4. Three examples of the Lean Startup approach

4.1 Dropbox: Cloud-Based File Sharing

Founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox is a Silicon Valley company that offers an online service for storing and sharing local files.

The company clearly explains how its service works: “Put your files in Dropbox, and you can access them on your computers, phones, or tablets. Edit documents, automatically upload photos, and share videos from anywhere.”

More specifically (Figure 19 ), after installing the app, users simply need to drag and drop files into the Dropbox folder—created during installation—to have them automatically synced to the Dropbox online service as well as to other Dropbox folders...