RISK FACTORS

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our Class A common stock. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry

We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred significant losses in each period since our inception in 2005. We incurred net losses of $50.3 million in our fiscal year ended December 31, 2011, $112.6 million in our fiscal year ended January 31, 2013, $168.6 million in our fiscal year ended January 31, 2014, and $121.5 million in the nine months ended October 31, 2014. As of October 31, 2014, we had an accumulated deficit of $482.7 million. These losses and accumulated deficit reflect the substantial investments we made to acquire new customers and develop our services. We intend to continue scaling our business to increase our number of users and paying organizations and to meet the increasingly complex needs of our customers. We have invested, and expect to continue to invest, in our sales and marketing organizations to sell our services around the world and in our development organization to deliver additional features and capabilities of our cloud services to address our customers’ evolving needs. We also expect to continue to make significant investments in our datacenter infrastructure and in our professional service organization as we focus on customer success. As a result of our continuing investments to scale our business in each of these areas, we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, to the extent we are successful in increasing our customer base, we will also incur increased losses due to upfront costs associated with acquiring new customers, particularly as a result of the limited free trial version of our service and the nature of subscription revenue, which is generally recognized ratably over the term of the subscription period, which is typically one year, although we also offer our services for terms ranging between one month to three years or more. We cannot assure you that we will achieve profitability in the future or that, if we do become profitable, we will sustain profitability.

We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to predict our future operating results.

We were incorporated and introduced our first service in 2005. As a result of our limited operating history, our ability to accurately forecast our future operating results is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties. We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described herein. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties (which we use to plan our business) are incorrect or change due to changes in our markets, or if we do not address these risks and uncertainties successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, and our business could suffer.

The market in which we participate is intensely competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.

The market for cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration services is fragmented, rapidly evolving and highly competitive, with relatively low barriers to entry for certain applications and services. Many of our competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater name recognition, much longer operating histories, larger marketing budgets and significantly greater resources than we do. Our competitors include Citrix, Dropbox, EMC, Google, and Microsoft. With the introduction of new technologies and market entrants, we expect competition to continue to intensify in the future. If we fail to compete effectively, our business will

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be harmed. Some of our principal competitors offer their products or services at a lower price, which has resulted in pricing pressures on our business. If we are unable to achieve our target pricing levels, our operating results would be negatively impacted. In addition, pricing pressures and increased competition generally could result in reduced sales, lower margins, losses or the failure of our services to achieve or maintain widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business.

Many of our competitors are able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion and sale of their products or services. In addition, many of our competitors have established marketing relationships and major distribution agreements with channel partners, consultants, system integrators and resellers. Moreover, many software vendors could bundle products or offer them at lower prices as part of a broader product sale or enterprise license arrangement. Some competitors may offer products or services that address one or a number of business execution functions at lower prices or with greater depth than our services. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. Furthermore, some potential customers, particularly large enterprises, may elect to develop their own internal solutions. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors.

If the cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration market develops more slowly than we expect or declines, our business could be adversely affected.

The cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration market is not as mature as the market for on-premise enterprise software, and it is uncertain whether a cloud-based service like ours will achieve and sustain high levels of customer demand and market acceptance. Because we derive, and expect to continue to derive, substantially all of our revenue and cash flows from sales of our cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration solution, our success will depend to a substantial extent on the widespread adoption of cloud computing in general and of cloud-based content collaboration services in particular. Many organizations have invested substantial personnel and financial resources to integrate traditional enterprise software into their organizations and, therefore, may be reluctant or unwilling to migrate to a cloud-based model for storing, accessing, sharing and managing their content. It is difficult to predict customer adoption rates and demand for our services, the future growth rate and size of the cloud computing market or the entry of competitive services. The expansion of a cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance and perceived value associated with cloud computing, as well as the ability of companies that provide cloud-based services to address security and privacy concerns. If we or other providers of cloud-based services experience security incidents, loss of customer data, disruptions in delivery or other problems, the market for cloud-based services as a whole, including our services, may be negatively affected. If cloud-based services do not achieve widespread adoption, or there is a reduction in demand for cloud-based services caused by a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, weakening economic conditions, security or privacy concerns, competing technologies and products, decreases in corporate spending or otherwise, it could result in decreased revenue, harm our growth rates, and adversely affect our business and operating results.

