1. Old vs. New School
A study of two internet information
agencies.

2. Short Version
• One is old and stale.
Meet Naked Lime Marketing, child company of
Reynolds & Reynolds
• The other is new and EPIC.
Enter Dropbox, internet
startup rising star.

3. One company is stuck in the past – The other says the future is now!
HERE BEGINS THE LONG VERSION

4. • New Digital Marketing branch of Reynolds & Reynolds, a car
dealership technology solutions company started in 1866,
when they made standardized forms for dealerships.
• Naked Lime was born last October when 3 branches of the
company all related to web products merged.
• Those branches are Web, Web Services (search engine
optimization & ad management), & Managed Marketing.
• The new branding of Naked Lime was to distinguish their
web products as separate from their very well known DMS
(data management system).
• So they’re a “new” company broken off from an old
company and still have a very old fashioned way of doing
things because they still answer to their corporate
overlords at Reynolds & Reynolds

5. • Dropbox was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash
Ferdowsi.
– Frustrated by working from multiple computers, Drew was
inspired to create a service that would let people bring all their
files anywhere, with no need to email around attachments.
• Drew coded a demo of Dropbox and showed it to fellow
MIT student Arash Ferdowsi, who dropped out with only
one semester left to help make Dropbox a reality.
• Guiding their decisions was a relentless focus on crafting a
simple and reliable experience across every computer and
phone.
• Since their product launch in 2008 they’ve grown
considerably, been courted by Apple guru Steve Jobs
himself, and been a rising star in the technology startup
game.

6. Mission Statements
• Add a splash with Naked • Dropbox is a free service
Lime. We are your answer that lets you bring all your
to fresh and innovative photos, docs, and videos
marketing, advertising, and anywhere, and share them
web solutions. It’s hard to easily.
resist our twist...Get Naked • Any file you save to your
and Get Noticed! WINNER of ROUND ONE
Dropbox will automatically
• Trying too hard much? save to all your computers,
• This mission statement is your phone or iPad, and the
like that weird uncle who Dropbox website.
tries to be hip and with it • Simple, easy, clear and
but he’s a 40 year old concise.
bachelor. • Bonus: not creepy at all.

7. Company Directors
• One director for each • Drew & Arash – cofounders
branch: Web, Web Services, are still in charge and have a
& Marketing hand in everything from the
• There’s talk about a new VP new office design to putting
for the whole branch but in a helping hand with
there hasn’t been a decision coding.
about it since the new • They’re involved and
company broke off from invested inof ROUND TWO
WINNER the company
Reynolds & Reynolds. they’ve built together.
• This has really just caused a • Eventually as the company
lot of interoffice politics and expands this may lead to
jockeying for power from burn out on their part.
each department’s • But they’ve already setup a
manager. good support structure to
build on when it gets to that
point.

8. Interviewees
• Kate Craig • Ryan Morehouse
– Supervisor of – Core Support Team Lead
Administrative Team – Worked for Dropbox
– Been at Reynolds & since 2010
Reynolds for 4 years

10. The first thing your eye is drawn to is the big green Fresh & Innovative. Then
my eye goes to the “stay in the know” which is in the LEAST fresh font ever,
unless the fresh you’re going for is like the 90’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air (which
I’m pretty sure that’s not what they’re going for.

11. Video Assesment
• It’s well made and professional
looking. I’ll give it that much.
• But right from the start again their
message is sleezy.
– The first thing that happens in the video
is someone checking out the girl.
• Yes in advertising you want to get
people’s attention but not in a
negative way.
• Continuing through the video, the
car seems to be hitting on her and
hey! look Naked Lime Marketing is
helping it in a weird
anthropomorphic wing man kind of
way.
• Videos have been proven to
increase conversion rates, but I
don’t think this one helps their
case much.

12. Overall Assesment
• In general the site is clean and has fancy graphics,
but the design is OLD and tired.
• This is a company that SELLS websites and web
products, this is the best they can do?
• Also those two shades of green do not work for
me.
• The website is informative and the customer
testimonials are helpful, however the creepy
advertising slogans about getting naked… do not
inspire confidence in their product.

14. Above the fold of the website is clear of clutter and focuses on their product.
Right away they get you with a call to action. Download dropbox now. The
blues are soothing and easy on the eyes. You don’t need fancy fonts and
cheezy lines to pick up customers. Good design and clear direction can do it
way more effectively!

15. Video Assessment
• Easy to understand for both
tech and non-tech people.
• They also do it in a way that
isn’t demeaning to a non-
tech audience.
• They emphasize how their
product makes your life
simpler!
• Who wouldn’t want to sign
up after watching this video?
• Also the video is fun as well
as informative. The
cartoonish nature manages
to not come across as
childish but entertaining.

