8 ms·

I'm somewhat astounded to hear they have 972 employees. I would have guesstimated somewhere below 200. Even with a huge marketing push, I'm a little at a loss f

I'm somewhat astounded to hear they have 972 employees. I would have guesstimated somewhere below 200. Even with a huge marketing push, I'm a little at a loss for what they all do.

maaaats 12y ago
Isn't that insanely many people compared to what they deliver? Many more than DropBox (300+?) and JottaCloud (~10) without me being able to see why. Edit: You were before me, so added my comment as a reply to you instead.
- _delirium 12y ago
  They have a much higher-touch enterprise sales process, so my guess is that most of the extra employees vs. DropBox are sales, customer service, relationship management, etc. Even after the sell, big clients tend to want dedicated account managers, dedicated support staff they know by name, etc. (Still, it does seem like a lot.)
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    Based on their revenues, it looks like they need to start charging more if that sort of head count is required.
  - nobody_nowhere 12y ago
    So is it a service business or a tech platform?
- phillco 12y ago
  Dropbox is actually > 600 now. (Source: dropbox.com/about)
- qq66 12y ago
  Are you fully aware of what they offer? They have all kinds of well-known and arcane certifications, integrations with a few dozen products that are only relevant to large enterprises, a pretty big third-party ecosystem and the API to support them, and the large team required to sell and support these tools. It's not just file storage for five bucks a month.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- markcuban 12y ago
  The founders coded the MVP...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- dkokelley 12y ago
  I'm curious, is that really as big of a deal as the tech startup makes it out to be? When the team is young, small, and scrappy, I understand that technical skills on the founding team are highly valued, but after growing to nearly 1,000 employees surely the core leadership can hand off the technical day-to-day and platform architecture to a technical SVP.
  - rpedela 12y ago
    Technical executives have an innate concept of what is and what isn't possible. This allows them to better evaluate proposals for new features, refactoring systems, etc. This is one reason why I believe Microsoft succeeded under Bill Gates. Due to its size, Microsoft still made a lot of money under Steve Ballmer, who is non-technical, but it definitely lost its place as a technology leader. We will see if the new CEO, who is technical, will change that.
    - dkokelley 12y ago
      From Ballmer's Wikipedia entry: "In 1973, he attended college prep and engineering classes at Lawrence Technological University and graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a private college preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, with a perfect score of 800 on the mathematical section of the SAT... In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in applied mathematics and economics... He scored highly in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, an exam sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, scoring higher than Bill Gates." I'm not sure if he coded, but Ballmer definitely has a mathematical/technical background. I'm not sure technical background is necessarily an indicator of success as an executive.
PeterisP 12y ago
Well, it kind-of explains why they have the losses they have. In business, usually it's possible to achieve whatever revenue you want; the hard part is getting there without a headcount/other expense basis that makes you bleed money instead of earning it.
31reasons 12y ago
One word: Sales.
- Nicholas_C 12y ago
  Sales, Marketing, Operations, Technology, Finance, HR. Did I miss any?
  - 31reasons 12y ago
    My point was that enterprise companies need more sales people than consumer facing companies like DropBox.
badman_ting 12y ago
None of the numbers I am reading here make any sense to me, but then I'm just a chump who programs computers all day.

I'm somewhat astounded to hear they have 972 employees. I would have guesstimated somewhere below 200. Even with a huge marketing push, I'm a little at a loss for what they all do.

maaaats 12y ago

Isn't that insanely many people compared to what they deliver? Many more than DropBox (300+?) and JottaCloud (~10) without me being able to see why. Edit: You were before me, so added my comment as a reply to you instead.

_delirium 12y ago
They have a much higher-touch enterprise sales process, so my guess is that most of the extra employees vs. DropBox are sales, customer service, relationship management, etc. Even after the sell, big clients tend to want dedicated account managers, dedicated support staff they know by name, etc. (Still, it does seem like a lot.)
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  Based on their revenues, it looks like they need to start charging more if that sort of head count is required.
- nobody_nowhere 12y ago
  So is it a service business or a tech platform?
phillco 12y ago
Dropbox is actually > 600 now. (Source: dropbox.com/about)
qq66 12y ago
Are you fully aware of what they offer? They have all kinds of well-known and arcane certifications, integrations with a few dozen products that are only relevant to large enterprises, a pretty big third-party ecosystem and the API to support them, and the large team required to sell and support these tools. It's not just file storage for five bucks a month.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

markcuban 12y ago
The founders coded the MVP...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
dkokelley 12y ago
I'm curious, is that really as big of a deal as the tech startup makes it out to be? When the team is young, small, and scrappy, I understand that technical skills on the founding team are highly valued, but after growing to nearly 1,000 employees surely the core leadership can hand off the technical day-to-day and platform architecture to a technical SVP.
- rpedela 12y ago
  Technical executives have an innate concept of what is and what isn't possible. This allows them to better evaluate proposals for new features, refactoring systems, etc. This is one reason why I believe Microsoft succeeded under Bill Gates. Due to its size, Microsoft still made a lot of money under Steve Ballmer, who is non-technical, but it definitely lost its place as a technology leader. We will see if the new CEO, who is technical, will change that.
  - dkokelley 12y ago
    From Ballmer's Wikipedia entry: "In 1973, he attended college prep and engineering classes at Lawrence Technological University and graduated from Detroit Country Day School, a private college preparatory school in Beverly Hills, Michigan, with a perfect score of 800 on the mathematical section of the SAT... In 1977, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in applied mathematics and economics... He scored highly in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, an exam sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, scoring higher than Bill Gates." I'm not sure if he coded, but Ballmer definitely has a mathematical/technical background. I'm not sure technical background is necessarily an indicator of success as an executive.

PeterisP 12y ago

Well, it kind-of explains why they have the losses they have. In business, usually it's possible to achieve whatever revenue you want; the hard part is getting there without a headcount/other expense basis that makes you bleed money instead of earning it.

31reasons 12y ago

One word: Sales.

Nicholas_C 12y ago
Sales, Marketing, Operations, Technology, Finance, HR. Did I miss any?
- 31reasons 12y ago
  My point was that enterprise companies need more sales people than consumer facing companies like DropBox.

badman_ting 12y ago

None of the numbers I am reading here make any sense to me, but then I'm just a chump who programs computers all day.