We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods. If we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service or adequately address competitive challenges.

We have recently experienced a period of rapid growth in our operations and employee headcount. In particular, we grew from 689 employees as of January 31, 2013 to 1,131 employees as of October 31, 2014, and have also significantly increased the size of our customer base. You should not consider our recent growth in revenue as indicative of our future performance. However, we anticipate that we will significantly expand our operations and employee headcount in the near term, including internationally. This growth has placed, and future growth will place, a significant strain on our management, administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. Our success will depend in part on our ability to manage this growth effectively. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial

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and management controls, and our reporting systems and procedures. Failure to effectively manage growth could result in difficulty or delays in deploying customers, declines in quality or customer satisfaction, increases in costs, difficulties in introducing new features or other operational difficulties. Any of these difficulties could adversely impact our business performance and operating results.

Our business depends substantially on customers renewing their subscriptions with us and expanding their use of our services. Any decline in our customer renewals or failure to convince our customers to broaden their use of our services would harm our future operating results.

In order for us to maintain or improve our operating results, it is important that our customers renew their subscriptions with us when the existing subscription term expires. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions upon expiration, and we cannot assure you that customers will renew subscriptions at the same or higher level of service, if at all. Although our retention rate has historically been high, some of our customers have elected not to renew their subscriptions with us.

Our retention rate may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our services, the effectiveness of our customer support services, our pricing, the prices of competing products or services, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, the effects of global economic conditions or reductions in our customers’ spending levels. If our customers do not renew their subscriptions, purchase fewer seats or renew on less favorable terms, our revenue may decline, and we may not realize improved operating results from our customer base.

In addition, the growth of our business depends in part on our customers expanding their use of our services. The use of our cloud-based Enterprise Content Collaboration platform often expands within an organization as new users are added or as additional services are purchased by or for other departments within an organization. Further, as we have introduced new services throughout our operating history, our existing customers have constituted a significant portion of the users of such services. If we are unable to encourage our customers to broaden their use of our services, our operating results may be adversely affected.

If we are not able to provide successful enhancements, new features and modifications to our services, our business could be adversely affected.

Our industry is marked by rapid technological developments and new and enhanced applications and services. If we are unable to provide enhancements and new features for our existing services or new services that achieve market acceptance or that keep pace with rapid technological developments, our business could be adversely affected. For example, we have recently introduced Box Notes, which allows users to create documents, take notes and share ideas in real-time with anyone. The success of enhancements, new features and services depends on several factors, including the timely completion, introduction and market acceptance of such enhancements, features or services. Failure in this regard may significantly impair our revenue growth. In addition, because our services are designed to operate on a variety of systems, we will need to continuously modify and enhance our services to keep pace with changes in internet-related hardware, mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android, and other software, communication, browser and database technologies. We may not be successful in either developing these modifications and enhancements or in bringing them to market in a timely fashion. Furthermore, modifications to existing platforms or technologies will increase our research and development expenses. Any failure of our services to operate effectively with future network platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our services, result in customer dissatisfaction and adversely affect our business.

Actual or perceived security vulnerabilities in our services or any breaches of our security controls and unauthorized access to a customer’s data could harm our business and operating results.

The services we offer involve the storage of large amounts of our customers’ sensitive and proprietary information. Cyber attacks and other malicious internet-based activity continue to increase in frequency and in

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magnitude generally, and cloud-based content collaboration services have been targeted in the past. As we increase our customer base and our brand becomes more widely known and recognized, we may become more of a target for these malicious third parties. If our security measures are breached as a result of third-party action, employee negligence and/or error, malfeasance, product defects or otherwise, and this results in the disruption of the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our customers’ data, we could incur significant liability to our customers and to individuals or organizations whose information was being stored by our customers, and our business may suffer and our reputation may be damaged. Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to, or to sabotage, systems or networks, change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target. Therefore, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques, react in a timely manner, or implement adequate preventive measures. In addition, our customer contracts often include (i) specific obligations that we maintain the availability of the customer’s data through our service and that we secure customer content against unauthorized access or loss, and (ii) indemnity provisions whereby we indemnify our customers for third-party claims asserted against them that result from our failure to maintain the availability of their content or securing the same from unauthorized access or loss. While our customer contracts contain limitations on our liability in connection with these obligations and indemnities, if an actual or perceived security breach occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, we could be subject to indemnity or damage claims in certain customer contracts, and we could lose future sales and customers, any of which could harm our business and operating results. Furthermore, while our errors and omissions insurance policies include liability coverage for these matters, if we experienced a widespread security breach that impacted a significant number of our customers for whom we have these indemnity obligations, we could be subject to indemnity claims that exceed such coverage.

