Dropbox CEO: Every major tech company is 'firebombing us'
Bloomberg
But when you're growing at that kind of breakneck speed, everyone's going to come after you, trying to take a slice of your pie.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston knows this and acknowledged the type of uphill battle he faces in a report by Forbes.
"We compete with every major company in the world, and they're all firebombing us," he said.
It's not hard to see where Houston's coming from.
Dropbox is in the file sharing and storage space, which has for years been described as one of the most brutally competitive fields in tech. Seemingly every big company like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon has their feet in this space, while upstarts like Box, Syncplicity, and Egnyte are also carving out their own niche in the enterprise side.
On top of that, the industry is in what's called the "race to zero," where companies continue to cut prices while offering bigger storage limits.
Despite all that, the Forbes report says Dropbox is seeing healthy growth, with annual revenue "well north of" $400 million, as Business Insider previously reported. And Dropbox for Business, its premium service targeting companies, books more than $100 million in sales annually, according to Forbes.
That means in just about two years, Dropbox for Business has grown to the size of some of its other competitors like Syncplicity and Egnyte. According to our sources, Syncplicity is seeing over $100 million in annual recurring revenue, while Egnyte is slightly below that figure. Box, one of the leaders in enterprise file storage, is on pace to hit about $300 million in sales this year.
There are still some question marks around whether Dropbox's revenue run rate is enough to justify its massive $10 billion valuation, while several sources told Business Insider the company has been struggling to find the right direction.
But the $100 million figure for Dropbox for Business is certainly an encouraging sign, especially since it's been touting its business product as its next growth engine. Some of its new hires, such as its new product head Todd Jackson and sales lead Thomas Hansen, should also help moving forward.
Dropbox has raised roughly $1.1 billion to date from Sequoia Capital, SV Angel, and Accel Partners. It's last round in January 2014 valued the company at $10 billion.
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