PitchMagic

Dropbox pitch deck (2007)

Dropbox's 2007 pitch deck is the seed deck Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi used after Y Combinator, pitching files that stay in sync across every computer. The company raised a $1.2M seed round. Founders study the Dropbox pitch deck because it asks and answers the questions investors care about, like why now and why better, in plain bullet points.

Company
Dropbox
Year
2007
Round
Seed
Raised
$1.2M
Slides
17
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Deck © Dropbox. Shared for learning, credited to web.archive.org.

What's in the Dropbox pitch deck

All 17 slides, in order.

  1. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 1: Cover

    Slide 1 · Cover

    The Dropbox logo, the line moving the world's files, and the getdropbox.com address.

    How to write this slide
  2. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 2: Storage Is a Mess

    Slide 2 · Storage Is a Mess

    A photo of a desk buried in computers, cables and paper.

  3. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 3: Problem

    Slide 3 · Problem

    It's 2007 and it's still a pain to work on several computers, share files with a team, put photos and video online, and protect files from loss.

    How to write this slide
  4. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 4: Current Solutions

    Slide 4 · Current Solutions

    People use email attachments, USB drives, browser uploads and piecemeal tools.

    How to write this slide
  5. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 5: Perfect World

    Slide 5 · Perfect World

    Your files on any device, never losing data, and sharing that is drag and drop.

  6. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 6: Solution

    Slide 6 · Solution

    Dropbox keeps files in sync across computers, backed up, accessible from anywhere and easy to share, and it just works.

    How to write this slide
  7. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 7: Demo

    Slide 7 · Demo

    Screenshots of the Dropbox web page and the Windows folder integration.

  8. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 8: Why Now

    Slide 8 · Why Now

    More devices and bigger files, more remote teams, falling bandwidth and storage prices, and online storage as unclaimed territory, much like search before Google.

    How to write this slide
  9. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 9: Why Better

    Slide 9 · Why Better

    One app for the whole genre of storage problems, deep OS integration, no change to how you work, and open APIs.

  10. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 10: Competitors

    Slide 10 · Competitors

    A checklist table where Dropbox is the only one with sync, backup, sharing, OS integration, web access and versioning, compared with Carbonite, Mozy, Foldershare and box.net.

  11. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 11: What Others Got Wrong

    Slide 11 · What Others Got Wrong

    Competitors tackle small pieces of the problem, execute poorly, have clumsy technical interfaces and lack distribution.

  12. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 12: Technical Advantages

    Slide 12 · Technical Advantages

    Client and server written in Python for 5 to 10x faster development, built on Amazon S3 and EC2, with compression, encryption and binary diffing.

    How to write this slide
  13. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 13: Team

    Slide 13 · Team

    Drew Houston as CEO and Arash Ferdowsi as CTO, both from MIT, with a photo of them moving into their first office on 5/14/07.

    How to write this slide
  14. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 14: Business Model

    Slide 14 · Business Model

    Freemium for individuals, a per-seat shared folder license for small businesses, and a platform for moving user content from desktop to web.

    How to write this slide
  15. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 15: Platform

    Slide 15 · Platform

    Dropbox as the on-ramp for all user files from desktop to web, with drag and drop replacing browser uploads.

  16. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 16: Customer Acquisition

    Slide 16 · Customer Acquisition

    Early adopters as natural influencers, free accounts, viral sharing features, and partnerships for free customer acquisition.

  17. Dropbox pitch deck, slide 17: Press

    Slide 17 · Press

    Ranked number one among summer YC startups by VentureBeat, with a quote praising its simple interface.

What the Dropbox deck does well

  • Slides 3 and 4 name the pain and the bad workarounds people already use, email attachments and USB drives, so every investor recognizes the problem from their own life.
  • Slide 8 answers why now with four concrete trends and one sharp comparison to search before Google.
  • Slide 10 uses a simple checkmark table that shows at a glance that no competitor does everything Dropbox does.

What founders can learn from it

  • Add explicit why now and why better slides, since those are the two questions investors ask most.
  • Show what people do today instead of your product, because the workaround proves the pain is real.
  • Put your distribution plan in the deck, as Dropbox did with free accounts and viral sharing on slide 16, since a good product alone is not a plan.

Questions about the Dropbox pitch deck

How many slides are in the Dropbox pitch deck?
The original 2007 Dropbox pitch deck has 17 slides.
What's in the Dropbox pitch deck?
It covers the problem, what people do today, the ideal world, the solution, a demo, why now, why better, competitors, what competitors got wrong, technical advantages, team, business model, platform, customer acquisition and press.
Can I download the Dropbox pitch deck?
Yes. The Dropbox pitch deck is free to download as a PDF on this page.
How much did Dropbox raise with this deck?
Dropbox raised a $1.2M seed round in 2007.
What business model did the Dropbox pitch deck describe?
Freemium for individuals, a per-seat shared folder license for small businesses, and a platform for moving user files from the desktop to web apps.

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