his sister is/was: "You'll be able to keep track
of all your high school term papers, and you wont need to burn CDs or carry
USB sticks anymore."

------
flooha
I have a funny story about Dropbox which happened two weeks ago. I have a
friend who has been running a travel business for about 6 years. During that
time, I've hosted her website, email, etc...for $5/month. I've also spent
quite a bit of time upgrading her website with each release of the CMS,
customizing things and doubling her disk space 3 times (for free) as her email
ate up disk space.

Needless to say, I was losing on this deal. So, one day she emails me and asks
how much a server would cost. In an effort to save her money, I ask her why
she needs a dedicated server. Her response was, "To share files with a new
part-time helper." OK, so you sure don't need a dedicated server for that and
I recommended that she try Dropbox and if she doesn't like it, let me know and
I'll spec out a server for her if that is what she really wants.

A week later she asks me to give her the login details for her account so she
can move her email and files over to a new server. Surprised, I ask her what
provider and how much she's paying. She signed a 13 month contract with a no-
name, 1 person company for $750/month. Oh, and he's not hosting the
website...just files and email, so I get to keep managing that.

Lessons learned:

1) I'm apparently charging WAY too little for services rendered.

2) Don't break your neck helping people for nothing, expecting some kind of
return later.

3) Don't recommend Dropbox (j/k)

~~~
yan
I don't actually know what's going on, but it sounds awfully a lot like you
like this person and are being taken advantage of.

~~~
flooha
I was happy to do it when she started. She quit her (good) job to start the
biz and had no money. Her lifestyle hasn't changed and I figured she was
trudging along in the "valley of death". It seems she's doing ok now, but my
guess is that this server will be a major strain on her profits and she made
an impulse buy. The "company" was recommended to her by someone she looks up
to. I actually feel sorry for her because she is getting ripped off.

The experience made me seriously rethink everything I'm currently doing.

------
brown9-2
Just want to take this opportunity to say that I love dropbox and its an
awesome service. Great job by Drew and the rest of the team.

------
dannyr
So he was a single founder at the time of his YC application. Did he end up
finding a cofounder?

~~~
shimon
According to <https://www.getdropbox.com/about> , Arash Ferdowsi is a founder
(and CTO). Looks like the entire dropbox team is 15 people.

One of the most remarkable things about this application is how accurately it
predicted what Dropbox would be. The idea isn't hard to grasp, but its
brilliant execution continues to distinguish dropbox as a surprisingly good
product.

------
JacobAldridge
I think it's fair to assume that YC et al are looking for some or all of the
elements demonstrated here - a feasible and practical idea, demonstrated
skills, some thought out strategy / swot analysis.

For me, what makes this application as a _sole founder_ stand out from the
many other talented people who apply?

> _How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?_

 _There's a joke in here somewhere._

~~~
cperciva
_> How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?

There's a joke in here somewhere._

I'm curious about what other sole founders answered here. I believe I wrote
"Does a man ever truly know himself?" once...

~~~
fleaflicker
"I am currently the sole founder. This has to change for Fleaflicker to
survive."

------
abreckle
"The ridiculous things people name their documents to do versioning, like
"proposal v2 good revised NEW 11-15-06.doc", continue to crack me up. "

So true...

------
jasonlbaptiste
i would love to see how some successful non-yc company founders would have
filled this application out in their early days. ie- joshu, pg with
viaweb,etc. pretty fascinating stuff.

~~~
dbul
here is one answer of one of the aforementioned parties:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=715667>

------
zaidf
Curious: what happened to accoladeprep.com?

------
jlees
It amazes me how many people - normal, laypeople, not smart crazy hackers like
us - recommend dropbox for file stuff these days. Kudos for creating something
we now can't live without.

~~~
revorad
Yep, I once casually introduced my graphic designer housemate to it. And he
swears by it now! In his own words, "Dropbox has completely changed my life".

------
kcy
hmm... the last line kind of surprised me, even though I don't think I should
be surprised. Do you think the Dropbox folks ever look at your filenames
and/or open your files? I guess I similarly wonder if the Google Gmail folks
ever read my emails. I'm not really worried about them doing it in some
systemic evil fashion so much as some random developer or sysop just looking
through things.

Anyway, thanks for posting this. I'm a huge Dropbox fan and it was cool seeing
a bit of their history.

~~~
fuzzythinker
That doesn't have to be a file from the users. It can be a sample filename he
sees his colleagues names; thus trying to solve the problem of versioning by
filename by non SCM users.

------
markm
Amazing application. Out of curiosity, how much equity did YC take? (6%)?

------
brezina
haha - sales oriented guy - i do more than that @dhouston!

~~~
SwellJoe
Does providing the blow and hookers really count?

------
revorad
This is an interesting little anecdote from their blog -
<http://blog.getdropbox.com/?p=33>

------
crux_
A late to the party comment: I (just now!) finished a submission for an SBIR
grant.

Even though I understand why the SBIR submission is the way that it is, the
simplicity of this application form makes me jealous. :( I've been doing
6am-2am for two days in a row now and not even writing code.

------
suhlash
Dropbox is indispensable to me. It is my main sync method of my most important
Keynote outliner file. I am impressed by their obvious technical mastery as
well as their clear idea of how things could turn out and how they could find
their niche.

------
revorad
Got to love the guy's confidence.

------
zatatto
How can people thing this big? I could never even think about such a service.
I would be afraid. How do I keep up with free disk space, crashed, backups? I
could never do it.

~~~
heyitsnick
This is all taken care of using Amazon S3 services.

Interesting read. I wish dropbox had gone ahead with their initial plan to
charge $5 a month for individual users. I would happily pay for this service,
but $120/year for personal backup is too much. Something in the $50-60pa mark
sounds better. Instead I use dropbox all my shared docs, and backup to my own
S3 account for larger backups and one-way sharing of bigger files.

------
mattmaroon
I would give this guy an interview.

------
mccutchen
> ... and an 'enterprise' plan that features, well, a really high price.

I love this part of the plan.

------
mace
Brief discussion from not too long ago:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=715584>

You've got to appreciate was the directness of the answers to questions on the
application.

------
minalecs
I really think pg should create a very successful business just on reading
startups proposals and giving them ratings and charging them for his analysis.
Please let me build it for you. Anyways.. more please.

------
rmoriz
Prophecy:

In less then 12 months either Apple, Google or Microsoft will buy DropBox for
more than 500m$

~~~
username
If none buy by then, then say you didn't say than.

------
run4yourlives
Love the last answer.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Re the penultimate answer, inkscape has a shared whiteboard facility, never
used it though.

------
sachinag
This made me happy.

------
btw0
Cool, I wish I could take part in YC too.

------
scm007
This is very cool.

------
mkramlich
What happens when Mike reads this:

I think, "Brilliant!" To my eyes, you can tell the applicant is sharp, has put
a lot of thought into the problem area, has a breadth of technical skills, has
a track record that shows he had ambition, vision and can execute, and oh, by
the way, he's out to solve a real problem that people have every day. So yeah,
that's a good application to study. And it helps that, since then, at least in
my opinion as a big user and fan of Dropbox as it works today, he has
successfully executed on that vision and plan. Well done, man. Well done.

And bonus points for having Python in the stack. :)

