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Dropbox founder Drew Houston’s response to investors who told him online storage is a commodity When Drew was trying to raise money for his startup Dropbox, he got a lot of pushback from investors. “Google is going to do this” “Online storage is a commodity” To which Drew would respond: “Yes, all of those things are true, and there are 50 other products in this space, but do you use any of them?” They’d say “No”, and Drew would reply: “Isn’t that interesting?” Today, Dropbox’s market cap is almost $9 billion. Drew argues that if you’re doing something interesting and new, you will always face criticism. “You simultaneously have to have thick skin and be able to tune negativity like that out. But you also have to have thin skin if your customers or team aren’t happy and respond to it… it’s a weird dynamic that you’re going to have to handle, but I think it starts with getting some perspective that you will always face negativity and criticism from some people.” Video source: @ycombinator (2017)