Dear Dropbox,

I have been an ardent fan since the very beginning. Every time I would think of a couple of college dropouts creating something that would “change the world” or at least the technology landscape in a significant way your story story would come to my mind.

Yes your product, not that blue social networking menace, or the webs most popular instant image sharing platform, or the messaging behemoth written in Erlang, always represented, in my mind, category defining, path-breaking innovation.

Image Screenshot from a talk your fearless leader gave in 2010 ( courtesy SlideShare.net)

Legend has it that you too started scratching a simple itch- to simplify file syncing between computers. I still remember watching a youtube video of your co-founder and CEO speak almost three years after your founding and being impressed by the simplicity of your mission “ A really easy way for people to share files across computers and with other people” .

You were(and I would argue still are) the simplest, easiest to setup and use file syncing solution out there. You too defined the promise of the open internet and open source age, where a magical solution could be constructed using very simple pieces. You were the solution that “just worked” and left many thinking, why did we not do that before!

Of all the save options on the Ipad, you are the only one that “simply works”

Even today when confronted with the nested chaos of “save to” options on my Ipad, you are still my go-to: not OneDrive( a classic late to the party, Microsoft abomination), Google Drive (good but has some weird Chrome issues with non https pdfs), Icloud ( never figured out using it for anything other than one iOS device to its next hardware upgrade).

Through all of the scenarios I dinged your competition in the paragraph above, you were the one application that always worked, flawlessly….just like any Apple product was supposed to back in the glory days. It is no surprise that the late Steve Jobs once famously offered to buy you and then purportedly destroy you.

As an open source junkie I marveled at how you were built mostly on top of the awesome and open language python (with a cross platform GUI that used the open wxpython in its early days). You always represented in my mind the torchbearer for the second wave of internet icons of innovation in how you used simple open tools to create pure magic. Pure magic ( and sorry to repeat myself) of a trendsetting, category defining kind.

Soon you were joined by a slew of competition, each promising a slightly differentiated version of your fundamental product. Some, like Box touted encryption and a focus on the Enterprise, others like Google Drive and Icloud, were, like you, consumer focused, but slow in getting their act together, seriously lacked the name recognition that you always did and were often ridiculously non cross platform ( Linux ?) and didn't have a streamlined user experience (see images below).

The Copy to Google Drive link on the Ipad on http pdf pages saves the html page instead of the PDF document

Sure you had your fair share of controversy, from the early slip-ups, breaches which resulted in spam mails, to some users figuring out how to magically sync files if they had a the cryptographic hash for a file they wanted, but throughout your focus on transparency and your loyal consumers allowed you to continuously improve your product.

Onedrive still cannot handle files with special characters in the titles!

Even today I shudder at the wasted time that can ensue when I get a Microsoft OneDrive shared link or a Google Drive Link. I wonder how manyperson hours I have wasted as I clicked a OneDrive or Google Drive share link only to find that I need to email the person back asking them to “just attach the damn file or use Dropbox”.

I still find the “People” sharing mode within Google Drive confusing with non Gmail accounts

One(Drive) of your rivals still cannot handle files with some special characters and fails to sync them. You under those same circumstances once again simply worked, no matter what curse words (!/@#@#%%draft.txt) I threw into my file names- a testament to your sound engineering fundamentals. Your other rival still (G)Drives you into sharing a file in a mode that copies your “anyone with link can access” mode, because its other mode where they have me share by email still fails if you are not careful.

Unlike all the experiences, the competition you spurred offer, your powerful simplicity at being able to share access to a file by a simple right click and “Get Dropbox link” is indeed the stuff that true love is made of.

Your awesome Share integration available with a simple right click ( shown here for Mac OSX)

Love of this sort always has its detractors for sure. The ultra paranoid and cynics out there would argue that many of these “anyone with the link can access” sharing mode are a security nightmare, especially in an enterprise. The so called grown ups would argue, how can you trust your employees ( damn kids) with safeguarding your crown jewels. But I dismiss many of these with a “I can trust myself ( and my heart) argument”. The billions of shares that you seamlessly enable, the ease with which you enable day-to-day collaboration, how well you speed up email communication by getting rid of bulky attachments and very broadly allow me to get things done have made me your ardent fan.

You have always been, THE model of organic growth and are widely studied as a startup that grew to a multi-billion dollar company entirely by word-of-mouth publicity. From the very beginning you brilliantly gave away free space for every referral and your many fans made you blossom in a mode that defined viral growth.

With your great success I am sure came added demands from your enterprise fans. Here too I love how you responded to really enable yourself to be loved by your more moneyed fans- all this without compromising on your core strength of being really easy to use.

Today is a really big day for you and I wish you the greatest success. Know this that as I put in my bid to buy a few of your shares this morning ( treat this as my Disclaimer), I was and will always be your fan!