Dropbox is one of those infuriating startups that just won’t show us much of what they’re up to beyond the basic user experience (see video). We first saw them at Y Combinator demo day in August 2007, and talked to them again in March when they went into private beta.
It looks like Sequoia was on them fast though. Last September, we’ve learned, the company raised a small $1.2 million round of financing from the fund, making it Sequoia’s second known investment in a YCombinator company (the other is Loopt).
Expect more news on Dropbox in the next week or two.
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I love it … some issues, but a solid pick for Sequoia.
Their service is invisible, magic, and amazing! I just hope they can release soon a beta for dealing with proxies and a linux client.
The Linux client is out https://www.getdropbox.com/beta?os=linux
Dropbox is pretty sweet… I dropped .Mac for it. I tried MobileMe when that came out, and still found it too slow to work with (i.e. the “.Mac Drive”).
Great unintrusive sync tool… Don’t have to be a genius to setup or use… both reasons I have it set up and use it constantly without thinking about it, until of course, I’m away from one of my synced machines and need to access something important online. Did I mention this is a simply GREAT tool?? Love it. I’m sure you’re probably part of the private beta Mike, but if not, I can gladly send one of the invites I have left on my account if you need one.
Alex: DropBox works equally fine from behind my corporate proxy out of the box. When you switch proxies, you may have to restart it sometimes.
how the hell are all you guys using dropbox already?
its been out in closed beta for quite awhile now, I guess we just got lucky
Beta’s been available for at least 4 months. It’s OK but of course there will be a catch to it at some point (i.e. they’ll start charging).
Michael - I have 10 invites to dropbox available. If you would like one, let me know what email address to send it to.
Jerad
Maybe some startups don’t think the whole TechCrunch thing has enough upside.
Mike is just bitter because he thought every startup should care about his opinion.
This blogs is more about tech gossip and poorly researched postings.
I started using dropbox in january because I read about it on techcrunch. really really sweet, so sweet that i feel like i should pay for it
Signed up for the beta. Got a nice little email months later.
Michael,
All you need to do is find someone using Dropbox and have them share a folder (by e-mail address) with you and then you will get a link to signup for the service. That is the work around to hop on the “private” beta!
Jason
Wow, really? I’ve been using it for months; I’m in Fresno, and we’re usually the last to know about useful technologies (unless they’re ag-related)…
Dropbox is one of the best apps I’ve seen, in the sense that I installed it once (okay, three times if you count each computer), and I don’t ever have to think about it. I just hope they launch a structure soon for adding storage to the account.
dm me an email address … @chasers
Noob! I’ve been using dropbox for months, where’ve you been Arrington? Nothing is secret about them, synchs across all 4 of my computers. Awesome tool.
you call me a noob, do it with your real name.
Well if you still don’t have an invite, you very well may be a newb…
Great tool. I was using Groove for accessing documents from two computers and dropped it for dropbox. Found it easier to use than Live Mesh. Looking forward to enhancements, but its been solid so far.
$1.2 Million for a push subversion client?
$150 billion for curl and grep?
Brilliant!
Michael if you want an invite I’ll gladly send you one, just mail me through the contact form of esciencenews.com
Their newest builds are showing a lot of improvements, and they’ve announced a “medium term” feature that will make Dropbox a piece of software I won’t be able to live without.
They make occasional announcements on twitter: http://twitter.com/Dropbox
Also, the Linux client is up and now available to download!
How does it stack up to SugarSync or Syncplicity? Does any of these firms have differentiation or competitive advantage over the others?
I’m not being dismissive - it may be that all three can coexist as huge successes, I’m just curious if there are key differences?
Also, is DropBox using S3 and/or EC2?
I agree, it is one of the BEST services I’ve used. It has become a vital part of my work, and can’t imagine having this many computers w/o it. If anyone wants an invite I still have a few left.
Hmmm interesting discussion …
at times its better for start-ups to be in stealth mode….it protects them from idea stealing, or market stealing or whatever… Michael or no one is a noob, guys. Just relax…:) lolz.
one more post: I also use gmail “upload, save the draft” feature to access any document I need elsewhere. I know it’s a crude way but its as good as this service. I don’t use the USB drive any more since I relaized this potential of gmail. Does google know about it??
