8 ms·

it's not going anywhere :) (actually, come work on it: https://www.dropbox.com/jobs https://www.dropbox.com/jobs :))

by dhouston 14y ago

ocirion 14y ago
What happens when Dropbox is acquired?
- jamiequint 14y ago
  Dropbox is not getting acquired at this point ($5B+ val), they will go public.
usmanity 14y ago
man, I wish you guys were looking for a front-end developer! :D
adolph 14y ago
Thanks! I've been enjoying Mailbox and am looking forward to seeing where y'all take it.
edw519 14y ago
Slight aside... Every time someone here responds when their name is mentioned, I think of this scene from "Annie Hall": Alvy Singer: [the man behind him in line is talking loudly] What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it! Alvy Singer: [to audience] Whaddya do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you? Man in Theatre Line: Wait a minute, why can't I give my opinion? It's a free country! Alvy Singer: He can give it... do you have to give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And the funny part of it is, Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan! Man in Theatre Line: Oh, really? Well, it just so happens I teach a class at Columbia called "TV, Media and Culture." So I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan, well, have a great deal of validity! Alvy Singer: Oh, do ya? Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here, so, so, yeah, just let me... [pulls McLuhan out from behind a nearby poster] Alvy Singer: come over here for a second... tell him! Marshall McLuhan: I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work! You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing! Alvy Singer: Boy, if life were only like this! (Sometimes it is here at Hacker News.)
- recuter 14y ago
  Might as well share a link to the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s By the way, I'm Woody Allen.
  - kanzure 14y ago
    > watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s Hmm, I don't think that feature works like that. Try watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY#t=1m44s
    - recuter 14y ago
      Right you are. Weird, '?t=' is straight from the share tab on the YouTube page.
      - bithive123 14y ago
        You can use # or & but not ? because that denotes the start of the query string.
        recuter 14y ago
        I'm aware, I copy pasted the link from YouTube without looking at it. Probably a bug.
dorkitude 14y ago
Now if you were to acquire 49% of Mailbox, I might believe that. But you must understand our doubts -- it feels like every single time a giant company acquires a useful little startup, the users eventually (and often sooner than later) get burned by it. I'm open to your Mailbox acquisition being the exception to this trend, but I hope you understand my healthy skepticism.
- encoderer 14y ago
  Only in the startup world is Dropbox considered a "giant company."
  - cududa 14y ago
    Any company with hundreds of employees doing hundreds of millions in revenue is a "giant company".
    - CapitalistCartr 14y ago
      As he said, "On(ly) in the startup world . . . " In the rest of the business world, that would be a decent mid-size company.
      - gwright 14y ago
        According to http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html, less than 1% of all businesses have more than 100 employees.
        encoderer 14y ago
        That doesn't really strike me as relevant? Many "businesses" are one or two people. Obviously "giant" is subjective but considering the largest companies are a few orders of magnitude bigger, I maintain what I said earlier: Only people who are immersed in the startup world consider Dropbox a "giant" company.
        14y ago
aashaykumar92 14y ago
This is reassuring/relieving.
nrmn 14y ago
Do you guys hire student interns? (Internationally - Canadian here)
pifflesnort 14y ago
This is what is said LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME a company is acquired -- right along with "nothing is changing" and we'll "continue to operate with the vision that made us attractive to $acquirer in the first place" Without a more clear rationale for why things won't change, it's pretty reasonable to assume that the product is at risk no matter what you say. The fact is, almost regardless of your intentions, your organization is going to put its thumbprint on the product. What that means is unclear to external customers, and is also often unclear internally. If you do know what your plans are for it internally, you're still probably not going to say (though I'd love to be wrong).
- rapind 14y ago
  Are you sure you're being LITERAL? I certainly remember some google acquisitions where it was stated straight up that the product would be discontinued in the initial press release. http://xkcd.com/725/ http://xkcd.com/725/
  - pifflesnort 14y ago
    I would like to introduce you to my friend, rhetorical hyperbole: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole It's not actually the case that every single acquisition in the world involves public platitudes about the continuance of management, the product, culture, office location, or lunch room perks. Just a literally a metric ton of them.
    - anonymous 14y ago
      Here's my chief gripe with using hyperbole and "literally" - If the word "literally" can be used non-literally, in a hyperbole or a metaphor, then it stops serving its purpose of marking a sentence as being literal. Then, when a sentence permits metaphoric and literal interpretations and you stick "literally" in it, nothing changes - it can still be either metaphoric or literal. The only solution I see is using "really literally" to mean that your sentence isn't metaphoric. Until people start using "really literally" in a metaphoric way. I virtually really literally actually in fact don't want to see that happen. P.S. Use "practically" instead.
rglover 14y ago
This is why I love HN. Straight from the boss.
white_devil 14y ago
I can't help but wonder how you're planning to make money with a product you plan to give away for free forever.
will_brown 14y ago
That is cool. I was very surprised to see so many legal positions open and very happy to find one of interest. I just hope the boss will understand working on my start-up in my off time is important :)

it's not going anywhere :) (actually, come work on it: https://www.dropbox.com/jobs https://www.dropbox.com/jobs :))

ocirion 14y ago

What happens when Dropbox is acquired?