16. Overall Assessment
• Their site is clean and easy to look at.
WINNER of ROUND THREE
• The main focus is on their product but they don’t try to
OVER sell it either.
• They clearly communicate what it is they do and how it
would benefit you.
• If you already have their service the sign in area is easy to
find and navigating the rest of their site is a breeze with
their footer navigation.
• In general I’m a fan of footer navigation and avoiding the
dreaded “banner”. People just ignore banners altogether
now. So use that valuable above the fold real estate for
something more effective.
– Like selling your product! And good design! There’s not a thing
about this site I would change.

17. Types of Products
Naked Lime Dropbox
• Digital Marketing for auto • File storage and sharing
industry • Three levels:
• Three branches: – Free 2GB
– Web – website design, domain
hosting, email, DMS integration – Paid 100 GB
with website, online service – Package for Teams
scheduler
• Free mobile and iPad apps as
– Web Services – search engine
optimization and ad management, well
social media, blog, and digital • File sharing between Facebook
reputation management.
friends
– Managed Marketing – full service
print, email, and web marketing • Automatically stores photos
materials. taken on your phone in your
• Partnership with Zimmerman Dropbox photo file
Advertising for commercial
production.

18. Outsourced Services
Naked Lime Dropbox
• Mobile • NOTHING!
– Gumiyo
• Blogs • They would rather know it
– Wordpress was done right then
– Funny story- previously they outsource anything related
used one Wordpress account
with different domains for each to their product.
site. So when they got hacked
and a virus was set loose on • This allows them to take
anyone’s computer who tried ownership of everything
to go to any of their dealer’s
blogs. related to their services.
• Video – Unlike NLM’s Wordpress
– Zimmerman Advertising debacle.
• Parts Ordering Portal
– Trademotion

19. Sources of Funding
Naked Lime Dropbox
• As a startup company Dropbox is
• Is part of the privately owned funded by venture capital made
Reynolds & Reynolds and possible through angel investors.
receives its funding from the sale • Venture capital makes money by
of their products and services as owning equity in high potential,
well as their parent company. high-risk companies and gets a
• In 2006, Reynolds & Reynolds was return when the company
hopefully goes public or is bought
bought out by Universal out.
Computing Systems for $2.8
billion. • Steve Jobs once offered to buy out
the company but the founders
• The economic downturn has not turned him down.
affected the branches that now • In their first round Dropbox brought
make up Naked Lime Marketing in 7 million in investors.
very much as car dealers try to
make up lean years by moving • Their second round of funding was
into the new online auto sales 250 million and brought them lots
market. of attention.
• The company is currently valued at
$40 billion.

20. Clientele Size – numbers are
approximated
Naked Lime Dropbox
• Web – 800 web sites • 25 mill people registered
• Only about 5,000 of those are
• Web Services – 150 paid customers.
• Managed Marketing – 200 • According to Ryan, “Paid
– This is the newest branch of
customers usually make up
only about 1% of most
the company and is growing freemium model companies’
in leaps and bounds. clientele.”
• The Teams product was only
recently released so Ryan
didn’t have specific numbers
but they’ve already had a huge
response.

21. Staff Size & Breakdown
Naked Lime Dropbox
• Web – 50 • 120 and growing rapidly
– Only about 10 of these are technical – They’ve grown from 50 to over 100
people. in just a few short months and plan
• Web Services – 25 to grow even more in the next year.
– The majority of this department is • The ratio of professionals to
made up of professionals. They have engineers is about 50/50.
two graphic designers on staff.
• Managed Marketing – 35 • I think this higher ratio of
– Probably every 1 in 5 people on this
programmers and technicians to
team is a graphic designer assigned professionals allows them to
to a specific group of dealers. come out with new products
• You might be asking how they more quickly and not need to
manage to make new products? outsource anything.
• NLM shares the Reynolds & • The severe lack of creatives and
Reynolds programming technicians at Naked Lime is one
department. of their limiting factors.
– At the moment they have 10 – The Managed Marketing team has
dedicated programmers for Naked grown the most since the NLM
Lime with about 25 who work on launch and proves that an internet
overflow projects. company needs programmers and
designers.

22. Administrative Structure
Naked Lime Dropbox
• The co-founders are at the top.
• Broke off from parent • Below them is pretty much
company Reynolds & Reynolds everybody else in a very
but still answers to their horizontal type of hierarchy.
various VPs of support, • Each department has team leads,
but they’re really just the most
marketing, finance, etc. senior members of the team who
• Each branch has its own senior have naturally moved into
manager with subordinate positions of leadership.
managers and then • For instance the support team
actually has three leads – Support
supervisors under them. Admin, Core Support & Training
• So a very traditional vertical – They’re all considered equal and
management hierarchy. have just divided up the tasks of
what a manager would be in a
more traditional company model.

