This interview with Aaron Levie, co-founder and C.E.O. of Box.net, an online file storage company, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. Talk about the culture of your company.
A. Everyone has a start-up mentality still, and we’re small enough where you get the right kind of energy and dedication, so everyone feels really a part of what we’re doing. People are able to question each other about strategies, whether they’re in marketing, engineering or product.
We try to keep it fairly low on hierarchy. Everyone is encouraged to be entrepreneurial and people tend to be extremely passionate, but it’s not about taking credit or being arrogant about what we’re doing.
We’ve been able to do away with just a lot of the corporate kind of things that I think slow down organizations and don’t result in productive behavior, and instead we’ve been able to get a lot of people focused on really having a good time, which helps us stay fast and innovative. And I think that ultimately is the only reason that people even want to go to work or want to stay in business — to have a good time while collaborating to accomplish a big vision.
Q. So what are some specifics?
A. We had our first ever “hackathon” at Box a few months ago. The engineering team pulled an all-nighter, from 8 p.m. until noon the next day, on projects outside their daily job description. We then had a judging panel at lunch, and the entire company got to watch the engineers present some amazing new features. It was fun and people goofed off but it was also really inspiring, and I think it brought the whole group together.
Q. What were some important leadership lessons for you?
A. In middle school, I did magic shows. It actually applies to what I’m doing now because it’s all about getting in front of people and telling a story, something that people buy into that is hopefully entertaining. It’s all about capturing people’s imaginations and getting them excited about what’s possible.
Q. What about as a C.E.O.?
A. I think a big jump was to managing or helping the managers of the people doing most of the hands-on work on projects — being one degree away from the action and figuring out and understanding what that means in terms of leadership.
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Box.net's (2008) Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith grew their company more than 535 percent in 2009 and tripled revenue in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. Box.net allows users to share, store, and access any type of digital file from anywhere at anytime, and now has more than 4 million users, ranging from SMBs to giants like Volvo, Audi and Coca Cola. The company launched one of the first customized business applications for the iPad, developed mobile applications for the iPhone and Blackberry, and also integrated with other mobile productivity applications. Last April, the founders landed $15M in Series C financing, led by Scale Venture Partners, bringing Box.net's total venture funding to $29.5M. Levie and Smith plan to invest aggressively in R&D and will add a significant number of employees. More
By Ben Kepes
News releasing right now that Box.net (more on them here) has just secured a $15million C round. Led by Scale Venture Partners and with previous box investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and US Venture Partners both taking a share of the action, this round shows that VCs are coming strongly out of a recessionary quiet phase and are actively looking to make investments.
Part of the impetus to invest in Box (beyond the obvious land grab) is the meteoric growth it seems to have achieved – Box has now got an impressive four million userbase and is seeing some really impressive revenue growth – they’ve seen enterprise revenue growth of more than 500% from 2008 to 2009, with reported continuing momentum into 2010 with a record first quarter - up 300% from Q1 2009.
Rory O’Driscoll, Managing Director of Scale Venture Partners is understandably talking this deal up, saying that: For more than ten years, ScaleVP has backed companies that have built fast - growing, successful businesses based on the software-as-a-service model, Box.net has established a leadership position by challenging and redefining traditional enterprise content management, and is poised for aggressive growth going forward.
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By Matt Bowman
Funding comes one week after Box launched an iPad app. Scale’s Rory O’Driscoll joins the board.
Cloud-based file-sharing service Box.net just bagged a $15 million series C Round to expand its engineering, sales and marketing efforts, bringing its total venture funding to $29.5 million. The round was led by Scale Venture Partners, and Scale’s Rory O’Driscoll has joined the Box board of directors. CEO Aaron Levie told us was existing investors DFJ and US Venture Partners also participated heavily in the round.
Box.net started out in 2005 as an ftp alternative. In February of 2008, it added collaboration and morphed into a Google Docs alternative. Since then, the company has added features and integrations at a swift clip, and has grown into a Microsoft SharePoint competitor. More
By Liz Gannes
We see a lot of crazy funding deals (ahem: Zynga, Foursquare) these days for Internet startups, but here’s one on a more standard path.
Box.net, the cloud-based content management platform, has brought in $15 million in Series C funding led by the SaaS-focused firm Scale Venture Partners, and including Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S.Venture Partners. It brings the company’s total funding since 2005 to $29.5 million. More
By Leena Rao
Cloud storage and document sharing startup Box.net is announcing significant news today: the startup has just raised $15 million on Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners participating. This brings Box.net’s total venture funding to $29.5 million. As part of the deal, Rory O’Driscoll, Managing Director with Scale Venture Partners, has joined Box.net’s Board of Directors. The startup’s CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie did not disclose the valuation for the round but said the funding would be used for building out the platform further and for hiring staff in the company’s sales and engineering divisions.
Since its launch in 2005, Box.net has steadily been growing its cloud-based content management system, and has now accumulated more than 4 million users, with hundreds of thousands of businesses using the application. And the startup is seeing top line growth, with a 500% rise in revenue from 2008 to 2009, and a record first quarter – up 300% from Q1 2009 – thanks to deals with the Oprah Winfrey Network, Volvo, and Nokia Siemens are using Box.net (Box declined to give us exact revenue numbers). More
Cloud Content Management Provider Also Announces Record Business Revenue Growth, 4 Million Users
Palo Alto, Calif., April 7, 2010 - Box.net, the leading Cloud Content Management provider, today announced that it has secured $15M in Series C financing led by Scale Venture Partners, bringing the company's total venture funding to $29.5M since its launch in 2005. Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners also participated in this funding round, and Rory O'Driscoll, Managing Director with Scale Venture Partners, has joined Box.net's Board of Directors. The company, which also announced record business revenue for Q1 2010, will invest this capital in expanding its technology platform partnerships and bringing a feature-rich Cloud Content Management solution to the enterprise.
