
Dropbox hires a COO: Dennis Woodside, former Motorola Mobility CEO - csmajorfive
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/12/dennis-woodside-has-a-new-home-at-dropbox/
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yeukhon
> Dropbox raised $350 million in a financing round that valued the six-year-
> old startup at $10 billion.

This is interesting. DB still rely on funding instead of revenue? I am sure
they are working hard on enterprise-level plan. Were DB the one asking for the
funding or someone proposed to DB to take the $$.

The other thing is that he's going from a CEO to a COO. From a business
outsider, I see this as a downgrade.

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rdl
Dropbox is clearly growing faster than their revenue cashflow can support, so
it's quite reasonable for them to continue to raise money. It's obvious to
everyone in the industry that Dropbox intends to IPO sometime in the next
couple years. Hiring this COO allows Drew to focus on 1) hiring 2) IPO issues.
Neither Drew nor Arash has IPO experience, and while it's easy enough to get
advisors (and hire a great CFO), it still seems to be the case that these
companies bring in a couple more IPO-experienced execs before.

They were pretty under-resourced on CFO until 2011 at least -- I don't know
who they have now. I'd watch their CFO hiring for the most impending signs of
an IPO. Look what happened at Facebook -- hiring David Ebersman.

IMO, CEO of Motorola Mobility to even a Director at Dropbox, Apple, etc. would
be an upgrade.

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yeukhon
Okay. Fair point. I am probably still thinking of the old Motorola Inc which
has been divided into two organizations.

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seunosewa
The guy who oversaw the making of the best Android phone for the average
person, which could have challenged the iPhone, but apparently failed to
realize that it's more important to make it affordable and available
internationally than to make it in America and have customizable back covers.
His plan was flawed, but well executed, so I guess it makes sense that he's
going to be a COO since the COO role is all about execution.

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cft
The main sellable product of a modern very successful startup is public stock.
They will soon fulfill this objective. The money that makes the insiders rich
comes from the shareholders, not from the revenues. This is the unfortunate
reality of America in 2010s. On a sidenote, it is my prediction that the
Quantitative Easing is permanent.

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neals
What would the responsibilities of a COO be? What makes a good COO? Do we know
any famous COOs ?

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ulfw
A COO is great in a large company, where the CEO can be more hands-off and
have a more representative role. In startups or small companies it's frankly a
waste and just leads to very conflicting sets of responsibilities and
infighting. Been experiencing this myself.

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neals
As a COO or as a CEO?

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robk
He's a really smart manager. Perfect for a COO role, though I'm surprised he
didn't try to jump in higher. I guess he's trying to do the Sheryl Sandberg
model of far-reaching COO under a charismatic but less experienced CEO.

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riams
How long was he actually at Motorola? It seems like he was just there to help
Google flip it.

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af3
Poor guy, couldn't get a job at Apple or Intel [0]. Got lucky Dropbox hired
him.

[0] [http://pando.com/2014/01/23/the-techtopus-how-silicon-
valley...](http://pando.com/2014/01/23/the-techtopus-how-silicon-valleys-most-
celebrated-ceos-conspired-to-drive-down-100000-tech-engineers-wages/)

