Dropbox

Dropbox offers cloud storage and file sharing. Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi founded it in 2007 after Houston grew tired of forgetting his USB drive. The product launched at the Y Combinator program and soon attracted many users.

A folder on the computer syncs to the cloud and to other devices. People can share files and folders by link with others, even those without an account. Free accounts get a small amount of storage, and paid plans give more space and extra features.

Over time the company added Dropbox Paper for documents, Dropbox Sign for electronic signatures, and Dash, a search tool that works across a user's apps. The headquarters is in San Francisco. Dropbox moved to a remote-first policy in 2020 and cut staff in later rounds. It competes with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Box. Dropbox listed on Nasdaq in 2018. Houston is still chief executive, and the company has focused on helping users organize and search their stored files as well as share them.