• Dropbox CEO Drew Houston plans to step down as CEO after 19 years in the role.
• Houston named Ashraf Alkarmi as his co-CEO and eventual successor in a memo to employees on Tuesday.
• He shared how he knew Alkarmi was the right person for the job.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston invoked an old and reliable piece of advice to choose his successor.

Houston told employees in a Tuesday memo that Dropbox named Ashraf Alkarmi as co-CEO and that Houston would be training him as his replacement. Following 19 years at the helm, Houston said he plans to step down as CEO after a transition period and become executive chairman.

The Dropbox cofounder said in the memo that the company's culture was in "good hands" with Alkarmi.

"Early in running Dropbox, someone gave me a piece of advice: before you hire anyone, ask yourself if you'd feel good about your little brother or sister working for this person (I didn't have kids at the time)," Houston wrote. "Ashraf is that leader."

He said Alkarmi cares deeply about the people doing the work, and "tells the truth even when it's hard and disagrees with me when I'm wrong."

Houston credited Alkarmi, who previously oversaw Dropbox's core business, with helping the company navigate challenging periods.

Just before Alkarmi joined Dropbox in November 2024, the company axed about 20% of its workforce due to softening demand and excess management.

Alkarmi has since overseen the launch of AI products, according to his LinkedIn profile. He said the company needs to keep "innovating aggressively" during the AI era in his own note to employees on Tuesday.

Read Houston's full memo from Tuesday below:

Subject: Congratulations Ashraf, our new co-CEO!

Hi team,

Today we're promoting Ashraf Alkarmi to co-CEO of Dropbox. Ashraf has done an incredible job transforming our core business, and I can't think of a better leader for Dropbox's next chapter. Ashraf and I will jointly lead the company, and after a transition period I'll move into the role of executive chairman and Ashraf will be the sole CEO.

I want to share why we're doing this and why now. Our business is in a stronger position than it's been in years, and a lot of that is because of Ashraf. He inherited a challenging setup when he took over our core business. Many inside and outside the company were skeptical that our trajectory could change, but Ashraf saw things differently. He made difficult and courageous calls, placed some smart bets, and those bets are paying off. While there's still plenty of important work ahead, the business has been getting stronger every quarter.

Early in running Dropbox, someone gave me a piece of advice: before you hire anyone, ask yourself if you'd feel good about your little brother or sister working for this person (I didn't have kids at the time.) Ashraf is that leader. He cares deeply about the work and he cares deeply about the people doing the work. He tells the truth even when it's hard and disagrees with me when I'm wrong. And anyone who has done karaoke with Ashraf at our offsites knows our culture is in good hands.

Ashraf has spent his whole career—at Amazon, at Vimeo, and before—building products for the creative and content-focused customers we serve. He's also been leading from the front on AI. Last December, while most of the world was on break, Ashraf was building prototypes with AI tools and pushing us to think bigger about what our products could become. I can't wait for our customers to see the next generation of the Dropbox experience.

Ashraf and I will be working side-by-side through the transition. I care about Dropbox as much as I ever have, and that's not going to change. My focus right now is making sure Dropbox is in the strongest possible shape. But knowing me, it won't be long before I'm getting credit card alerts for my Cursor token spend.

Please join me in congratulating Ashraf. We'll do an All Hands today at 10am PT where we'll take your questions, and we'll have more time together in the coming days.

Drew

Read Alkarmi's full memo:

Reply from Ashraf:

Hi team,

First, I want to say how grateful I am for the opportunity and trust that comes with this role. Dropbox is a company and product I've admired for a long time, and it's been incredibly rewarding to work alongside this team. I'm also beyond excited about this next chapter for Dropbox!

What's energized me most since joining Dropbox is the connection people have with our brand. I've heard it over and over in conversations with customers around the world, from creative teams at Sundance to long-time users who tell me Dropbox was one of the first products they ever paid for. Dropbox is a trusted home for their most important work, and that creates a real responsibility for us to keep improving the experience for them.

I'm really excited to double down on customer obsession and build products that solve hard, real problems for the people who rely on Dropbox every day. Our customers are asking us to do much more in the AI era, and we need to keep innovating aggressively to improve how work gets done.

As Drew said, we're in a much stronger position than we've been in years, and that progress is thanks to all of you. Over the last year and a half, we've gotten much clearer about our priorities, where we invest, and how we operate. We've built a much stronger foundation as a company, and that focus is showing up in our results and in how people are engaging with our products.

It gives me a lot of confidence in what's ahead for Dropbox, and I'm grateful to the teams across the company who've stepped up, taken ownership, and helped drive that transformation!

My commitment to you is that we'll be deliberate about where we're going and how we work. We're entering a new chapter where we'll be even more focused on our customers. We'll make decisions grounded in their needs and in the results we're seeing, and continue growing from the foundation we've put in place.

I have a lot of admiration and respect for the company Drew has built and the values that have shaped it over the years: customer obsession, trust, and integrity. Those things matter deeply to me as a leader, too.

Those values have also shaped how Drew and I work together. We've built a working relationship grounded in trust, truth telling, and doing what's best for our customers, and we'll continue working closely together through this next phase. We also both care about building a culture where people are kind, direct, and focused on customer impact.

Looking ahead, my priority is to give our leaders the support and clarity they need to stay focused and keep performing at this level. A big part of that is the strength we have across our executive team. We have an incredible group with strong operational experience who know our customers and know how to execute.

