At age 24, he made a website out of pure ‘frustration’—now, it’s worth $9 billion

Drew Houston’s company was born from a very millennial problem.

As a student at MIT, Houston repeatedly lost USB drives with important information on them, he told “Lenny’s Podcast” in an episode that aired earlier this month. In 2007, at age 24, he got fed up and created a cloud storage platform for his own personal use. Later, he built it out into the file-hosting company Dropbox — which has a $9.62 billion market cap, as of Thursday afternoon.

“I started Dropbox more out of just personal frustration,” said Houston, now 41. “It really felt like something only I was super interested in as far as file syncing, and focusing on one customer, which was myself.”

DON’T MISS: How to use AI to be more productive and successful at work

This wasn’t Houston’s first entrepreneurial foray: He’d launched an SAT prep company called Accolade in 2004. The gig was “ramen profitable, so to speak, but more importantly a great introduction to the wild world of starting companies,” he writes on his LinkedIn profile.

Dropbox’s success, in contrast, gave Houston a net worth of of $2.3 billion, according to Forbes. He remains the company’s CEO today, overseeing more than 700 million users from 180 different countries on the platform.

But Dropbox’s growth didn’t happen overnight.

‘They just totally nuked our business model’

Popularizing cloud storage was a double-edged sword, Houston said: As Dropbox became popular, it increasingly had to survive competition from giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google.

“All of them launched competing products in one form or another,” said Houston. “Steve Jobs was on stage in 2011 announcing iCloud, calling out Dropbox by name as something that will be viewed as archaic. And similarly, we always felt like we were in the shadow of the hammer of Google launching Google Drive.”

Dropbox was relatively large itself by that point, with a reported $4 billion valuation in 2011. Over the next few years, it acquired an email app called Mailbox and launched a photo management app called Carousel.

But new product lines couldn’t solve a bigger problem: By 2015, platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram were providing some of Dropbox’s core file-sharing services for free.

“They just totally nuked our business model … [It was] even worse because it was so easily anticipated,” Houston said. “So this became a very public and personal embarrassment for me. How could we not have predicted that, or been out in front of that?”

‘All you can control is how you respond’

Houston read business books to help him strategize, including “Playing to Win” by ex-Proctor and Gamble head Alan G. Lafley, he said. His takeaway: Focus on what you can control and do well, instead of what your competitors are doing.

Dropbox shuttered Carousel and Mailbox, cutting an undisclosed amount of staff. It launched Magic Pocket in 2015, an “in-house multi-exabyte storage system” that allowed Dropbox users to handle bigger file uploads and store files at a larger scale — a new competitive edge, said Houston.

The lesson, he said, is to view challenges as opportunities to improve: Without the strong competition, Dropbox might never have pushed itself to grow.

“Every time you move up a league, your reward is a stronger and better opponent and potentially a more unlevel playing field,” said Houston. “That’s just the way it is. You can’t control that. All you can control is how you respond.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Dropbox has more than 700 million users from 180 different countries, according to its website.

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10 companies that let you work from anywhere and are hiring now—some jobs pay over $100,000

If you want to work from home or anywhere in the world, consider a career in project management, technology, or communications.

As some high-profile companies tighten return-to-office mandates, employers in these fields are still hiring for more remote, flexible roles, according to new research from FlexJobs.

The site found a 20% increase in the number of remote job listings in 2024 compared to 2023, returning to growth levels last seen in 2022.

But workers who hope for a return to earlier, more accommodating norms might not want to get too excited. Other signs point to a continued decline: On LinkedIn, for example, just 8% of jobs were remote as of December 2024, down from 18% in early 2022.

Work-from-anywhere jobs, in which employees are can function from any location or time zone, are rare and only account for about 5% of all remote roles, FlexJobs reports.

The site analyzed its database and determined which companies had the highest volume of remote, location-flexible job postings between January and December 2024 in order to identify the top companies hiring for such positions right now.

All of the companies included in the ranking offer full-time or part-time remote jobs that don’t have a location restriction and require no time in the office. You can check out the full list here.