As a substantial portion of our sales efforts are increasingly targeted at enterprise customers, our sales cycle may become lengthier and more expensive, we may encounter greater pricing pressure and implementation and customization challenges, and we may have to delay revenue recognition for more complicated transactions, all of which could harm our business and operating results.

As a substantial portion of our sales efforts are increasingly targeted at enterprise customers, we face greater costs, longer sales cycles and less predictability in the completion of some of our sales. In this market segment, the customer’s decision to use our services may be an enterprise-wide decision, in which case these types of sales require us to provide greater levels of customer education regarding the uses and benefits of our services, as well as education regarding security, privacy, and data protection laws and regulations, especially for those customers in more heavily regulated industries or those with significant international operations. In addition, larger enterprises may demand more customization, integration and support services, and features. As a result of these factors, these sales opportunities may require us to devote greater sales support and professional services resources to individual customers, which could increase our costs and sales cycle and divert our own sales and professional services resources to a smaller number of larger customers. Meanwhile, this would potentially require us to delay revenue recognition on some of these transactions until the technical or implementation requirements have been met. Professional services may also be performed by a third party or a combination of our own staff and a third party. Our strategy is to work with third parties to increase the breadth of capability and depth of capacity for delivery of these services to our customers. If a customer is not satisfied with the quality or interoperability of our services with their own IT environment, we could incur additional costs to address the situation, which could adversely affect our margins. Moreover, any customer dissatisfaction with our services could damage our ability to encourage broader adoption of our services by that customer. In addition, any negative publicity resulting from such situations, regardless of its accuracy, may further damage our business by affecting our ability to compete for new business with current and prospective customers.

Privacy concerns and laws or other domestic or foreign regulations may reduce the effectiveness of our services and harm our business.

Users can use our services to store personal or identifying information. However, federal, state and foreign government bodies and agencies have adopted or are considering adopting laws and regulations regarding the

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collection, use and disclosure of personal information obtained from consumers and other individuals. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such laws and regulations that are applicable to our business or the businesses of our customers may limit the use and adoption of our services and reduce overall demand for them.

In addition, foreign data protection, privacy and other laws and regulations are often more restrictive than those in the United States. For example, a revision to the 1995 European Union Data Protection Directive is currently being considered by European legislative bodies that may include more stringent operational requirements for data processors and significant penalties for non-compliance. Similarly, there have been a number of recent legislative proposals in the United States, at both the federal and state level, that would impose new obligations in areas such as privacy and liability for copyright infringement by third parties. These existing and proposed laws and regulations can be costly to comply with and can delay or impede the development of new products, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to claims or other remedies, including fines or demands that we modify or cease existing business practices.

These U.S. federal and state and foreign laws and regulations, which can be enforced by private parties or governmental entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. A number of proposals are pending before federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies that could affect our business. For example, the European Commission is currently considering a data protection regulation that may include operational requirements for companies that receive personal data that are different than those currently in place in the European Union, and that may also include significant penalties for non-compliance. In addition, some countries are considering legislation requiring local storage and processing of data that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services.

Furthermore, government agencies may seek to access sensitive information that our users upload to Box, or restrict users’ access to Box. Laws and regulations relating to government access and restrictions are evolving, and compliance with such laws and regulations could limit adoption of our services by users and create burdens on our business. Moreover, regulatory investigations into our compliance with privacy-related laws and regulations could increase our costs and divert management attention.

If we are not able to satisfy data protection, security, privacy, and other government- and industry-specific requirements, our growth could be harmed.