jamiequint 14y ago
Dropbox is not getting acquired at this point ($5B+ val), they will go public.

usmanity 14y ago

man, I wish you guys were looking for a front-end developer! :D

adolph 14y ago

Thanks! I've been enjoying Mailbox and am looking forward to seeing where y'all take it.

edw519 14y ago

Slight aside... Every time someone here responds when their name is mentioned, I think of this scene from "Annie Hall": Alvy Singer: [the man behind him in line is talking loudly] What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it! Alvy Singer: [to audience] Whaddya do when you get stuck in a movie line with a guy like this behind you? Man in Theatre Line: Wait a minute, why can't I give my opinion? It's a free country! Alvy Singer: He can give it... do you have to give it so loud? I mean, aren't you ashamed to pontificate like that? And the funny part of it is, Marshall McLuhan, you don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan! Man in Theatre Line: Oh, really? Well, it just so happens I teach a class at Columbia called "TV, Media and Culture." So I think my insights into Mr. McLuhan, well, have a great deal of validity! Alvy Singer: Oh, do ya? Well, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here, so, so, yeah, just let me... [pulls McLuhan out from behind a nearby poster] Alvy Singer: come over here for a second... tell him! Marshall McLuhan: I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work! You mean my whole fallacy is wrong. How you got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing! Alvy Singer: Boy, if life were only like this! (Sometimes it is here at Hacker News.)

recuter 14y ago
Might as well share a link to the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s By the way, I'm Woody Allen.
- kanzure 14y ago
  > watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY?t=1m44s Hmm, I don't think that feature works like that. Try watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY#t=1m44s
  - recuter 14y ago
    Right you are. Weird, '?t=' is straight from the share tab on the YouTube page.
    - bithive123 14y ago
      You can use # or & but not ? because that denotes the start of the query string.
      - recuter 14y ago
        I'm aware, I copy pasted the link from YouTube without looking at it. Probably a bug.

dorkitude 14y ago

Now if you were to acquire 49% of Mailbox, I might believe that. But you must understand our doubts -- it feels like every single time a giant company acquires a useful little startup, the users eventually (and often sooner than later) get burned by it. I'm open to your Mailbox acquisition being the exception to this trend, but I hope you understand my healthy skepticism.

encoderer 14y ago
Only in the startup world is Dropbox considered a "giant company."
- cududa 14y ago
  Any company with hundreds of employees doing hundreds of millions in revenue is a "giant company".
  - CapitalistCartr 14y ago
    As he said, "On(ly) in the startup world . . . " In the rest of the business world, that would be a decent mid-size company.
    - gwright 14y ago
      According to http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html, less than 1% of all businesses have more than 100 employees.
      - encoderer 14y ago
        That doesn't really strike me as relevant? Many "businesses" are one or two people. Obviously "giant" is subjective but considering the largest companies are a few orders of magnitude bigger, I maintain what I said earlier: Only people who are immersed in the startup world consider Dropbox a "giant" company.
      - 14y ago

aashaykumar92 14y ago

This is reassuring/relieving.

nrmn 14y ago

Do you guys hire student interns? (Internationally - Canadian here)

pifflesnort 14y ago

This is what is said LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME a company is acquired -- right along with "nothing is changing" and we'll "continue to operate with the vision that made us attractive to $acquirer in the first place" Without a more clear rationale for why things won't change, it's pretty reasonable to assume that the product is at risk no matter what you say. The fact is, almost regardless of your intentions, your organization is going to put its thumbprint on the product. What that means is unclear to external customers, and is also often unclear internally. If you do know what your plans are for it internally, you're still probably not going to say (though I'd love to be wrong).

rapind 14y ago
Are you sure you're being LITERAL? I certainly remember some google acquisitions where it was stated straight up that the product would be discontinued in the initial press release. http://xkcd.com/725/ http://xkcd.com/725/
- pifflesnort 14y ago
  I would like to introduce you to my friend, rhetorical hyperbole: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbole It's not actually the case that every single acquisition in the world involves public platitudes about the continuance of management, the product, culture, office location, or lunch room perks. Just a literally a metric ton of them.
  - anonymous 14y ago
    Here's my chief gripe with using hyperbole and "literally" - If the word "literally" can be used non-literally, in a hyperbole or a metaphor, then it stops serving its purpose of marking a sentence as being literal. Then, when a sentence permits metaphoric and literal interpretations and you stick "literally" in it, nothing changes - it can still be either metaphoric or literal. The only solution I see is using "really literally" to mean that your sentence isn't metaphoric. Until people start using "really literally" in a metaphoric way. I virtually really literally actually in fact don't want to see that happen. P.S. Use "practically" instead.

rglover 14y ago

This is why I love HN. Straight from the boss.

white_devil 14y ago

I can't help but wonder how you're planning to make money with a product you plan to give away for free forever.

will_brown 14y ago

That is cool. I was very surprised to see so many legal positions open and very happy to find one of interest. I just hope the boss will understand working on my start-up in my off time is important :)