Drew Houston ’05, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. Photo: Chad RileyWhen Drew Houston '05 returned to campus today, the founder and CEO of Dropbox shared some tips on how he guided his startup, which aimed to provide free, web-based storage for digital files, into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise."What scares me is that both the poker bot [project] and Dropbox started out as distractions," he told the 10,000-strong Commencement audience. "That little voice in my head was telling me where to go, and the whole time I was telling it to shut up so I could get back to work. Sometimes that little voice knows best."
He spilled a few tips early: MIT is his intellectual gold mind. He found Dropbox Chief Technology Officer Arash Ferdowsi, his cofounder, and his first dozen employees among his fellow engineering classmates.
The Tech, which covers
his MIT studies and early startups, reports that Houston, at 29, is MIT's youngest Commencement speaker in decades.“When it came time to build out the team,
MIT was the first place that we went,” Houston says in an MIT News article. “The amazing thing about MIT is this unbelievable collection of talent. And one of the most important things you have to do as a company is recognize talent and be able to build the business together.”Want to watch his talk? See the archived
Commencement webcast or follow #MIT2013 for the live tweets.
Got a Minute?
Take a peek at "
23 of the Best Pieces of Advice Ever Given to Graduates," featuring last year's MIT commencement speaker Sal Khan ’98, MEng ’98, founder of Khan Academy, who recommended, "Live your life like it's your second chance."
Get a glimpse of student life and find out what's next for these
members of the Class of 2013 in a six-minute video.
Don't forget Saturday's Technology Day faculty talks on the Workings of the Brain.
Watch the webcast live from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. EDT or the archived version later. Or catch key points by following the
MIT_alumni Twitter feed or #techreunions.
