Before Apple developed iCloud, Steve Jobs scheduled a personal meeting with Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, reports Forbes. Jobs discussed the possibility of a nine-digit buyout of Dropbox, but the two co-founders declined his offer.
Forbes quotes Houston, now 28, who recalls the meeting, which was held in 2009: “I mean, Steve friggin’ Jobs…How do you even prepare for that?” Houston pulled out his laptop to provide a demo, but Steve Jobs declined the demonstration, saying “I know what you do.”
Just as Steve Jobs was making his proposal to the two co-founders, Houston stopped him in his tracks, telling him that Dropbox was not interested in the buyout. Jobs simply smiled, and explained that it was their market that he was after, wanting Dropbox as a feature, and not a product.
Jobs tried to follow up with Dropbox with a second meeting, but when Houston said he’d like to meet somewhere other than Dropbox’s headquarters (to prevent Jobs from learning too much about Dropbox’s operations), Steve Jobs went silent.
There aren’t many people who have been able to turn down Steve Jobs in this manner, let alone someone like Houston, who would have been just 26 years old at the time. Pretty amazing story. For those interested in more information, I highly recommend checking out the entire article on Forbes. Definitely worth a read. A video of the entire interview is embedded below: