Apple expressed interest in Dropbox early on, and teams within Apple met with folks at Dropbox to discuss technical details of the service. Eventually, Jobs requested a meeting — one that became somewhat testy.
The meeting started off with Jobs complimenting Dropbox's innovation.
"You guys have a great product," Jobs said.
He then asked if Houston would be willing to sell to Apple. When Houston turned down the offer, the meeting became less amicable.
"He started trolling us a little bit, saying we're a feature, not a product ... that we're going to be disadvantaged," Houston said. He continued: "But then he was like, 'Alright, well I guess we're gonna have to go kill you, basically.' Maybe not in those words, but pretty close."