The Linux client is also fantastic. I love to see the icon spinning away to sync my doics regardless of the OS I’m using.
It’s one of those apps that I would ‘premium’ on.
Hi Mike!
Dropbox is using S3. The advantage above all other solutions I have tested so far is the absolute simpleness of its using. Its only a small icon on your machine (MacOs, Linux and Windows supported) and your data is synced. You can share data with other persons, you can share photos with the whole world and you can share data. You have versioning control as well.
I guess in parts it is comparable to sugarsync. What is great with dropbox is the community. You have the direct contact to the developers and they are really friendly guys: https://www.getdropbox.com/about
Michael
Am I the only crazy guy who doesn’t want all his files on a remote server? How come you people trust this company? Seriously, I’m confused.
My random music files and word documents will be alright on a remote server.
I’ll be okay if someone reads a random cover letter I wrote.
yes, but looks like some people here use the service extensively for their business… and mining a lot of supposedly unsignificant letters can bring much more information than you expect…
Well, since everybody here likes the service, i guess it makes it ok
sounds like a really awesome tool. I’d love to try it out if anyone can spare an invite!
gary at sheynk dot com
Great article! I learned a lot from it, keep it up!.
I love dropbox its great. I got my invite by just asking on twitter btw.
I have a couple left, tweet me @ninjamonk if you want one.
Yes, to invite someone you just share a folder with them.
I have been using dropbox for months to sync between PC & Mac. The software works great. It should be a hit when they go live.
Great tool. I was using Groove for accessing documents from two computers and dropped it for dropbox. Found it easier to use than Live Mesh. Looking forward to enhancements, but its been solid so far.
Mike, ping me if you want an invite to Dropbox. Be happy to provide one of my invites to you. BTW, someone warned me away from their TOS - somewhere it says DB owns all the files you share…
http://www.carsonified.com/apps
Same logo?
I have been using Dropbox for a couple months. This service kicks ass.
This product has been highly useful to me for 2 months now. Seamless user experience and it it ‘just works’.
I use Microsoft’s Foldershare. It works but it has some limitations. You can’t sync all your folders.
I would like to sync everything. Either that or I want it in the cloud.
Is it possible to sync my entire Mac and my PC?
I’m pretty such that i got a dropbox invite from TC…how would Michael not know about it??
I received a Dropbox invitation April 9 and have been using ever since. I love it; so simple to share, store, and sync files between my Vista PC at work and a Mac and XP PC at home. This plus Evernote make a great pair of tools.
“Dropbox is one of those infuriating startups that just won’t show us much of what they’re up to …”
So they are infuriating because they don’t do what you want or think they should do? When you run their business, then you can tell them what to do. I occasionally stop in and read a few posts. It never ceases to amaze me, there’s always Arrington whining about something or other.
Looks like 90% of the comments above are from the Dropbox people.
Dropbox is nice, but there’s not a lot to. I have to change all my working directories to the Dropbox folder to use it and I can do much with the files once their online. But the thing works, just like they say it just works. It’s a simple tool that accomplishes a simple task.
Dropbox is nice but why wait for an invite if you have a similar product called nomadesk.
http://www.nomadesk.com that is Live.
I’ve tried both and I have to say dropbox is nice but nomadesk is soo much better, check their movie on their homepage and you will see it yourself
10 invites i need to use! hit me up if you want them.
wiachy@gmail.com
Hey missing something?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....g-in-2007/ this will meet stealth mode criteria?
I am a demopit and I complain about, it could have take my company place which in real playing stealth mode….
Mike add your comment here..
Installed DropBox today and it seems to work fine, but their Terms of Service sucks..
“you hereby grant all other Dropbox users and the public a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder. In addition, you hereby grant Dropbox users who have been given access to your shared folder a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your shared folder.”
I just started using it to sync my todo list and blog ideas docs between my office and home machines. Works great.
nice
^^ MALWARE LINK
agree.