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Drew Houston Watched 5 People Try Dropbox. Zero Could Use It.

By Drew Houston · Leadership · 1 min read

Houston brought people in off Craigslist and said: sit down, here's Dropbox, go from here to sharing a file. Zero of the five people succeeded. Zero even came close.

Key Points

Four out of five signups never put a file in their Dropbox or installed the client
They brought people off Craigslist to watch them use the product — zero of five succeeded
The referral program drove 30% of signups, shared folders another 20% — half of all growth was viral

We brought people in off Craigslist and watched them install the product. Zero of the five people succeeded. Zero of five even came close.

Four Out of Five Vanished

Houston: Users come in. Oh my God — four out of five who sign up don't put a file in their Dropbox. Don't install the client. What is going on?

The Craigslist Test

Houston: We actually brought people in off Craigslist and watched them install the product. We showed the video in real time to our whole team in the other room.

We said: hey, just sit down, here's Dropbox, go from here to sharing a file. Zero of the five people succeeded. Zero of five even came close.

Really paying attention to all the steps — activation is just one example — and tuning the viral engine as much as possible.

Zero of the five people succeeded. Zero of five even came close.

Half of Signups Were Viral

Houston: We came up with the referral program — a two-sided incentive. If I tell you about Dropbox, you get free space, I get free space. That drove like 30% of our signups for a while. Shared folders, inherently viral — another 20%.

So half of our signups were viral. That wasn't well understood before that time. It was inspired by PayPal's incentive referral bonus in the late '90s. And I had the idea for the Digg and Reddit video based on a book called Guerrilla Marketing — how do you get users when you have no money.

Half of our signups were viral. That wasn't well understood before that time.