Ask HN: How does Dropbox attract and steal talent from everywhere?

9 pointsaviswanathan13y ago2 comments

I've been noticing over the past year that Dropbox has this uncanny ability to get the best of the best to come work from them, whether from other companies (Facebook, Google, etc.), schools (friends from Stanford and MIT have picked Dropbox over other big names), or through acquisitions. How do they do this? It doesn't seem like you'd have the same kind of freedom as a developer as you might at a company like Google.

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

soneca13y ago

Just guessing here, but they have a product that promises much more than what it currently delivers.

They are the personification of how the cloud facilitate the life of the final user (not a buzz word that no mainstream media really understand or that is only helpfull for a very restrict niche of developers). And when you know that they are expanding to other services (as acquiring Mailbox) you can easily imagine that the sky is the limit. They might just become the next Google. And entering Google when it still wasn't Google is much better than entering Google right now.

And I think the acid test for them was when Google and Microsoft launched their direct competitors. Passing the "what if Google launch a product to compete with mine" test is like equate with them.

segmondy13y ago

Stock options and dreams of millions when they go public.

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