>> we had a bunch of friends interested in opening companies, but the smartest of them captured -- kept trickling out here. after a while, we were pretty intrigue. most of us were going into a situation with cabin fever, a feeling that everything was happening was happening out here. we moved here and we were not disappointed. we moved into a little apartment, you may have seen

some pictures of those glory days. before we could on pack our boxes, the silicon valley dream has started coming true. we had investments lined up, more resources to get started here and plug into the community in san francisco that was unlike anything else. since then, we have met thousands of people from all over the world who are excited about building things, designers, engineers, creative people. i cannot think of a better place in the world to start a company. we are really proud to put down our roots here. we are glad that all of you could join us. a little bit about the office. 87,000 square feet, or about 2 acres. a bit of an upgrade from our last spot. distinctive things about it, we are really grateful that we use a local architect and designer and construction firm. a really open in barman.

nobody has an office. no exterior walls so we can enjoy the view. we are really proud of our office team and everybody involved. with that, thank you all for joining us to celebrate. it is really great to be building this company here in san francisco and that the mayor and the city's support. we could not think of a better place to call home. thank you again for coming. [applause] i have a little something for you. come on up. i will hand these over. welcome to the drop box family. >> nice colors, too. [applause] >> all yours. >> thank you. thank you very much. i wanted to come over here to congratulate you and i asked for the starting of the company, but

i wanted to make sure that you knew that i was coming here to congratulate you on two tech awards. that is wonderful. congratulations. as you all may know, there are a lot of great reasons to be here. as soon as i walk in, icy phil cosby. i knew phil when he was just one shot. now he is inspiring the kids and he has done well. he is hiring people at the same time. if i am not at his shop one block away, i am there at 24th and folsom. some of you may set -- some of you may have seen me there. thank you. over the years, he has given me a lot of good guidance. we were talking about how to clean up 24th street. now you see all sparkling it is

but also how organic it is. that is really part of the reason why i like being here at dropbox. you started a great company and kept the product, at least you are still for free. this whole ability to file share and the cloud, allowing people to do things creatively, being able to pull that information, that is wonderful. that is such a complement to all of the technology, not only start-ups, but the whole technology world reliving in. i think it is an invaluable service and that is why you deserve those awards. the other reason i am here is to congratulate you on the new office. it is wonderful. you look out and you can hear, it probably gets a little crazy on game day for all of you. but it is a wonderful place to be. i'm going to try to continue, part of the reason i am here is to meet with you directly.

i really enjoy these outings, not just because we can meet the ceo and cfo of companies who are doing great in our city, but to listen to the employees. a great reason why a company does well is the talent, each and everyone of you contributing to make this an exciting place to be in. the products that do, you are part of a competitive world right now. people are starting other entities to compete with you because they know you have a great model. that should be welcomed. each time someone can create something in competition with you, that means you are doing the right thing, growing, hitting the spot. i want to congratulate you for that and make sure you know you have a mayor that is listening to your needs. as people who live here, i want to make sure that we represent a great city. a city that invites innovation,

supports technology, and invite you to help us, because your creative juices are also what we need in our city. i have been around government for 22 years and i have seen people sit at their job all day long and eight hours later, you do not know what they did. they lose their creative juices when they first come to serve the public. i am creating a relationship with you to the rest of the city to help go both ways. if we can help you be a successful company and keep the entrepreneurial spirit and our city alive, if we can do the kinds of things you want along this corridor or market street, third street, to keep small businesses alive and keep parts in our neighborhoods, keep all of the cultural and richness of our city alive, you will feel a lot better working and living in our city. that goes with a good public transit system, good schools, welcoming the arts community, it

goes to having great sports teams. i think we are right around the corner, in the near future. the giants may not be the only sports team that we have in our city. there may be other sports that are welcome. of course, i could not help but notice that nice ping pong table that you have. ping-pong is part of my culture. it was a part of what we did celebrating last year as the year in which china was open and we used pingpong diplomacy. every company i know of participate in ping-pong. it is a great sport. we do that on some of our sunday streets, particularly in chinatown on august. you see a citywide ping-pong tournament and i hope that dropbox participates.