Here are 10 companies with a high volume of work-from-anywhere job postings, according to FlexJobs:

Veeva
Invisible Technologies
Canonical
Social Discovery Group
Wikimedia Foundation
Remote
Chainlink Labs
Nethermind
Gamurs Group
CloudLinux

“Trends like digital nomadism and the wider availability of digital nomad visas are driving demand for work-from-anywhere jobs — but the marketplace is still highly competitive,” Toni Frana, FlexJobs’s career expert manager, tells CNBC Make It.

To improve your chances of landing one of these roles, Frana advises applying to at least two or three companies, networking with employees at your target organizations, and seeking referrals.

Among the most in-demand roles that companies are hiring for are product managers and software engineers, both of which offer average salaries exceeding $100,000 in the U.S., according to ZipRecruiter.

Such jobs typically require, at a minimum, a bachelor’s degree and technical skills, including a knowledge of programming languages and project management software.

Many companies are also hiring for work-from-anywhere roles like sales development representatives and marketing and editorial positions. About 70% of the remote job listings on FlexJobs’s database are for jobs at an intermediate or experienced level.

Couple balances 15 credit cards with no debt—it’s helped them save nearly $500,000

Juggling 15 credit cards might sound excessive, but Air Force officers Quinn and Brittney Sturgis use them strategically to earn perks and build credit — just one of the disciplined habits that helped them save nearly $500,000 in their 20s.

“We never carry a balance,” says Quinn, a 30-year-old pilot. “Whatever the balance was for the previous billing period gets auto-paid before the next billing cycle.”

By doing this, they avoid interest charges while making the most of their cards’ benefits, including earning cashback rewards, air miles and upgrades on flights or hotels.

The couple — both stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California — primarily use a handful of cards for everyday purchases, like their Chase Freedom or American Express Gold cards. Less frequently, the couple uses their Costco card for gas and their Hilton Honors Aspire card for hotel bookings.

As active-duty military service members, they also benefit from waived annual fees on their premium cards, reducing costs and making it easier to maximize rewards.

Aside from cash rewards, the travel perks often cover significant costs. “We do a lot of family trips that are paid for by points,” Quinn says, including a recent business class flight from San Francisco to London, completely covered by airline points.

These benefits help them stretch their budget. They put about 30% of their income toward investments.

Their credit card strategy ‘isn’t for everyone’

The couple’s ability to manage so many credit cards is impressive, says Betsy Hutchins, a certified financial planner in Tennessee. “I applaud them for their ability to maximize credit card perks to their advantage,” she says. “Kudos to them for paying them off every month.”

While carrying an outstanding balance can lead to high-interest debt — especially with rates averaging over 20% — credit cards offer advantages over debit cards. These include stronger protections, such as zero liability for fraud and easier charge disputes, making them a smart choice for everyday spending. A large credit limit can also help boost your credit score.

That said, carrying 15 cards “isn’t for everyone,” says Noah Damsky, a CFP in Los Angeles.

While Quinn and Brittney effectively maximize financial rewards, “squeezing those last few credit card points” may not be “optimal from a practical perspective because it’s such a pain to manage and keep track of,” he says.

And managing 15 credit cards — which Quinn refers to as a “hobby” — requires significant organization and financial discipline, which not everyone is diligent about.

While the Sturgis family “sounds incredibly disciplined in the way they use consumer credit,” it takes “a lot of willpower and recordkeeping to maintain 15 credit cards with no ongoing balance,” says Hutchins.

For most people, she recommends carrying no more than four credit cards. Otherwise, it gets “hairy” for a typical borrower.

But, “obviously the Sturgis are not typical, which has worked for them,” Hutchins says.

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What I eat every day as dietician and gut health researcher: ‘I love the joy of food’

Hannah Holscher, a registered dietitian and microbiome researcher, teaches classes about nutrition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also the Director of the Nutrition and Human Microbiome Laboratory.

At the lab on the school’s campus in Champaign, Holscher and her team analyze biological samples like blood, stool and urine, and sift through large data sets from existing microbiome research to better understand “how the microbes in our body are able to break down components in foods that our own human enzymes can’t digest,” she says.

Holscher’s work helps inform how one should eat to maintain or improve their health and well-being. She also uses all the knowledge she’s gained studying the human microbiome to shape her own diet.

Here’s what Holscher eats to keep her gut healthy.

‘I try to get my recommended amount of fiber every day’

As a mom of two young boys, ages three and six, Holscher isn’t the most strict about her diet.