"We're on the verge of a massive shift as IT departments across businesses of all sizes look to cloud-based services as secure, low cost and user friendly alternatives to traditional enterprise software solutions," said Aaron Levie, Co-founder and CEO of Box.net. "At Box, we're seeing incredible momentum for our Cloud Content Management platform, driven by a workplace that has exploded beyond the office walls, and a workforce that needs anytime, anywhere access to crucial business content across all kinds of applications and devices. FTP sites, file servers and overly complex SharePoint deployments are no longer cutting it; fueled by this new investment, we'll continue to disrupt and redefine what has traditionally been a fragmented and cost-prohibitive market, delivering a sophisticated solution that stays true to our core mission of making it easy to manage, collaborate and share all types of content online."
“For more than ten years, ScaleVP has backed companies that have built fast-growing, successful businesses based on the software-as-a-service model,” said Rory O’Driscoll, Managing Director, Scale Venture Partners. “Box.net has established a leadership position by challenging and redefining traditional enterprise content management, and is poised for aggressive growth going forward. I look forward to working with Aaron and his team as the company continues to build market share across market areas and geographies.”
More than 4 million users and businesses ranging from SMBs to Fortune 100 companies use Box.net's Cloud Content Management solution to simplify file management, facilitate collaboration and accelerate team productivity. Box.net saw enterprise revenue growth of more than 500% from 2008 to 2009, with momentum continuing into 2010 with a record first quarter - up 300% from Q1 2009 - driven by deals with large enterprises such as the Oprah Winfrey Network, Volvo and Nokia Siemens Networks. Also in the first quarter, Box.net launched strategic integrations with Google Apps and SAP StreamWork to expand its OpenBox platform, which includes Salesforce.com, LinkedIn, and other key business applications. The company broadened its mobile offering in early 2010 with an enhanced version of its iPhone application, integration with QuickOffice, and was the first to bring Cloud Content Management to Apple's iPad with the Box App for iPad. In May, Box.net will host Altitude 2010, bringing together c-level executives across all sectors to explore cloud adoption and innovation.
"Cloud Content Management is an exciting new category of software with massive market potential, both as a holistic content management solution for previously under-severed smaller companies, and as a dynamic layer on top of existing ECM services at larger enterprises," said Larry Hawes, Lead Analyst, Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software, Gilbane Group. "As the fundamental nature of organizations continues to evolve and the demand for user-friendly, web-based sharing options increases, we'll see a wave of new technologies like Cloud Content Management challenge long-standing approaches to enterprise IT."
For more information, please visit www.box.net.
About Box.net
Founded in 2005, Box.net provides Cloud Content Management for over 4 million users and companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Box.net's dynamic, flexible content management and collaboration solution empowers users to access and share content online, and gives IT professionals unprecedented visibility into how content moves within their organizations and beyond.
About Scale Venture Partners
Based in Foster City, California, the ScaleVP team is a long-standing partnership with a consistent, top quartile track record of returns for the past decade. ScaleVP’s market-tested investment strategy, extensive operating networks and go-to-market expertise help identify and build successful portfolio companies in technology and healthcare markets. The ScaleVP team's collaborative and active approach provides entrepreneurs a competitive advantage for growth and category leadership. Representative portfolio companies include Alimera Sciences, ExactTarget, Frontbridge, IPC The Hospitalist Company, mBlox, Monolithic Power Systems, National Healing, NComputing, Omniture, Orexigen, ScanSafe, Everyday Health, and Zogenix. For more information, visit www.scalevp.com.
For more information, please contact:
For Box.net:
Ashley Mayer
Box.net
ashley@box.net
206.909.6481
For Scale Venture Partners:
Carol Sacks
Tenor Communications
carol@tenorcom.com
650.520.8261
By Tomio Geron
Box.net Inc., which is taking on Microsoft Corp.'s Sharepoint and other collaboration services, has raised $15 million in Series C financing led by Scale Venture Partners, bringing total funding to
$29.5 million.
Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners also participated. Valuation was not disclosed.
The company has more than four million users and had revenue growth of more than 500% from 2008 to 2009, and the first quarter of 2010 was up 300% from the prior year period, the company said. New customers include Oprah Winfrey Network, Volvo and Nokia Siemens Networks.
"Businesses are moving all their information to the cloud," said Aaron Levie, founder and chief executive of Box.net. "We're able to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their content and collaborate online."
Box.net's Cloud Content Management service enables people in a company to access their data from anywhere using a variety of devices, from laptop to iPhone to iPad.
While there are a number of enterprise collaboration start-ups that provides things like social networks, Box.net does not require people to join a totally new system.
"Collaboration happens inadvertently once you get in the cloud," said Rory O'Driscoll, managing director at Scale Venture Partners, who has joined Box.net's board of directors. "You start sharing with some in your organization and then with someone in another company."
O'Driscoll said he has been following the company for some time and has been impressed by how it has beat its own expectations.