# How Martin Destagnol Built Folders and Sold It to Box in Seven Months

DevFeed: [How Martin Destagnol Built Folders and Sold It to Box in Seven Months](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-story-of-the-guy-who-sold-his-startup-to-box-in-7-months-34704.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://medium.com/unexpected-token/the-story-of-the-guy-who-sold-his-startup-to-box-in-7-months-458739894945?source=rss----2d2624499d2---4>)

Author: Hexa

Published: 2015-10-15T17:49:43Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [eFounders](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/efounders.md>)

Topics: [iOS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ios.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>), [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>), [User Experience](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/user-experience.md>), [dropbox](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/dropbox.md>), [Google](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/google.md>)

Tags: [acquisition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/acquisition.md>), [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [dropbox](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dropbox.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [entrepreneurship](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/entrepreneurship.md>), [ios](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ios.md>), [product](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product.md>), [startup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/startup.md>), [user-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/user-experience.md>)

## AI overview

This article recounts how Martin Destagnol built Folders, an iOS client for accessing cloud-stored files on mobile, and sold it to Box seven months later. It describes the product's origins in his own frustration, his focused development effort, and his meetings with Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

## Source excerpt

Martin Destagnol, him-self...And then became Director of Mobile Remember back in 2013, when reading files on "mobile" was new and everyone was wondering how the h*ck to do it? That's when Martin Destagnol, entrepreneur and engineer, built Folders. And seven months laters, Folders got acquired by Aaron Levie's Box. Destagnol is now Director of Mobile and of Box Notes -- the French "serial" "startuper" went from building a product in his apartment (we don't get many garages in Paris) to managing a whole engineering team inside one of the fastest-growing startups in the Silicon Valley. How does one do that? Here's the story. Startup genesis and crazy-fast acquisition As you might hear often times when wondering why an entrepreneur built a startup, Folders came from Martin's own frustration: accessing cloud-stored files on mobile was just a pain. So he decided to build an iOS client providing the very best User Experience possible. But Destagnol also brought a strong business rationale to the idea: as Folders was his 3rd startup, he knew what kind of risk he was willing to take and what outcome to expect. His previous company, Plyce, was a social network based on coupons, which had a great potential but also high risks. When coming up with Folders, his ambition was to build a product much more targeted, with higher chances of a "smaller scale" success. The bet was that one of the existing cloud providers could need a product like Folders; worst case scenario, he would still sell enough to make up for the money invested. Then he shut down everything else but work, and built Folder in 7 months. Full time. Like, 24/7. As in 100% of the time. Once the app was approved by the Apple store, Destagnol decided to come to San Francisco to show it to Box, Dropbox and Google Drive. The product wasn't launched, but he figured the sooner he would show it to the big players to get their feedback, the better -- for those of you who are reading from elsewhere than San Francisco, yes, that's