# Drew Houston

> Drew Houston is the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, the cloud storage and productivity company he built from a bus-ride frustration in 2006 into a NASDAQ-listed business with over 700 million registered users and ~$2.5B in annual revenue. A MIT computer science graduate who started coding at age 5, Houston famously turned down a ~$250M acquisition offer from Steve Jobs in 2009 and has spent nearly two decades transforming Dropbox from a file-sync tool into an AI-powered universal workspace. In 2024, he and his wife Erin signed The Giving Pledge, committing the majority of their ~$2.4B fortune to education and entrepreneurship causes.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Dropbox
- **Organizations:** Dropbox, Meta (Board of Directors), FWD.us, Dropbox Foundation, Y Combinator (alumni)
- **From:** Acton, Massachusetts, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), High School Diploma, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School
- **Known for:** Co-founded Dropbox, now with 700M+ registered users and ~$2.5B annual revenue, Led Dropbox's successful NASDAQ IPO in March 2018 at $21/share, 25x oversubscribed, Turned down ~$250M acquisition offer from Steve Jobs/Apple in 2009

## Career timeline

- **1983** — Born in Acton, Massachusetts
- **~1988** — Started coding at age 5 on family's IBM PC
- **~1998** — Worked at an industrial robotics startup at age 15
- **2001** — Enrolled at MIT for Computer Science; scored perfect 1600 SAT
- **~2004** — Co-founded Accolade, an online SAT prep company, while at MIT
- **2005-2006** — Worked at Bit9 (now Carbon Black), a cybersecurity firm
- **2006** — Built a real-money poker bot; briefly worked at early HubSpot
- **November 2006** — Forgot USB drive on a Boston bus; began coding Dropbox solution
- **June 2007** — Co-founded Dropbox (as Evenflow, Inc.) with Arash Ferdowsi
- **Summer 2007** — Accepted into Y Combinator with $15,000 seed funding
- **2007** — 3-minute demo video went viral, growing beta waitlist from 5,000 to 75,000
- **2008** — Dropbox publicly launches; raised $1.2M seed round led by Sequoia Capital
- **2009** — Declined ~$250M acquisition offer from Steve Jobs/Apple
- **October 2009** — Company renamed from Evenflow, Inc. to Dropbox, Inc.
- **2011** — Major funding from Sequoia, Index, Greylock, and IVP
- **2012** — Dropbox reaches 100 million registered users
- **April 2013** — Co-founded FWD.us with Mark Zuckerberg for immigration reform
- **June 2013** — Delivered MIT commencement address - 'Finding Your Tennis Ball'
- **2014** — Won TechCrunch Crunchie Award for Founders of the Year with Ferdowsi
- **2015** — Exited consumer products (Carousel, Mailbox) to refocus on enterprise
- **2015** — Won The Economist Innovation Award
- **January 2017** — Repositioned Dropbox as a 'Smart Workspace'
- **March 2018** — Dropbox IPO on NASDAQ (DBX) at $21/share; market cap exceeded $8B
- **2018** — Co-founded the Dropbox Foundation focused on human rights
- **January 2019** — Acquired HelloSign for $230 million
- **April 2020** — Implemented 'Virtual First' remote work model
- **February 2020** — Joined Meta's Board of Directors
- **June 2023** — Launched Dropbox Dash AI-powered universal search and $50M AI venture fund
- **April 2023** — Dropbox lays off ~500 employees (~16% of workforce)
- **October 2024** — Dropbox lays off 528 employees (~20% of workforce) to shift to AI
- **2024** — Houston and wife Erin sign The Giving Pledge, committing majority of ~$2.4B fortune to philanthropy
- **2025** — Dropbox Dash Spring release: AI search across video, audio, images with Slack/Teams/Zoom integrations
- **2026** — Dropbox Dash 2.0 gains 'Answers' - generative AI parsing across user's entire cloud ecosystem

## Achievements

- Co-founded Dropbox, now with 700M+ registered users and ~$2.5B annual revenue
- Led Dropbox's successful NASDAQ IPO in March 2018 at $21/share, 25x oversubscribed
- Turned down ~$250M acquisition offer from Steve Jobs/Apple in 2009
- Delivered MIT commencement address in 2013 ('Finding Your Tennis Ball')
- Named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People
- Named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 (2012)
- Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 and Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40
- TechCrunch Crunchie Award: Founders of the Year (2014)
- The Economist Innovation Award: Computing & Telecommunications (2015)
- MIT Technology Review TR35: Top Innovators Under 35 (2012)
- Co-founded FWD.us immigration reform advocacy org with Mark Zuckerberg
- Joined Meta's Board of Directors (2020-present)
- Signed The Giving Pledge (2024) committing majority of $2.4B fortune to philanthropy
- Championed Dropbox's 'Virtual First' remote model, influencing industry norms

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Dropbox Dash 2.0 'Answers' feature uses generative AI to respond to complex work queries across user's entire cloud ecosystem
- **2025-10** — Discussed why he still codes as CEO in Semafor interview, calling it 'living a couple years in the future'
- **2025-06** — Dropbox Dash Spring '25 release: AI search across video, audio, images; integrations with Slack, Teams, Zoom
- **2025-01** — Told CNBC: 'My company was born from pure frustration'
- **2024-10** — Dropbox lays off 528 employees (~20% of workforce) to shift focus to AI
- **2024-09** — Houston and wife Erin sign The Giving Pledge, committing majority of ~$2.4B fortune to education and entrepreneurship

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhouston
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/drewhouston

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/drew-houston
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-28