Sarah Schubach on making a difference through finance

Dropbox CPA Sarah Schubach shares how finance impacts every part of a business.

What did you do before Dropbox?

I worked in assurance services as a financial statement auditor for a huge accounting firm. I learned a lot — but it wasn’t a job I planned to stay in forever.

What made you choose to go into finance?

My first accounting professor in college became very influential in my choice of career path. I admired her successful career and the balance and flexibility she had been able to maintain while pursuing her career path throughout her life. I also liked that in accounting there was always a black and white answer! It turns out that’s definitely not always true, but I didn’t find that out until later!

Why did you join Dropbox?

I wanted to make a difference. Most people probably think you can’t do that in finance — but you really can. Working towards more efficient and accurate processes and bringing different teams together has changed how we run as a team. It has also made it easier for other teams and executives to have more visibility into our financial information sooner, which helps drive business decisions.

What do you do at Dropbox?

I’m part of the accounting team, and I specialize in Dropbox revenue. There’s a huge range of work that I do, but a lot of it focuses on our partnerships with other companies, our customers, and the systems that we use to calculate and report our revenue.

What surprised you about Dropbox when you joined?

How much work there was to be done! That’s one of the main reasons I joined, but it was still a surprise. There is still a lot of work to be done and I’m sure there always will be. Working away at these huge goals we set for ourselves each year, little by little, has been one of the most challenging aspects of joining Dropbox, but also by far the most rewarding.

What’s unique about the finance team at Dropbox?

As a whole, we’re the finance team, but most people have very different focuses and work on totally different areas and projects. Despite this, there’s a lot of collaboration within the team and sub-teams, and we meet regularly to help everyone understand what we’ve been working on and what our recent wins are. Working closely with other people, even if they don’t have the expertise in your area or focus, helps to bring new perspective to issues that you might not have thought of otherwise.

What’s it been like to be a part of growing the finance team at Dropbox?

When I joined the accounting team, there were only a few people, and everyone just “got it done.” If someone needed help, even if it wasn’t an area you were very familiar with, you jumped in anyway to help them out.

Since I joined though, the team has grown over four times bigger, and we work really well together. We have lots of fun as a group, with regular Finance happy hours every Friday, hanging out together outside of work, and team offsites. Maintaining the team culture as we grew is something we’re really proud of.

What have been some of your favorite moments at Dropbox so far?

All of our big product launch events. They bring the company together in really unique ways. Everyone celebrates our successes, and the hard work that so many people have put in, but also acknowledges that it’s only one more step in our ultimate goal — and that we’re not there yet!