The Startup Life · Track 17
Three Eras
Indie Folk / Alt-Country Ballad · Bittersweet epic — triumphant, then heavy, then quietly resolved
Drew Houston · Behind the founder: Drew Houston (Dropbox)
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“Microsoft did not kill us. We killed ourselves.”- Bill Campbell (to Drew Houston)
The Story Behind This Song
Drew Houston started Dropbox at 24 after forgetting his thumb drive on a bus. A viral demo video sent his beta waitlist from 5,000 to 85,000 overnight. By 2011, Apple, Google, and Microsoft had all launched competing products. Google Photos offered free unlimited storage, nuking Dropbox's Carousel business model. Drew killed Carousel and Mailbox alone over Fourth of July weekend, rereading Andy Grove's 'Only the Paranoid Survive.' Bill Campbell told him: 'Microsoft did not kill us. We killed ourselves.' Dropbox IPO'd in 2018.
Lyrics
Based on
Behind the founder: Drew Houston (Dropbox)
Drew HoustonPodcast