When Drew founded Dropbox, there were already plenty of cloud storage companies vying for a place in the market. He always has a supremely clear concept of his advantage. I wanted to talk to Drew Houston because he isn’t afraid to step into a crowded field or take on giants. But what if the field you’re in is already crowded? Or worse: has gained the attention of far larger and better resourced giants? Does that mean you should pack up and go home? Definitely not, especially if there is still no clearly dominant player in your particular field. That’s why I tell people that being contrarian and right is a truly winning combination.īy going against the grain and pursuing an opportunity that everyone else has ignored, you’ll give yourself valuable time to refine your business model and win users. The best way to get your fledgling company off to a flying start is to do something that no one else is doing. Try to fight the giant on his own terms, he’ll crush you where you stand. But only if you know where your true strength lies. If you’re a scrappy startup who wants to slay giants, you have a better chance than you think. And I believe you can take on Goliaths and win – but only if you know exactly what your advantage is. HOFFMAN: I’m Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, and your host. I believe you can take on Goliaths and win – but only if you know exactly what your advantage is. They believed their superior knowledge of the game would let them emerge victorious. Mozy seemed like overwhelming competitors but Drew and the Dropbox house band didn’t flinch. But it’s also an excellent metaphor to start this episode. HOFFMAN: On the surface, this is a small, funny story about a memorable game. The last 10 seconds of it we finally jumped ahead by like 8,000 points. It’s like this impossibly difficult kind of thing. It came down to one last song, I think it was a Megadeth song on expert. We won two songs each but we were still tied. HOFFMAN: The battle of the cloud storage bands was on. He’s like, “No, this is my drum set holder.” We’re like, “Oh my God. He’s like, “No.” He opened the duffle bag and starts pulling these giant pieces of foam out and assembling them like a jigsaw puzzle. I’m like, “What the hell is in the duffle bag?” I’m like, “Is that your custom instrument?” HOUSTON: They come in with this giant duffle bag. Dropbox and their groupies rocked up to the offices. HOFFMAN: That’s the which went on to become Twitch. They’d be like, “Can we bring our own instruments?”Įventually this all culminates in this showdown, which we were going to be live streaming on. HOUSTON: Every time I would ask them a clarifying question they’d up the ante. HOFFMAN: The more they hashed out the rules for the coming battle royale, the more serious things became. We’re like, “Do they know what they’re getting into?” So we have this polite negotiation where I’m trying to feel them out, because I’m like, “Man, we might just stomp you guys.” We’re like, “Oh man, they seem serious.” They made this cinematic throw down video, unprompted. They recorded a video challenging us to a duel. HOUSTON: Then Mozy, the backup company, gave us a call out on YouTube. HOFFMAN: With stats like that, Drew and his team were confident that they could out-rock anyone in Silicon Valley. We routinely found ourselves playing a song, the four of us, and we’d be like number seven globally for that song. HOUSTON: We were pretty competitive – as we were with a lot of things. In case you’re not familiar with “Rock Band”, it’s a video game that lets you play along to popular songs with virtual instruments. REID HOFFMAN: That’s Drew Houston, Dropbox co-founder and CEO. But then during the day we couldn’t play the real instruments, so we would play “Rock Band.” To blow off steam at night we’ve always had a tradition of having musical instruments – so guitars and drums – in the office. DREW HOUSTON: We had a number of early traditions in the beginning years of Dropbox.
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