23. Naked Lime Facilities
Web is located in College Station, TX
Web Services in Dayton, OH
Managed Marketing in Houston, TX

24. Special Features & Feel
• Dayton is the nicest of the three offices. It has been designed and has the most updated feel.
Most likely because it is the headquarters and where clients visit most often. Pretty much
everything in their facility is just a little bit newer and shinier than the other two.
• College Station is your typical cubicle farm with white walls and drab carpet. There’s no art or
style to the place. It is very stark and rumor has it the building manager actually brags to
people on tours of the facility that he’s spent so little on decorating the place.
• Houston was much like the College Station facility, an office building like every other… until
recently (after the Naked Lime launch) some of the Managed Marketing team ninja’d into the
office and painted one of the walls a bright vivid “naked lime” green.
• All 3 facilities have dining areas where employees can get subsidized meals pre-tax using their
company badge.
– Dayton and College Station both also have gyms. The one in Dayton is larger and supports a fitness staff that teaches
classes free to employees.
• While these perks are all fine and dandy it doesn’t change the fact that in general they are
mind and soul-sucking cubicle farms where your every move is marked by keypunch pads and
analyzed by your supervisor. Most people put in their time to get some experience out of
college and then jump ship as quickly as possible.
• Just a quick browse through the site Glassdoor.com reveals former employees’ opinions of
the place. Phrases “Like living in Cuba” or “Stalinist Russia” were header for some of the
reviews.
– They simply can’t and won’t keep talented people around long enough to make an impact on their company. The
Houston branch of Naked Lime made an effort to branch out and was reprimanded for it (the wall is still green
though). If Naked Lime can’t break away from the totalitarian regime of Reynolds & Reynolds, it can never hope to
reach it’s goal of being innovative.

25. Dropbox Office
•This video from YouTube gives you a pretty good look at their new 87,000
office in downtown San Francisco right across from the AT&T Giants stadium.
•It also introduces the interesting event called Hack Week they hold every so
often where employees are encouraged to explore their creativity and push
themselves to be innovative through individual projects that are shared with
the office.

26. Special Features & Feel
• Just moved into a brand new 87,000 square foot office in mid-February. They take
up the entire fourth floor of the building with a lovely view of the stadium in one
corner and lots of windows for natural lighting.
• The design style is modern architecture meets comfy college couch potato. There
are stylish copper countertops, couches and chairs in open sitting areas
everywhere.
– Even a few rooms dedicated just to hanging out like the music room equipped with all
different types of instruments including a grand piano and a tv room with xbox.
– There’s also two ping pong tables!
• People get around the very large office on scooters and skateboards.
• You won’t see a cubicle wall anywhere in this office!
– Employees can choose between a sitting or standing desk and what type of computer they
want the company to provide them with (PC or Mac) as well as many monitors as they might
need.
• They recently just added lots of greenery from some indoor plants. Also the gym
and kitchen were just finished.
• Currently breakfast, lunch and dinner is catered for employees 5 days a week free
of cost as well as many drinks and snacks they could want.
– But now that the kitchen is finished, they will have their own in house chef.
• The feeling of fun and functionality that their website evokes is continued or an
extension of the office culture at Dropbox. And as a result people are flocking to
work there!

27. Problems Facing Naked Lime
• The biggest problem currently facing this company is the lack of
centralized leadership. The void cause by still yet no NLM VP has
caused infighting and in general a lack of direction as each senior
manager tries to move toward things that will benefit their
departments the most.
• High turnover rate, low employee morale, a lack of creative and
technical people, and general short-sightedness from management
is making their big advertising claims about being “innovative” and
“fresh” ring hollow in both customers and employees’ ears.
• If they are to survive they’ll need to separate themselves from the
Reynolds & Reynolds old school, corporate 80’s style way of running
things.
• Some of their competitors are truly doing innovative things in both
the product marketplace and back home in HR.
• In 2009 Reynolds & Reynolds was listed as one of the 5 worst places
to work.
• Naked Lime breaking off didn’t do much to change the company
culture and that will hurt them in the long run if they don’t change.

28. Problems Facing Dropbox
• “Too much to do, not enough people.” – Ryan
• Their challenge is to recruit quality people up to the resources they
need and scale a team.
• The demand for their product has grown much more quickly then
they could hire people to support it.
• My suggestion for this issue would be to look for people in unlikely
places. For instance, Library Science anyone?
• Another of their problems is staying competitive in the growing
cloud computing market now that the big dogs like Google and
Apple have come out of their own products.
• Dropbox’s advantage there is that they aren’t bias to any one
platform. Most people will not want to be tied to one particular
type of operating system just so they can have a file cloud.
(*cough*Apple*cough*)
• But in general they’re doing a great job by creating a quality
product, hiring talented people and instilling loyalty while fostering
creativity in those employees which make them want to work hard
to see the company succeed.

29. That’s All Folks!
This has been a presentation brought to you by the snarky
and insightful musings of Lola Colleen Watson.