logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2019
42m 20s

Take on Goliath — and win, w/Dropbox's D...

Waitwhat
About this episode

When Drew Houston founded Dropbox, he knew he faced some fierce competition (hello, Google, Apple and Microsoft). But he didn’t back down. Why? Because he believed in his product, and he knew he had an advantage those big, cumbersome competitors could never exploit: Dropbox was lean, focused and fast. Hear how he outmaneuvered the big dogs – and what's next for Dropbox.

Drew Houston's reading list! Books mentioned in this episode:

Competing Against Luck, by Clay Christensen and Karen Dillon

The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz

Becoming Steve Jobs, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, by James Wallace and Jim Erickson

Founders at Work, by Jessica Livingston

High Output Management, by Andy Grove

Music: "Exciting Trailer" by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/drew-houston-how-to-take-on-goliaths-and-win/

Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Jul 10
How a summer job grew into an ice cream empire, with CEO Ben Van Leeuwen
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is one of the fastest growing dessert brands in the country. It’s known for its seriously delicious classic flavors and its wacky collaborations. (Kraft Mac and Cheese ice cream, anyone?) Co-founder and CEO Ben Van Leeuwen talks with Jeff Berman to reveal ho ... Show More
32m 44s
Jul 8
PBS fights for its future, with President & CEO Paula Kerger
PBS President & CEO Paula Kerger joins Rapid Response to take us inside the organization’s financial reality if federal funding is stripped, and how she’s battling to protect iconic programming — from Frontline to Sesame Street. Kerger shares the role of corporate philanthropy in ... Show More
27m 7s
Jul 3
How Baby2Baby stepped up as LA wildfires raged, with co-CEOs Norah Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof
Devastating wildfires tore through Los Angeles at the start of 2025. Nonprofit Baby2Baby was on the ground leveraging its deep knowledge of how to respond to natural disasters to help families in need. Co-CEOs Norah Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof joined host Jeff Berman on s ... Show More
36m 16s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2020
Dropbox: Drew Houston
In 2006, Drew Houston got on a bus from Boston heading to New York. He planned to use the three-hour ride to get some work done, so he opened his laptop, and realized he had left his thumb drive with all of his work files at home. Drew decided he never wanted to have that problem ... Show More
47m 51s
Oct 2022
20VC: Dropbox's Drew Houston on Leadership; Hiring, Firing, Breakpoints in Company Scaling, The Story of Nearly Getting Acquired by Steve Jobs and Apple, How Founders Should Think Through Potential In
Drew Houston is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Dropbox, for over 700 million users and +600,000 teams, Dropbox is the choice for storing and sharing their most important files. Prior to their IPO in 2018, Drew raised funding from some of the best including Sequoia, Index, Greylock, and ... Show More
43m 59s
Jan 2015
Ep 56: How to Think Like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos
Dr. Peter Diamandis has been named one of “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders" by Fortune Magazine. You asked for an entire episode with him, so here it is! The subject is simple: How to think big, and how to use the key strategies of Peter's friends and investors, including Elon Mu ... Show More
1h 16m
Aug 2019
#381: Charles Koch — CEO of Koch Industries
“When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will.” — Charles Koch, quoting Frédéric BastiatThis episode will no doubt surprise people, and my guest came to me through channels I wouldn't have expected.---Charles Koch received a bachelor’s degree in general engineering and two maste ... Show More
2h 6m
Aug 2020
#456: The Power of Myth — The Hero’s Adventure with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
The Power of Myth — The Hero’s Adventure with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers | Brought to you by How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David M. RubensteinWelcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is normally my job ... Show More
1 h
Jan 2024
Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon)
Ethan Evans is a writer, career coach, course instructor, and retired VP at Amazon. During his 15 years at Amazon, he helped invent Prime Video, Amazon Video, the Amazon Appstore, Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime), and Twitch Commerce. Prior to Amazon, Ethan spent 12 years in ... Show More
1h 21m
Apr 2024
CrunchLabs: Mark Rober
As one of the most successful creators on YouTube, Mark Rober doesn’t see what he does as a business. Instead, it’s a way to celebrate science in the most joyful way possible. While working as an engineer at NASA, he made his YouTube debut with a tutorial on how to make a gory Ha ... Show More
1h 9m
Dec 2020
Author and Podcaster: Tim Ferriss
By the time he turned 30, Tim Ferriss had figured out how to succeed at things that many people fail at—from growing a business to dancing the tango to marketing a best-selling book. He approached these and numerous other challenges by breaking them down into manageable chunks, c ... Show More
1h 24m
Mar 2024
#726: Hugh Howey, Author of Silo and Wool — A Masterclass on Writing, Unorthodox Self-Publishing, and Living in The AI Age
Hugh Howey is the New York Times bestselling author of Wool, Beacon 23, Sand, Machine Learning, Half Way Home, and more than a dozen other novels. His Silo trilogy was recently adapted by Apple TV, becoming their #1 drama of all time. Please enjoy!Timestamps for this episode are ... Show More
1h 40m
Feb 2023
#291 David Packard (Founder of HP)
What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard.----Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders by signing up for Founders Notes----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best !----Do our products off ... Show More
47m 3s