Storing for Tomorrow with Dropbox

OnLocation: December 2013

By KC Badala, Joe Blair, Alec Douglas, Pierce Freeman, Nate Friend, Taylor Galla, John Hassen, and Alina Rainsford from Branson, Marin Academy, Marin School of the Arts, Marin Catholic High and Sir Francis Drake High Schools

While still a student at MIT, Drew Houston had a big idea. After boarding a bus with his laptop, Houston was dismayed to find that his flash drive–along with all the work he had planned on finishing during the ride–was left at home. Turning his frustration into ingenuity, Houston returned to his Boston dorm room and began working on a project: a personal form of online storage, one that would ensure his files would never be out of reach again.

Realizing the great potential this idea would have for the general public, Houston began working on the seed that would eventually grow into one of the most iconic startup companies of the last ten years. Officially launched in 2007, Dropbox has only continued to build and expand since, and as of November 2012 has come to be used by over 100 million people (and is responsible for .29% of the world’s bandwidth). As reporters we sat down with some of Dropbox’s employees for an in-depth interview, learning more about the site’s functions, its workforce, and its ambitions for the future.