Meet the CEO of Dropbox - the man who said no to Steve Jobs!

Meet the entrepreneur behind a fast-growing online service that in 2009 rejected advances from Apple’s Steve Jobs. Drew Houston, a brilliant software programmer, founded Dropbox.com....

Dropbox is a cloud-based application which acts as a digital storage and sharing service. For many users, Dropbox has effectively replaced media storage accessories such as memory sticks, since it allows a user to store and instantly synchronise all their files across multiple devices (e.g. laptops, desktops, tablets etc) as well as access everthing online.

Dropbox has enjoyed phenomenal growth. By October 2011 it had 50 million users, with another joining every second.

Amazingly, over 95% of Dropbox users pay nothing for the service - they each get around 2-3 GB of free storage and can add more as they refer new users (a very cost-effective method of customer acquisition for Dropbox).

However, Dropbox is able to generate revenue from subscribers who want greater storage capacity. The business also recently launched Dropbox teams which provides a starting storage of 350GB for teams of five and upwards, with additional file storage and sharing options. Dropbox is clearly after the corporate market which collaborative working now requires users to be able to share their resources.

For example, all the tutor2u revision workshop presenters (about 40 now) collaborate on new workshop materials for each sitting and then share and prepare using the latest edition before they attend a workshop.

So why was Steve Jobs so keen for a meeting? Because he saw Dropbox as an essential feature which could be built into his vision for Apple devices. Houston rejected the advance at a meeting (even though Jobs was his hero).

So Apple pressed ahead regardless and developed their iCloud application which went live with the launch of the Apple iOS5 operating system in October 2011.

Houston clearly faces significant competition now in the cloud-based storage market. Google are rumoured to be about to launch Google Drive which might compete directly. But has Dropbox already occupied the space by being the first-mover?

You can read a full interview with Houston here.

...and here is the video interview, which gives students quite an interesting insight into the corporate culture at Dropbox…