There seems to be a recurring theme among many of the successful entrepreneurs in the 21st century. From Zuckerburg to Dorsey, many entrepreneurs have made millions creating computer software or SMS for the internet.

Drew Houston’s company Dropbox is such an example of 21st century IT success. Dropbox utilizes cloud technology to store data on servers and allows its users to synchronize their data from one electronic device to another.

Dropbox utilizes a freemium subscription plan, allowing a small portion of its services to be used for free (which provides the company word of mouth advertising), while providing a monthly subscription based service at several prices for different storage options.

The Dropbox app was released in 2008 and is now valued at more than 1 billion dollars. Like many IT based companies, the risk associated with the business was high due to the start up costs, saturated market, numerous competition and just the sheer nature of the programming business.

The innovative method of data storage and transfer has led to an explosive growth for Dropbox. While the business venture was risky, the risks paid off as Dropbox has now become one of the leaders of IT entrepreneurship.