We're all big fans and users of Dropbox here at tutor2u - and the story of how Dropbox has developed into a hugely valuable business is a great example of how failure can inform and inspire successful entrepreneurial activity.

According to some sources, Dropbox was the 37th online "cloud" storage solution to be developed for the web - but despite early failures and late entry into the market it has emerged as the cloud storage product of choice for over 300 million people. This BBC article looks at the background to the story.

Drew Houston is the entrepreneur behind Dropbox and his take on what makes a startup successful is refreshingly simple:

"Make something people want. That sounds so obvious, but when you look at why companies fail it's normally because they don't have enough customers."

Drew Houston tells the story of his original idea for Dropbox here: