Box.net
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| Headquarters | Palo Alto, CA |
|---|---|
| Key people | Aaron Levie (CEO) Dylan Smith (CFO) |
| Industry | Technology |
| Employees | 240[1] |
| Website | www.box.com |
| Alexa rank |  4,116 (February 2012[update])[2] |
| Launched | 2005 in Mercer Island, Washington |
Box is an online File Sharing and Cloud Content Management service for enterprise companies. The company has adopted a freemium business model, and provides 5GB of free storage[3][4][5]
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[edit] History
Box was founded in 2005 as a college business project by Aaron Levie (CEO) and Dylan Smith (CFO).[6] It was incorporated in April of that year. Originally based in Mercer Island, Washington, Box moved to Palo Alto, California, in the summer of 2006.
Box received angel capital from Mark Cuban in 2005, then raised a Series A round of $1.5 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 2006. In late 2007, it raised a Series B round of $6 million and then another $7.1 million in 2009 from U.S. Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, bringing total investment to $14.6 million.[7]
In October 2009, Box acquired Increo Solutions, the developer of collaborative online document and media viewing tools Backboard and Embedit.in. As a result of this acquisition, Box launched two new features in January 2010: an integrated content viewer and the ability to embed these files anywhere on the web.[8]
In 2011, the company closed a $48 million funding round led by Meritech Capital Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and Emergence Capital Partners. The $48 million included $10 million in debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital.[9] "There was no capital limit and we could've raised more," said Mr. Levie.[10]
[edit] API
In December 2007 the company launched its OpenBox platform, which connects content from Box with other web-based applications and services. Included in the launch were online services EchoSign, Autodesk, Zoho, ThinkFree, Scribd, Picnik, Zazzle, Twitter and Myxer. Since then, new OpenBox services have been added from Salesforce, Google Apps, FedEx, Twitter, WatchDox, MindMeister, Fuze Meeting and others. There are now more than 60 OpenBox services available.
With the launch of its OpenBox platform, Box added the ability for developers to create services that will interact with a user's files on Box.net. The API is implemented over conventional XML; documentation is available at the OpenBox Developer Documentation Site.
Box also launched its OpenBox Mobile developer program in September 2009, enabling developers to make mobile content accessible to other apps and services. iPhone application developers that utilize OpenBox Mobile include iThoughts, iBlueSky, JotNot, iRec, Pixelpipe, Smart Recorder, Readdle and Kinoma.
[edit] Products
The core of the service is based around sharing, collaborating, and working with files that are uploaded to Box. Box offers 3 account types: Enterprise, Business and Personal.[11] Depending on the type of account, Box has a number of features such as unlimited storage, custom branding, administrative controls and 3rd party integrations with applications like Google apps, Gmail, NetSuite and Salesforce. The service also has a variety of social features such as discussions, groups and an update feed.
[edit] Reception
In 2009, the Company was awarded the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal's Emerging Tech award in the Cloud Computing category,[12] and has also been named a WebWare 100 Award winner in 2007 and 2008, and one of AlwaysOn's "AO Top Private Companies" for 2007.[13] Co-founders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith were among the top five finalists in Business Week's "Best Entrepreneurs 25 and Under" rankings for 2009.[14] In 2009, Box was nominated "Best Enterprise Start-up" Crunchie In 2010,[15] and was recognized as one of the "Hottest Silicon Valley Companies" by Lead411.[16]
[edit] Media Appearances
The company's CEO, Aaron Levie, has had multiple articles featured on the Blog TechCrunch.[17][18] He is also frequently invited to speak at industry events about Cloud computing and enterprise solutions.[19] The company's CFO, Dylan Smith, was featured on an episode of the reality TV show Millionaire Matchmaker in 2010.[20]
[edit] See also
- Software as a service
- Collaborative software
- Project management software
- Comparison of online backup services
- Comparison of file hosting services
- Cloud storage
- GloboTech Corporation
- Cloud collaboration
- Document collaboration
[edit] References
- ^ This 26-Year Old Founder Is Raising $100 Million To Take On Giants Like Microsoft
- ^ "Box.net Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/box.net. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
- ^ [http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-storage/boxnet-expands-capacity-and-services.php Box.net Expands Capacity And Services – Network Computing
- ^ for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and WebOS devices.
- ^ With latest features, Box.net claims edge over SharePoint, Google Docs – Computerworld
- ^ I'm an Entrepreneur; Get Me Out of Here! | Entrepreneur.com
- ^ Box.net#cite note-0
- ^ Box.net#cite note-3
- ^ Box.net Receives $48 Million Investment, Led by Meritech – Bloomberg
- ^ Pui-Wing Tam, & Amir Efrati. (2011, March 10). Web Start-Ups Get Upper Hand Over Investors --- VC Firms Drive Up Valuations, Attach Fewer Strings to Deals. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. B.1. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2287815741).
- ^ www.box.com/pricing
- ^ "Box.net lets you store, share, work in the computing cloud". December 6, 2009. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2009/12/07/focus9.html.
- ^ The 2007 AlwaysOn Top 100 Private Companies
- ^ The Winning Young Entrepreneurs, 2009 – BusinessWeek
- ^ Live Mesh posts – Webware – CNET
- ^ Hottest Silicon Valley Companies
- ^ Building the Simple Enterprise | TechCrunch
- ^ Enterprise Software Is Sexy Again | TechCrunch
- ^ Freemium for Sale: 6 Reasons You'd be Crazy Not to Give Your Software Out for Free: Web 2.0 Expo New York 2010 – Co-produced by TechWeb & O'Reilly Conferences, September 27 – ...
- ^ The Millionaire Matchmaker Season 3 – Episode 11 – Hillel and Dylan – Bravo TV Official Site
[edit] External links
- Box
- Interview with Box team and founders video (in French)
- Box.net Tools
