John Li

Last Tuesday, October 15th, Dropbox announced it acquired Nira, the company I co-founded four years ago.  The next day, I was on stage at the AI Pioneers Summit with @drewhouston and @jonsakoda. Talk about a packed 48 hours. Our journey at @niradotcom began with a vision to solve enterprise search challenges. But as we dug deeper, we found an even more pressing need: tackling the complex security issues organizations face in the AI era. We pivoted, and over time, built a cybersecurity platform that IT and Security teams could truly rely on. As I drove from Redwood City to San Francisco for the summit, my mind raced through the past 17 years. From giving feedback on Dropbox's referral program and designing their first internal analytics/growth dashboards to sharing a lean startup class with Drew, our paths had crossed many times. Now, they were converging in a way I never quite expected. The acquisition process wasn't quick or easy, despite my history with Dropbox. We spent months working with the corporate development team, execs and product leaders. It wasn't about who knew whom, but about how our visions and technologies aligned. In fact, Drew and I didn't even speak about it until the team was fully onboard. Standing on that stage, I spotted familiar faces in the crowd. @joshclemm, VP of Engineering for Dropbox Dash, was there. He joined a few months after me and has quickly become a trusted colleague. At 43, I find myself in my first official job. It's a strange feeling, exciting and humbling at the same time. What makes it even better is that my long-time friend @morganb is my manager. For my first job, I couldn't have asked for a better setup.  Thanks, Manik Singh. During the event, a moment was captured that summed it all up. I’m on stage, talking while waving my hands around. Drew's next to me cracking a smile, while Jon's on the right, laughing and happy as ever. It's just this perfect snapshot of the energy and excitement of the day. I guess Steve Jobs was right, you can only connect the dots looking backwards. Nira is now a cornerstone of Dropbox Dash - a universal search and organization tool with robust access controls. It's fascinating to see how our work on document security fits into Dropbox's broader vision of simplifying work life in the cloud era. As Drew tweeted, "It was so clear to me that Hiten Shah and the Nira crew were onto something big and I'm so happy that stars aligned for us to finally work together." He added, "Nira is a cornerstone of everything we launched today with Dash for Business and it's been a joy working with you, @MarieProkopets, @oneatezero, and the team. And as we all know there's so much more ahead!" Our product and expertise fit seamlessly with what Dropbox is building and their strategy going forward. That's what makes this so exciting for us. Oh, and my legendary parking karma? It held strong. Found a spot half a block from the venue. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So you want to write a book? New York Times bestselling author @annabdavid has advice for you on what to do first, before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Most authors DON'T do this. Big mistake: pickfu.com/blog/pickfu-an… #BookPublishing #authors #ConsumerResearch