Dropbox's 12-Year Evolution

Building a startup is hard work. Thankfully, many have already made it to the other side. In an attempt to learn from the experiences of some of these great companies, here's a short glimpse of Dropbox's journey.

Included is a timeline of big milestones, brand changes over the years, search trends, user growth, and some further reading.


Timeline of Events
November 2006
The idea for what will become Dropbox is born
"It started in Boston's South Station in November 2006 where one night, while waiting for the Chinatown bus to New York, I wrote the first lines of code of what eventually became Dropbox. I had forgotten my USB drive at home and was frustrated that I couldn't get any 'real work' done." —Drew Houston [source]
April 4, 2007
Drew Houston submits an explainer video to HN [link]
The original screencast (mirrored): [link]
June 2007
Dropbox is accepted into YC and raises a seed round of $15k
The original YC application: [link]
March 2008
A demo video submission goes viral on Digg [link]
11 September, 2008
Dropbox launches to the public
Original launch post announcement: [link]
November 2008
Raises $6 million in Series A round led by Sequoia Capital
October 2009
Acquires the "dropbox.com" domain name
After the original owner refused to sell the domain, Dropbox sued the domain owner for attempting to exploit the domain's popularity. That led to further discussions to sell the domain, and Dropbox offered the owner cash or stock. He took $300,000 in cash. Full story: [link]
December 2009
Steve Jobs approaches Dropbox for a possible acquisition. Dropbox prefers to remain independent.
Full story: [link]
October 2011
Raises $250M in a Series B round of funding at a $4B evaluation
July 10, 2012
Introduces Pro plans (later renamed to Plus)
November 12, 2012
Reaches 100 million users
November 13, 2013
Hits 200 million users, and Dropbox Business is announced
January 2014
Raises $350M in a Series C round of funding at a $10B evaluation
November 04, 2015
Dropbox Enterprise launches
March 07, 2016
Reaches 500 million users
June 14, 2016
Announces that it is cash flow positive
January 30, 2017
Hits $1 billion revenue run rate
May 08, 2017
Dropbox turns 10 years old
March 23, 2018
Dropbox goes public
Dropbox becomes the first Y Combinator company to go public. Congrats Dropbox: [link]
Google Trends and User Growth
* user growth data is approximate