On that note, I'm really excited to share that Mike Torres will be joining Dropbox and our senior leadership team as our new Chief Product Officer on July 7. Mike brings deep experience leading and scaling products used by hundreds of millions of people, including leadership roles across Chrome, Kindle, and OneDrive, along with a strong track record of driving focus across large organizations. We'll share more on Mike and the Product Organization this week, with more details to follow this summer.

I know we have all the right ingredients to be successful: a trusted brand with more than 700 million global registered users, deep customer relationships, and employees who genuinely care about the quality of what we build.

I'm so excited about where we can go from here!

Looking forward to continuing the conversation at the All Hands shortly.

Ashraf

• Many tech leaders say they're ditching screen time limits, though some still use them.
• Instead, they're focused on how their kids are interacting with technology, prioritizing creativity.
• Short-form video and social media remain major concerns for many parents.

These days, parenting means navigating a seemingly endless parade of decisions about technology. Can your toddler watch "Sesame Street" on an iPad? Does FaceTiming the grandparents count toward screen time? Should your teen have access to social media just because "everyone else" seems to?

Parents are more cognizant than ever about the pitfalls — and potential — of technology, so it's natural to wonder how the people leading tech companies handle this with their own kids. Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel have both said they limit their young children (all 8 or under) to an hour and a half of screen time per week. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that he wants his kids to use screens for communication, not passive consumption.

It turns out, tech leaders, for the most part, are like the rest of us: trying to balance screen-free time and critical thinking skills, while also giving their kids access to the world that technology can unlock.

Here's how seven tech leaders are handling technology decisions for their families.

Finding the middle

Kate Doerksen is the co-founder and CEO of Sage Haven, an app that helps parents monitor their kids' messaging. Her kids, who are 7 and 9, get an hour per day on their iPads or Nintendo Switch, plus additional time if the family is playing a video game together. She plans to delay smartphones and social media, but her daughter has an Apple Watch with messenger (which Doerksen monitors).

"Like most things in life, the right answer feels like it lies somewhere in the middle," Doerksen says. "It's not tech abstinence, and it's not unlimited, unfettered usage. It's moderate usage on non-addictive apps and games with boundaries."

Learning and creating

As the chief learning officer at the online education company Stride, Niyoka McCoy, sees tech as a normal part of life, but she's still intentional about how her children — who are 14 and 2 — use it.

"We believe technology should be a tool for learning and creativity first, and entertainment second," she says. Her kids don't have hard-and-fast screen time limits, but McCoy aims to avoid them passively consuming content.

"When kids spend too much time scrolling or watching instead of creating, learning, or building something meaningful," she says, "that is when technology stops being beneficial."

Focusing on well-being, not screen time

Three years ago, Hari Ravichandran's daughter, who was then 13, went through a tough time — one that he believes her access to a smartphone contributed to. He had given her a phone at 13, but now believes that was too young, so he decided to take the phone away and delay access until 15 or 16 for her as well as his three younger children.

"I knew we couldn't just send her back into the same digital environment that had amplified those issues," said Ravichandran, the founder and CEO of online security company Aura.

At the same time, "What I think is overblown is the idea that technology itself is the enemy," Ravichandran says. "Cutting it out completely doesn't solve the root problem and can actually limit kids' independence and digital literacy."

Today, he focuses on how technology impacts his children's mood, sleep, self-esteem, and overall well-being.

"For us, it's less about strict bans and more about awareness, accountability, and open dialogue," he says.

Making sure values align

Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO Greenlight — which provides debit cards for children and teens — gave his four kids access to smartphones at 12, and social media at 15. His kids now range in age from 17 to 26. When they were younger, he watched their tech consumption closely, knowing how impressionable they were.

"My goal is to make sure the outside influences in their lives support the values we're trying to instill," he says.

Limiting short-term video

Justice Eroline, chief technology officer at the software development firm BairesDev, has a blanket rule of 1 hour of screen time for his kids, who are 8, 10, and 12. Even within that, he pays close attention to the type of content they're watching.

"I don't allow short-form content for the kids as it affects their attention span," he says.

Ahu Chhapgar, chief technology officer at fintech company Paysafe and dad of two (ages 10 and 13), says short-form video worries him more than anything else.

"When kids get access to it, they almost enter a trance," he says. "That level of stimulus is not how the brain evolved to process information, and I do worry about long-term effects on attention and impulse control."

Allowing AI, and gaming

Unlike some parents, Eroline is much less concerned about gaming.

"Video games can teach kids a lot of different things: teamwork, reaction time, problem solving, grit, dealing with defeat," Eroline says. "The content of the video game might be questionable, but there are plenty that can work for different age ranges."

Chhapgar won't let his kids have access to smartphones until they're 14, and social media until they're 16, but he does encourage them to use ChatGPT for 20 minutes each day.

"No one has all the answers about AI yet," he says. "So I'd rather they explore, build, and experiment responsibly instead of just passively consuming technology."

Controlling the interaction

Nik Kale, principal engineer with Cisco Systems, makes sure that his 3-year-old isn't given a screen when she's upset.

"I don't want her building a dependency where the first response to discomfort is a device," he explains.

He also ensures that he or his wife — not an algorithm — are choosing what their daughter sees.

"I don't let automated systems make unsupervised decisions in my production environments at work," he says. "I'm not going to let one make unsupervised decisions about what my three-year-old's brain consumes either."

That, to him, is much more important than seemingly arbitrary screen time limits.

"Parents are adding up minutes like it's a toxicity dosage," he says, "when the real variable is whether a human or an algorithm is driving the experience."