Being too strict about what she eats “just takes some joy away from food for me, and I love the joy of food and cooking and trying new things,” she says.

But Holscher does make sure to get one vital nutrient in as often as possible for optimal gut health: ”[I] try to get my recommended amount of fiber every day, which is going to be right around 25 grams.”

Some foods that are rich in fiber include leafy greens, berries, apples, avocados and chia seeds.

“The gut has a favorite food, and that favorite food is fiber,” says Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, a celebrity nutrition expert and New York Times best-selling author.

American adults typically eat only 10 to 15 grams of total fiber a day, according to Harvard Health Publishing.

“What happens is, if you don’t get enough fiber, then the bugs, or the microbes that are very important [and] that line your entire gastrointestinal system, they don’t get what they need. So they don’t have that good material to chomp on [and] they start chomping on the gut lining,” Petrucci told CNBC Make It last year.

What I eat every day as dietician and gut health researcher

Here’s a look at how Holscher typically eats every day to get enough fiber and keep her gut happy. “I work really hard to try to prioritize consuming different plant-based foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes.”

Breakfast

Holscher frontloads her day with foods rich in dietary fiber or probiotics. Her first meal of the day typically includes something like:

Overnight oats with whole rolled oats, chia seeds, flax seeds, milk, berries and honey
High-fiber cereal
Yogurt and granola

Lunch

Her days can get busy, so between meetings Holscher typically opts for a snack at lunchtime, instead of a large meal.

She enjoys snacks like:

Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Celery
Carrots
Nuts

Dinner

“Dinner can get really interesting. My husband does all of our cooking in our household. I’m super lucky,” Holscher says. “He likes to experiment with different types of menus, and he’s Pakistani.”

Her husband cooks up dishes with legumes and lots of spices like:

Chickpeas
Lentils
Turmeric

“Just last night, he made chicken burrito bowls. So we had chicken, avocado, black beans and a corn and onion salsa that he made,” Holscher says. “And we had bag salad.”

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How to nail your job interview, according to an ex-Microsoft HR exec: Don’t say ‘I work hard’

Sabina Nawaz knows what turns her off in job interviews.

She is an executive coach with over two decades of experience, and prior to starting her own firm, Nawaz worked at Microsoft for 15 years, including as a senior director of human resources.

Some of her top job interview red flags are not showing up on time, not having the camera positioned correctly if you’re doing a virtual interview and not following up with a “thank you” message.

“I cannot tell you the number of people who simply don’t get the basics right,” she says. Another major red flag is not being prepared to talk about your strengths — but Nawaz has a simple trick to help people identify and highlight theirs.

Don’t say ‘I’m smart, I work hard and I get things done’

When job candidates get asked about their strengths, they often give vague answers that don’t really give a sense of who they are, and what they are capable of.

They’ll say, “I’m smart, I work hard and I get things done,” says Nawaz. “Good for you. You and everybody else.” Instead, you want to figure out what’s unique about you, and how to frame that within stories that really crystalize it.

Nawaz suggests coming up with 20 to 30 examples of personal endeavors or projects, “whether at home or at work, that you did yourself, you enjoyed doing and you were proud of,” she says. These can be as recent as today and can go as far back as when you were a kid. Within those, see which strengths come up the most.

Are you a fast learner? Do you love to build things? And when it comes to the jobs you’re applying for, “which of these set you apart?”

‘Curate a library of stories’ that reflect your successes

When it comes to how to present your strengths in an interview, break up your anecdotes into two main parts: the problem and the solution. “Spend about 50% of your time outlining the problem and 50% of the time outlining your strength,” says Nawaz.

Start by articulating what your strength is and then explain, in depth, what the problem was. Next, describe how you solved the issue, and connect that success back to your strength.

At the end of your story, make sure to explain the results of what you did as well. Say something like, “we landed the clients in our consultancy firm,” she says. “Not only was it a million-dollar contract, but they renewed for five years straight.”

When Nawaz works with her clients, “we curate a library of stories,” she says. At the end of the process, they have dozens of anecdotes at their disposal.

She highly recommends doing the same. That way, regardless of what you get asked in an interview, “you can plug and play these stories” and choose the one that’s most relevant and best shows you off.

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