i also want to let you know that i am quite aware of your mascot. this panda here. i'm going ask drew if i can borrow him. i have a few meetings with the board of supervisors and i would like to have the panda sit next to me. it is great. you are on edge, the cutting edge of a lot of good technology. we are doing the same thing. i have got you involved, twitter, sales force, zoosk, all of you are involved in the great partner relationship with the city. i want you to know that, throughout the next two years, you're going to see us exchange a lot of good ideas about how we support tech growth in our city. you really do represent the most exciting job area that we have. there are other areas i am paying attention to as well. some people said, make sure it

is not a bubble, pay attention to other things. and we are. health care is growing right next door to mission bay. that is the heart of our isle of technology, stem cell research. that is growing very well. we are paying great attention to our stalwart, are foundation of tourism and international status. i want you to know that all that also works to your favor. as you develop more products and services, please know that i am working to create conditions for you to have more international markets. you did not start just to be a san francisco company. in an of itself, that is a great goal. but i think you will agree with me that all of the technology companies came to san francisco to a. -- to experience the international city that we have. if i can establish a market with

you in the philippines, southeast asia, all over europe, we are home to 70 offices in san francisco. the largest number of council general offices outside of washington d.c. we have a gateway for some many international visitors. we want to use that status, create that market for you, have you as part of the conversation as to how to go about it the right way. i am making my first trip to china in november, my official trip to china as the first asian mayor of san for cisco. i want to use it not just to celebrate, but also bring technology companies that represent san francisco colter to create those relationships that you do not have. you do not have them in beijing, shanghai, some of the largest metropolitan areas of china. we can help you do that on this trip. i would love your participation.

and i would like your participation to adjust the quality of life in our city. i am a big fan of our bicycle community. i am sure there is a large percentage of you that bike to work because, obviously, there is no parking around here. transportation is important to you. it is important to the whole region. i am working really hard on getting our central subway started just a few blocks up. you can see the start as you go up fourth street into chinatown. that will be a great connector to the light rail we have are the established. we are great supporters of high- speed rail just a few blocks away from here. we will have a transbay terminal hopefully with a high- speed terminus. we are working hard with the mayors of the state of

california, the governor, because that is linked to our international economy. one-third of our traffic at the airport is the los angeles to sfo commute. we're not going to be able to enlarge our airport physically any further because of environmental issues. out of respect, we will not do that. the only way we could come -- create the international flights we need is to move that one- third of all work commute traffic -- of our commute traffic is to move it on to a high-speed rail. we have transportation grid some of you are concerned about the affordability of housing, is it there for you when you want to be in the city and start a family?

to make sure your kids can go to local public schools. i am working on all of that. we have a great relationship with our school district. if you did not know this, the city of san francisco gives the school district millions of dollars this year. a couple of years ago, we gave them $23 million out of our rainy day fund, your taxes, because we want to support their effort to make sure that achievement gaps are reached, that we are getting to our kids, that they know we have a good school system. for those of you who might consider it entering young parenthood, you want to see our schools succeed, you want to get our kids to know that they can be here and have the best job, as you do, and succeed long term. the school system, transportation, housing are all things we are working on for your future. we want you, as employees at dropbox, and the company to stay

here long term. we are doing everything we can to create the relationship. create a long-term understanding. we would love to hear from you how to make the city even more fun. i am a big fan of california music and arts culture. they want me to spend more time thinking about how we can do nightlife better in our city so it is not just in the daytime that we have our arts and performing culture, but at night, you can go to great venues to experience the dollar -- the arts and culture. we would like to do a lot of that on third and fourth street as we create more opportunities for people who live here. when we do the stations on central subway, those stations that come aboveground will be great places to put some good housing so that people can get here, all over the bay area, all

over california. we have a lot of things that we are working on. we are very cognizant. one of the reasons we have all this infrastructure is we are part of a very successful growth industry for our city. the revenues are looking better and better every time we get a six-month report. a lot of it has to do with contributions from companies like yours. if i could return the favor by making sure you grow, making sure more people are employed in your industry. that will contribute to more people living here, part of a successful economy, resonating into areas that are all over the bay area, experiencing a recovery from the economic downturn. we have to depend upon our own, san francisco-based companies to grow our economies. the years passed, we waited for