Computer Support Blog

Some of the coolest ideas in the tech sector come about by accident.  These accidental ideas might not have the overwhelming significance to humanity that medical science kismet discoveries – like the discovery of penicillin through bread mold – have, but they can be pretty neat in their own right and lead to surprisingly cool businesses.  Andrew Houston is an American Internet pioneer whose frequent forgetfulness led to the creation of Dropbox!

Andrew (Drew) Houston studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 2000s.  Born and raised in Massachusetts, Drew Houston frequently forgot his USB flash drives while attending MIT.  Always on the run, Houston soon came to lament how forgetting his flash drive would affect his time, grades, and travel.  Houston began to back up his files so he had remote access to them.  When he started doing that, he realized the idea might translate into a service.  With his fellow MIT graduate, Arash Ferdowski, Drew Houston translated the idea for the service into a business: Dropbox.

Dropbox was not Drew Houston’s first business venture.  Armed with his Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science, Houston attempted to launch Accolade, Bit9 and Hubspot at various times.  When he paired with Ferdowski, though, he was able to translate his idea into a viable business.  While Ferdowski focused on the establishment of Dropbox – the business entity -, Drew Houston devoted himself to writing the layers of code needed to make the actual Dropbox website and online storage depot.  Ironically, now that Dropbox is one of the most successful Internet start-ups, Houston focuses more on the business than the coding.

Drew Houston developed Dropbox based upon Cloud computing principles.  Houston was one of the first entrepreneurs to successfully use the Internet-based storage concept and create a successful business built around that idea.  Oddly enough, one of the first big challenges for Houston and Dropbox was actually getting the Dropbox.com domain.  Houston revealed his business savvy in negotiating for the change from getdropbox.com to dropbox.com with Dropbox’s parent company.

Now worth an estimated four hundred million dollars, Drew Houston illustrates how one incredibly bright young man can take a bad habit like forgetfulness and turn it into a service people find invaluable!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Filed under: backups, david milman, Internet, networks, news, performance, rescuecom, tech support