There are a number of data protection, security, privacy and other government- and industry-specific requirements, including those that require companies to notify individuals of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. Security compromises experienced by our competitors, by our customers or by us may lead to public disclosures, which could harm our reputation, erode customer confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively impact our ability to attract new customers, or cause existing customers to elect not to renew their agreements with us. In addition, some of the industries we serve have industry-specific requirements relating to compliance with certain security and regulatory standards, such as those required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. As we expand into new verticals and regions, we will need to comply with these and other new requirements. If we cannot comply or if we incur a violation in one or more of these requirements, our growth could be adversely impacted, and we could incur significant liability.

Because we recognize revenue from subscriptions for our services over the term of the subscription, downturns or upturns in new business may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.

We generally recognize revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their subscription agreements, which are typically one year. As a result, most of the revenue we report in each quarter is the result of subscription agreements entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed

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subscriptions in any one quarter may not be reflected in our revenue results for that quarter. However, any such decline will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our services, and potential changes in our retention rate may not be fully reflected in our operating results until future periods. Our subscription model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.

Our platform must integrate with a variety of operating systems and software applications that are developed by others, and if we are unable to ensure that our solutions interoperate with such systems and applications, our service may become less competitive, and our operating results may be harmed.

We offer our services across a variety of operating systems and through the internet. We are dependent on the interoperability of our platform with third-party mobile devices, desktop and mobile operating systems, as well as web browsers that we do not control. Any changes in such systems, devices or web browsers that degrade the functionality of our services or give preferential treatment to competitive services could adversely affect usage of our services. In order to deliver high quality services, it is important that they work well with a range of operating systems, networks, devices, web browsers and standards that we do not control. In addition, because a substantial number of our users access our services through mobile devices, we are particularly dependent on the interoperability of our services with mobile devices and operating systems. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices, web browsers and standards. In the event that it is difficult for our users to access and use our services, our user growth may be harmed, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We cannot accurately predict new subscription or expansion rates and the impact these rates may have on our future revenue and operating results.

In order for us to improve our operating results and continue to grow our business, it is important that we continue to attract new customers and expand deployment of our solution with existing customers. To the extent we are successful in increasing our customer base, we could incur increased losses because costs associated with new customers are generally incurred up front, while revenue is recognized ratably over the term of our subscription services. Alternatively, to the extent we are unsuccessful in increasing our customer base, we could also incur increased losses as costs associated with marketing programs and new products intended to attract new customers would not be offset by incremental revenue and cash flow. Furthermore, if our customers do not expand their deployment of our services, our revenue may grow more slowly than we expect. All of these factors can negatively impact our future revenue and operating results.

Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.

Our quarterly operating results, including the levels of our revenue, gross margin, profitability, cash flow and deferred revenue, may vary significantly in the future, and period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results of any one quarter should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control and, as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Fluctuations in quarterly results may negatively impact the value of our Class A common stock. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly financial results include, but are not limited to:

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One of our marketing strategies is to offer a limited free version of our service, and we may not be able to realize the benefits of this strategy.

We offer a limited version of our service to users free of charge in order to promote additional usage, brand and product awareness, and adoption. Some users never convert from a free version to a paid version of our service. Our marketing strategy also depends in part on persuading users who use the free version of our service to convince decision-makers to purchase and deploy our service within their organization. To the extent that these users do not become, or lead others to become, paying customers, we will not realize the intended benefits of this marketing strategy, and our ability to grow our business and revenue may be harmed.

If we fail to effectively manage our technical operations infrastructure, our customers may experience service outages and delays in the further deployment of our services, which may adversely affect our business.

We have experienced significant growth in the number of users and the amount of data that our operations infrastructure supports. We seek to maintain sufficient excess capacity in our operations infrastructure to meet the needs of all of our customers. We also seek to maintain excess capacity to facilitate the rapid provisioning of new customer deployments and the expansion of existing customer deployments. In addition, we need to properly manage our technological operations infrastructure in order to support version control, changes in hardware and software parameters and the evolution of our services. However, the provision of new hosting infrastructure requires significant lead-time. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, website disruptions, outages and other performance problems. These problems may be caused by a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, viruses, security attacks, fraud, spikes in customer usage and denial of service issues. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time, which may harm our reputation and operating results. Furthermore, if we do not accurately predict our infrastructure requirements, our existing customers may experience service outages that may subject us to financial penalties, financial liabilities and customer losses. If our operations infrastructure fails to keep pace with increased sales, customers may experience delays as we seek to obtain additional capacity, which could adversely affect our reputation and our revenue.

