Dropbox CEO: IPO Will Only Happen When It Suits Us

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has addressed the rumours surrounding the company’s potential public listing, saying that although it is still on the cards, he’s in no rush to make it happen.

Speaking at the launch event for Smart Sync and Dropbox Paper in San Francisco, Houston confirmed that an IPO is still something that is being actively pursued, but it will only happen at a time that suits the company.

The announcement that Dropbox has reached the $1 billion mark for revenue run rate, becoming the fastest SaaS firm ever to do so, has certainly helped, removing the financial pressures that have hindered other businesses in the past.

Future IPO

“As far as IPO is concerned, we are certainly charting a path to being a thriving public company, but step one is to build a great private company and that’s what we have been focused on and things like being free cash flow positive and being at this revenue scale are really important steps along the way”, he said.

“We’re enjoying the flexibility, we don’t need cash because our customers are paying the bills, so we have the flexibility to go public when it’s right for us and when the markets are right. We can go public on a timeline that makes sense for us.

“Unlike other situations where companies have to go public because they need the capital, we don’t have that pressure”.

He also touched on the issue of valuation, saying that it isn’t something Dropbox is concerned about and that investors, customers and employees should “look at milestones like our revenue run rate and being cash flow positive as really important inputs into valuation and having a healthy business”.

The global launch of Smart Sync and Dropbox Paper have signalled a change of tact from the cloud storage company, with the focus now centred firmly on enabling collaboration and communication within teams.

Houston, along with CTO Aditya Agarwal, also spoke with refreshing honesty about the issues surrounding Donald Trump, condemning the new immigration executive orders as “un-American” and vowing to do everything possible to protect Dropbox employees.

Quiz: The Cloud in 2016!