Maybe I'm just an ignorant not-involved-in-a-startup person, but what is Dropbox doing with these 400+ employees?<p>To me Dropbox seems like it's a pretty simply and mature product feature-wise. Have they announced that they're expanding into other products? I just hope they won't bloat Dropbox the way that some of these one-main-feature softwares were inflated in the past (ICQ, etc).<p>edit: I guess what got me thinking about this is that I'm reading the book by Google employee #59, and Google had a working search engine and they were building their own hardware with less than 100 employees. Just not sure what Dropbox can do with 400+ since their product is a lot simpler and they're not dealing with datacenters, though maybe it makes sense if these people are mostly doing marketing and sales.
I know that they have taken some heat for security issues of late, but, frankly, I love this company and their product and I am happy to see them doing well.<p>The magic of Dropbox is that it strikes just the right balance between simplicity and power.<p>When my mother deleted a book that she had been writing for almost a year (and its backup), I was able to show her how to retrieve deleted documents from Dropbox. It was incredible.<p>Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Well Dropbox is magic to most of the people that I have introduced it to.<p>I know that there are other solutions out there that do similar things to what they do, but I have never really been able to find one that just clicks with so many people regardless of technical ability.
In related news, Dropbox employees were surprised to find that the new building's locks could be opened with any key and that despite the landlord's Terms of Service, janitors and other building staff <i>can</i> in fact open and view private containers and documents belonging to employees.
I find it humorous that (otherwise highly intelligent, and well informed) members of HN are asking "What do they need all these people for" - DropBox is getting a rumored $5B valuation - which implies, no, requires they start to ramp up both their revenue and, eventually, profit.<p>That's going to require either (A) a LOT more customers, or (B) More profitable Customers.<p>(A) is just going to be a huge headache in terms of legal issues, support issues, infrastructure, etc...<p>(B) is going to require an entirely new model of sales - SEs, RFP writers, Marketing, Salespeople, Finance people working in many markets, channels, etc...<p>Regardless - 400 employees for a $5 Billion company is on the absolute low end of where they will be if they actually justify that (rumored) valuation.<p>The challenge comes when you start charging for these services and/or take on the corporate customers - if you run it ala CraigsList - you let the community police itself, and just hire a core infrastructure team, call it a day. Companies that start actively marketing their product, pick up an enormous number of bodies, and, of course, the finance/hr/it/management/executive teams required to support those bodies.
To all those wondering about 400+ new hires, you can view and vote on the proposed featureset at dropbox.com/votebox.<p>Some popular requests:<p>- sync folders outside of the <i>My/Dropbox</i> folder<p>- read/write permissions for shared files/folders<p>- remote destroy/purge if laptop is stolen<p>- streaming audio/video<p>- windows mobile support<p>- reseller/branding program<p>- internationalization<p>... and much more.
Hiring based on plan compared to need. Does all of this crazy funding raise anyone else's hackles? Maybe it's just that I'm not in Silicon Valley or SF.<p>Update: Perhaps it is just the signaling of going from 65 to 400 that bothers me. I like Dropbox's service and agree they are doing well. Is the mention of 400 employees meant to be a signal for future investors, those interested in working there or perhaps other competitors? A change from 65 to 400 employees is not a single hop but requires quite a bit to fall into place according to plan.
Would someone break down for me what Dropbox needs all those people for?<p>Is Dropbox starting some big new project that can't be handled by the current number of employees?
Why does Dropbox need 400 employees!? Really high headcounts are <i>the</i> guaranteed path to eventual mediocrity. Why do almost no companies see this and prevent it?
If you look at iCloud and Ubuntu One, both of those services have Dropbox-esque file storage as one of their features, but they also store and sync things like contacts, settings, and other pieces of data. Dropbox may be planning on doing something like that, with the added advantage that they aren't binding their stuff to a specific OS or platform.
Dropbox has some rather tough competition ahead of them from Amazon, Google and Microsoft at the least - they know they'll need to be rather sturdy to stay the leading provider of convenient cloud storage for consumers. Best of luck!
Anybody still using Dropbox needs a head check. They've made too many mistakes that showcase a broken undercarriage. Dropbox is the epitomy of succesful failures in my book. only the unknowing masses will stick with them for lack of understanding.