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Interruptions or delays in service from our third-party datacenter hosting facilities could impair the delivery of our services and harm our business.

We currently store our customers’ information within two third-party datacenter hosting facilities located in Northern California. As part of our current disaster recovery arrangements, our production environment and all of our customers’ data is currently replicated in near real time in a facility located in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition, all of our customers’ data is further replicated on a third-party storage platform located on the East Coast. These facilities are located in areas prone to earthquakes and are also vulnerable to damage or interruption from floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct. Any damage to, or failure of, our systems generally could result in interruptions in our service. Interruptions in our service may reduce our revenue, cause us to issue credits or pay penalties, cause customers to terminate their subscriptions and adversely affect our renewal rate and our ability to attract new customers. Our business will also be harmed if our customers and potential customers believe our service is unreliable. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster, an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our service. Even with the disaster recovery arrangements, our service could be interrupted. As we continue to add datacenters and add capacity in our existing datacenters, we may move or transfer our data and our customers’ data. Despite precautions taken during this process, any unsuccessful data transfers may impair the delivery of our service. Further, as we continue to grow and scale our business to meet the needs of our customers, additional burdens may be placed on our hosting facilities. In particular, a rapid expansion of our business could cause our network or systems to fail.

If we overestimate or underestimate our data center capacity requirements, our operating results could be adversely affected.

Only a small percentage of our customers that are organizations currently use our service as a way to organize all of their internal files. In particular, larger organizations and enterprises typically use our service to connect people and their most important information so that they are able to get work done more efficiently. However, over time, we may experience an increase in customers that look to Box as their complete content storage solution. The costs associated with leasing and maintaining our data centers already constitute a significant portion of our capital and operating expenses. We continuously evaluate our short- and long-term data center capacity requirements to ensure adequate capacity for new and existing customers while minimizing unnecessary excess capacity costs. If we overestimate the demand for our cloud-based storage service and therefore secure excess data center capacity, our operating margins could be reduced. If we underestimate our data center capacity requirements, we may not be able to service the expanding needs of new and existing customers and may be required to limit new customer acquisition, which would impair our revenue growth. Furthermore, regardless of our ability to appropriately manage our data center capacity requirements, an increase in the number of organizations, in particular large businesses and enterprises, that use our service as a larger component of their content storage requirements could result in lower gross and operating margins or otherwise have an adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results.

We depend on highly skilled personnel to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain and motivate our personnel, we may not be able to grow effectively.

Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain highly skilled personnel, including senior management, engineers, designers, product managers, sales representatives, and customer support representatives. Our ability to execute efficiently is dependent upon contributions from our employees, including our senior management team and, in particular, Aaron Levie, our co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In addition, occasionally, there may be changes in our senior management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our senior management team, including any new hires that we may make, fails to work together effectively and to execute on our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business could be harmed.

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Our growth strategy also depends on our ability to expand our organization with highly skilled personnel. Identifying, recruiting, training and integrating qualified individuals will require significant time, expense and attention. In addition to hiring new employees, we must continue to focus on retaining our best employees. Many of our employees may be able to receive significant proceeds from sales of our equity in the public markets after this offering, which may reduce their motivation to continue to work for us. Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters are located. We may need to invest significant amounts of cash and equity to attract and retain new employees, and we may never realize returns on these investments. If we are not able to effectively add and retain employees, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely impacted, and our business will be harmed.

We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights.

There is considerable patent and other intellectual property development activity in our industry. Our success depends on our not infringing upon the intellectual property rights of others. Our competitors, as well as a number of other entities, including non-practicing entities, and individuals, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our industry.

For example, on June 5, 2013, Open Text S.A. (Open Text) filed a lawsuit against us in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, alleging that our core cloud software and Box Edit application directly and indirectly infringe 12 patents in three patent families that Open Text acquired through its acquisition of various companies. Open Text is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions against infringement, treble damages, and attorney’s fees. A claims construction hearing, also known as a Markman hearing, was held on November 20, 2014, and a trial date has been scheduled for February 2, 2015.

