The Expansion
Houston: We thought about what place we really occupy in people's lives. There were a couple big use cases — private photo sharing and collaborating on files. So we expanded. We bought Mailbox. We started building Carousel, our photo app.
It's easy to make strategies that look great on paper. You want to hold on to as many use cases as possible. But photos and collaboration — it's very different products, very different ideal business model, very different competition. Everything is different.
Straddling Two Worlds
Houston: We found ourselves straddling these two worlds. Which made it very hard to build the best focused product. And it made it hard for people to understand what we're doing.
There was just a sense of — we're doing a lot of stuff, it's not really working, and people are getting agitated.
The Andy Grove Moment
Houston: I reread a book called Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove. Intel wasn't always a microprocessor company — they started in memory and were getting crushed by the Japanese.
As I was reading it, my stomach started churning. The strategic inflection point he's talking about — that's what we're in. There's a part of the book where it says: CEOs like to keep their options open. What you really need to do when you're in the middle of an inflection point is put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.
As I was reading it, my stomach started churning. The strategic inflection point he's talking about — that's what we're in.
Shooting Things You Love
Houston: I went in the office the next week. We're not doing Carousel anymore. We're not doing Mailbox anymore.
Everybody loves the idea of focus. But what focus actually means is shooting stuff you love and turning down things you know you can make work.
Everybody loves the idea of focus. But what focus actually means is shooting stuff you love.