But if I were one of the investors, I'd probably be pretty PO'd to see how my money was being spent.
Not since the dotcom boom have I seen that kind of place. Startups seem to want to run kinda lean these days, so they can be more agile. (That's not to say that the folks shouldn't be well equipped, which it looks like they are, but custom artwork and a DDR machine?) And clearly too much floor space for their size. It'd be a far better use of their funds to operate a smaller office, then move when they outgrew it.
It could be worse, the whole place could be full of $900 Aeron chairs.
Not to completely dispute what you've said, since I agree with it for the most part. But my takeaway from the video certainly did not leave me with the impression that the team there was somehow so short on time that they couldn't just do their recruiting themselves (not to mention the tons of free publicity dropbox already gets acting as a useful recruitment tool). In fact, quite the contrary.
I'd be PO'd to find that these guys dropped $50k recruiting a sales VP also. I'd imagine that that custom stone conference table probably ran around $50k (they ain't cheap). I'd probably even be able to make a safe bet that just the "stuff" in their conference room cost somewhere between $100k to $200k.
Everything in the video just didn't give me the impression of being good ways to spend money. I think the number of people in this thread who are acting kinda creeped out about their office lends me some support.
If anything the DB guys should be heads down figuring out their next product. It won't take much for Microsoft or Apple to just build something like this into their next rev of their OSs or in some patch and simply put them out of business. They have a great product and a good revenue stream, time to start figuring out the next step.
If that step is to sell the company? I certainly wouldn't want to think that I'm buying all this crap along with the corporate assets for my purchase price.
All that said, I'm really just bitching, if they are paying the bills and have cash left over for this stuff, more power to them. It really does look like a cool office and it's a fantastically cool company with a brilliant product. Their continued success is something to be praised, that's for sure.
Dropbox is cash flow positive; their last funding round was for $6MM in 2008. All of those $20 a month memberships add up, let alone corporate contracts. They also receive tons of free publicity. It seems as if Lifehacker and Gizmodo both have an "ode to Dropbox" article on a weekly basis.
Aeron's aren't actually a bad bet for a funded startup. They're durable enough that if you buy them used, they retain practically all their value if the company flops and has to auction its assets.
multi-millions profitable proven business: run premium. afford to hire and provide for the very best. you've solved the product-market-money problem. enjoy life. steak, baby.
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Great tour video. Lots of fun.
But if I were one of the investors, I'd probably be pretty PO'd to see how my money was being spent.
Not since the dotcom boom have I seen that kind of place. Startups seem to want to run kinda lean these days, so they can be more agile. (That's not to say that the folks shouldn't be well equipped, which it looks like they are, but custom artwork and a DDR machine?) And clearly too much floor space for their size. It'd be a far better use of their funds to operate a smaller office, then move when they outgrew it.
It could be worse, the whole place could be full of $900 Aeron chairs.
Oh wait, it was.
The amount of money that it costs to outfit an office comfortably is minuscule to real recruiting costs.
How about paying $20,000 for a recruiter to find a world-class engineer and get them to leave Google to join your never-been-heard-about startup?
How about paying $50,000 to a recruiter to conduct a VP of Sales search and run the process for you?
Aeron chairs, cool pictures and desks all make an office more enjoyable, and are cheap by comparison.
Not to completely dispute what you've said, since I agree with it for the most part. But my takeaway from the video certainly did not leave me with the impression that the team there was somehow so short on time that they couldn't just do their recruiting themselves (not to mention the tons of free publicity dropbox already gets acting as a useful recruitment tool). In fact, quite the contrary.
I'd be PO'd to find that these guys dropped $50k recruiting a sales VP also. I'd imagine that that custom stone conference table probably ran around $50k (they ain't cheap). I'd probably even be able to make a safe bet that just the "stuff" in their conference room cost somewhere between $100k to $200k.
Everything in the video just didn't give me the impression of being good ways to spend money. I think the number of people in this thread who are acting kinda creeped out about their office lends me some support.
If anything the DB guys should be heads down figuring out their next product. It won't take much for Microsoft or Apple to just build something like this into their next rev of their OSs or in some patch and simply put them out of business. They have a great product and a good revenue stream, time to start figuring out the next step.
If that step is to sell the company? I certainly wouldn't want to think that I'm buying all this crap along with the corporate assets for my purchase price.
All that said, I'm really just bitching, if they are paying the bills and have cash left over for this stuff, more power to them. It really does look like a cool office and it's a fantastically cool company with a brilliant product. Their continued success is something to be praised, that's for sure.
Dropbox is cash flow positive; their last funding round was for $6MM in 2008. All of those $20 a month memberships add up, let alone corporate contracts. They also receive tons of free publicity. It seems as if Lifehacker and Gizmodo both have an "ode to Dropbox" article on a weekly basis.
Aeron's aren't actually a bad bet for a funded startup. They're durable enough that if you buy them used, they retain practically all their value if the company flops and has to auction its assets.
no revenue startup: run lean. Ramen noodles.
multi-millions profitable proven business: run premium. afford to hire and provide for the very best. you've solved the product-market-money problem. enjoy life. steak, baby.