Xabier Ormazabal on seeking new and diverse markets

As head of EMEA marketing at Dropbox, Xabier helps fuel international expansion and tailors programs to local markets.

What did you do before Dropbox?

I worked at a couple of different technology companies before Dropbox. I was at Salesforce for 10 years, and before that I worked at a company called Tridion doing web content management and Micro Strategy for business intelligence. So it’s been about 16 years in the tech industry.

What are the main changes you’ve seen in tech during your time in the industry?

The pace of innovation feels like it’s getting faster every day. Social media and mobility have exploded, and technology is becoming much more prominent internationally which has been really cool to see. It’s interesting to see how technology is becoming more global, and how companies everywhere are benefiting from it.

What is your role at Dropbox?

I’m head of EMEA marketing, which means that I’m building out our marketing team and helping fuel our international expansion in that part of the world. We’re looking to bring programs that are already running successfully in the San Francisco office, and make them locally relevant in our markets.

What drew you to marketing?

I’ve always been pretty technical. I’m an engineer by training, and I worked in consulting and sales engineering at some of my earlier jobs. I became really attracted to marketing through the evangelism side of it. I would get excited when telling people about technology, and how it could be beneficial for business, or almost anything they were doing. I was PR certified at Salesforce, and one of the first employees in their Spanish office in Madrid. When you work at a very small office you spend a lot of time doing everything and that’s how I got into marketing and realized it was a good direction for me to head in.

What made you decide to join Dropbox?

For me, the big attraction was the people. Every job I’ve ever loved has had me working with great people, and I saw that in Dropbox. It was the hook that made me want to understand more. It was really refreshing to learn about how Dropbox is so detail-focused in keeping the candidate’s best interests in mind and getting the absolute best talent they can find.

Also, seeing how innovative yet understated Dropbox is was really interesting to me. I think there’s an amazing amount of potential and reach in the solutions that Dropbox offers, but many people don’t realize how much complexity lies beneath, because it’s such a simple and elegant product.

What surprised you when you first joined Dropbox?

I was floored by how welcoming people were, and how excited they were that I was joining. People reached out to me to say “hi” or “welcome” before I’d even started, which was a really pleasant surprise. Everyone wanted to know me, meet me, and get to know my point of view on different things. Often times when you’re “the new guy” at a company, you’re overwhelmed don’t know yet where you fit in. I felt like there was a genuinely welcoming attitude from everyone, which helped me get embedded quickly and be productive.

What are the challenges of marketing Dropbox throughout EMEA, and what strategies have you adopted?

Dropbox is quite well known as a brand on the consumer side, which is a great tailwind to get us out into the enterprise space. So I think the first thing is to make people aware of Dropbox for Business and help drive overall adoption of the cloud in Europe. We want to make sure we’re top of mind when it comes to cloud solutions. That’s the main focus.

Then, each country is different. For example, the United Kingdom and France are very centralized, with London and Paris being the main business hubs. Conversely, Germany is very decentralized with many mid-sized cities. How do you reach areas quickly — how do you get you get the message out and hit the key verticals, communities, and active user groups that you want to get in touch with quickly?

Beyond that, how can we better expand into interesting places like South Africa or United Arab Emirates — places that aren’t continental Europe, but are very important for establishing a tech presence?

In terms of strategies — a lot of it is strategizing around PR and word-of-mouth marketing. We spend a lot of time thinking about how to drive awareness through influencers and publications, and establish a good presence in the local markets that are already familiar with Dropbox, but don’t know about our business product yet.

In your experience, what best practices have you found most useful when managing your team?

I think having a genuine interest in the people that you work with and caring about their career progression is hugely important. Also, learning that you don’t have to be the subject matter expert in everything that your team does, but instead that you’re there to remove roadblocks for them. I focus a lot on getting more resources for them, fighting for them, so to speak, in terms of promoting their projects and then coaching them through tough decisions when necessary. Ultimately I just want to make it really easy for people to be good at what they do.

What’s one of your best Dropbox moments so far?

I really loved the experience of my first all-hands meeting in San Francisco. It was eye-opening to see how seriously the company takes feedback from the employees, and how we’re looking hard at issues around diversity and gender equality. It was really good to see that the company is very focused on that. Obviously Dropbox is in an enviable position where it can vie for top talent and is a great magnet for an amazing amount of talent. But seeing that level of attention to detail — making sure that we’re doing the right things as a company at a very fundamental level — was really cool.

What are you looking forward to next for yourself, and for Dropbox?

For myself, I’m looking forward to building a team practically from scratch, and having our marketing machine grow throughout EMEA. We’re working on figuring out what key investments we can make as a company to continue to grow in all these different regions, and that’s an exciting journey. Also, Dropbox has already grown so much, to 300 million users worldwide. I’d like to see what the next few years hold for this company, and how far we can go.

What’s something that most people don’t know about you?

Most people, when they meet me in Europe, can’t quite figure out where I’m from. I have a Spanish name, Spanish background, but with my accent they can never guess that I was raised in Texas!

How would you describe Dropbox Dublin in three words?

Energetic, inclusive, and fast-paced. Energetic because of the enthusiasm and pride people have for their work. Inclusive because they make you feel like a member of the team from day one. You don’t sit around on the sidelines — you jump in and start doing things right away. Fast-paced because we are not opportunity-constrained in any way — our success will be determined by how fast we can grow the company, and tap into all the potential this market has.