No, you're missing the point. The idea was obvious to plenty of others (Box in the case of Dropbox, Lyft/Sidecar in the case of Uber).
The difference for Uber was that they were able to raise an enormous amount of funding, then use it to subsidize their service to the hilt while expanding to as many locales as possible. It's still not clear that the business is sustainable: http://gawker.com/here-are-the-internal-documents-that-prove...
In the case of Dropbox, they just eschewed profitability and instead pursued consumer traction, whereas Box pivoted to enterprise. And it's still not clear that Dropbox is a better company than Box, especially if Box can get its CAC under control. After all, most people are using Dropbox for free, which is one reason Box pivoted to enterprise: http://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-grow...
The differentiating factor between the founding teams wasn't knowledge of some secret, but the social capital needed to raise the financial capital to run a lossmaking business for years on end.
The difference for Uber was that they were able to raise an enormous amount of funding, then use it to subsidize their service to the hilt while expanding to as many locales as possible. It's still not clear that the business is sustainable: http://gawker.com/here-are-the-internal-documents-that-prove...
In the case of Dropbox, they just eschewed profitability and instead pursued consumer traction, whereas Box pivoted to enterprise. And it's still not clear that Dropbox is a better company than Box, especially if Box can get its CAC under control. After all, most people are using Dropbox for free, which is one reason Box pivoted to enterprise: http://www.businessinsider.com/dropbox-ceo-drew-houston-grow...
The differentiating factor between the founding teams wasn't knowledge of some secret, but the social capital needed to raise the financial capital to run a lossmaking business for years on end.