In 2007, Drew Houston developed a cloud service for its personal use, which solved the problems related to file storage. It grew into one of the world’s most famous file sharing services.
The constantly lost memory sticks went to the American student’s nerves. The solution became world -famous. Adobe Stock / AOP
In the early 2000s Drew Houston Studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and repeatedly encountered a frustrating problem: he lost USB sticks that contained important files.
After graduation, Houston decided to grab the problem. In 2007, at the age of 24, he originally developed a cloud storage platform for his own personal use. This gave rise to Dropbox, which grew into one of the world’s most famous file sharing and storage services. Today, the Dropbox is about EUR 9.2 billion.
Houston is now 42 years old. He tells The news service for CNBC has originally set up a Dropbox because of its purely frustration.
– I really felt like the synchronization of files was only interested in myself. I focused on one customer who was myself, Houston says.
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Dropbox’s success has made Drew Houston a billionaire and has increased his property to EUR 2.2 billion. However, CNBC points out that success did not come easily. In the early years, Dropbox had to compete heavily with industry giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google.
By focusing on your own doing, you will succeed
In 2011, Apple launched its own iCloud cloud storage and founder of the company Steve Jobs declared Dropbox to be old -fashioned soon. At the same time, Google Drive remained a constant threat that overshadowed Dropbox’s market position.
In addition, the service was challenged by new players: Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram offered users the opportunity to share files for free, which made it difficult for Dropbox’s business.
– They simply destroyed our business model … [Se oli] Even worse because it could have been so easy to anticipate, Houston tells CNBC. “
– This became a very public and personal humiliation for me. How could we not predict it or be ahead of it?
Dropbox decided to turn the challenges he faces into opportunities by focusing on its core product: file sharing and storage. This strategy proved to be successful. In 2015, the company launched the Magic Pocket system, which allowed larger files to be saved more efficiently.
Drew Houston’s most important doctrine along his journey has been to focus on what can be controlled by trying to compete directly against others.