What do you know now about going public that you wish you knew then? When you're focused on the enterprise market, having that transparency and significance of being traded on the New York Stock Exchange is pretty important to some of our large customers. It allowed us to build deeper operational excellence, get really tighter on the financial model - becoming cashflow positive was a part of that, instead of going out and raising capital from our investors on a continuous basis.

Levie: It was a huge moment of maturing the organization. We believe this market is so incredibly large it can support both of our businesses. We're focused on medium up to very large enterprises - General Electric, Eli Lilly, Procter & Gamble. So I think the low end of this landscape is very dynamic. We'll be very competitive with them, but that's also a space where you see Google Suite, Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365. There's a little bit of an overlap in the midmarket - with a few hundred employees.

If you imagine there's consumer/SMB and SMB/enterprise ends of the industry, we veer more toward the SMB/enterprise and they veer more toward consumer/SMB. Levie: We do play in different ends of this industry. How do you see Box as differing from Dropbox. They're going to have a lot of momentum, and their financials are going to be strong. It will be an exciting day for the industry. So let's get right at it: How many shares are you planning to buy at the Dropbox IPO?Īaron Levie: I think that would be a conflict of interest, so I don't believe I'll be owning any Dropbox shares. In this Q&A, conducted on the eve of the Dropbox IPO, Levie explains what it means for the market, as well as what's on the product roadmap for Box now that he's up against a competitor newly flush with cash. In the middle - medium-sized companies - is where they'll battle. His well-known competitor, Dropbox - which is scheduled for public stock offering today - built its rep on a freemium model for consumers, whereas Box chases large enterprise customers.

Dropbox stock ipo