Should Open Text prevail on its claims that one or more elements of our solution infringe one or more of its valid patents, we could be required to pay substantial damages for past sales of our solution, enjoined from developing, using, and licensing such elements of our solution if a license or other right to continue selling such elements is not made available to us or we are unable to work around such patents, and required to pay substantial ongoing royalties and comply with unfavorable terms if such a license is made available to us. While we believe we have valid defenses to Open Text’s claims, any of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our business. Even if we were to prevail, this litigation could be costly and time-consuming, divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations and dissuade potential customers from purchasing our solution, which would also materially harm our business. During the course of litigation, we anticipate announcements of the results of hearings and motions, and other interim developments related to the litigation. If securities analysts or investors regard these announcements as negative, the market price of our common stock may decline. We intend to defend the lawsuit vigorously. See the section titled “Business—Legal Proceedings” for additional information related to this litigation.

From time to time, certain other third parties have claimed that we are infringing upon their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing upon such rights. In addition, we cannot assure you that actions by other third parties alleging infringement by us of third-party patents will not be asserted or prosecuted against us. In the future, others may claim that our services and underlying technology infringe or violate their intellectual property rights. However, we may be unaware of the intellectual property rights that others may claim cover some or all of our technology or services. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering our services, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify services, or refund fees, which could be costly. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.

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Any failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and our brand.

Our success and ability to compete depend in part on our intellectual property. As of October 31, 2014, we had seven issued U.S. patents, nine issued Great Britain patents and more than 130 pending patent applications. We primarily rely on copyright, trade secret and trademark laws, trade secret protection and confidentiality or license agreements with our employees, customers, partners and others to protect our intellectual property rights. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. We may not be able to obtain any further patents, and our pending applications may not result in the issuance of patents. We have issued patents and pending patent applications outside the U.S., and we may have to expend significant resources to obtain additional patents as we expand our international operations.

In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Accordingly, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing upon or misappropriating our intellectual property. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could materially adversely affect our brand and adversely impact our business.

We rely on third parties for certain financial and operational services essential to our ability to manage our business. A failure or disruption in these services could materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively.

We rely on third parties for certain essential financial and operational services. Traditionally, the vast majority of these services have been provided by large enterprise software vendors who license their software to customers. However, we receive many of these services on a subscription basis from various software-as-a-service companies that are smaller and have shorter operating histories than traditional software vendors. Moreover, these vendors provide their services to us via a cloud-based model instead of software that is installed on our premises. As a result, we depend upon these vendors providing us with services that are always available and are free of errors or defects that could cause disruptions in our business processes, which would adversely affect our ability to operate and manage our operations.

We are subject to governmental export controls that could impair our ability to compete in international markets due to licensing requirements and economic sanctions programs that subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.

Certain of our services are subject to export controls, including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. The provision of our products and services must comply with these laws. The U.S. export control laws and U.S. economic sanctions laws include prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain products and services to U.S. embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities and also require authorization for the export of encryption items. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our services or could limit our customers’ ability to implement our services in those countries.

Although we take precautions to prevent our services from being provided in violation of such laws, our solutions may have been in the past, and could in the future be, provided inadvertently in violation of such laws, despite the precautions we take. If we fail to comply with these laws, we and our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export privileges, monetary penalties, and, in extreme

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cases, imprisonment of responsible employees for knowing and willful violations of these laws. We may also be adversely affected through penalties, reputational harm, loss of access to certain markets, or otherwise.

Changes in our services, or changes in export, sanctions and import laws, may delay the introduction and sale of our services in international markets, prevent our customers with international operations from deploying our services or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our services to certain countries, governments, persons or entities altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related laws, shift in the enforcement or scope of existing regulations, or change in the countries, governments, persons or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our services, or in our decreased ability to export or sell our services to existing or potential customers with international operations. Any decreased use of our services or limitation on our ability to export or sell our services would likely adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

We focus on product innovation and user engagement rather than short-term operating results.

We focus heavily on developing and launching new and innovative products and features, as well as on improving the user experience for our services. We also focus on growing the number of Box users and paying organizations through direct field sales, direct inside sales, indirect channel sales and through word-of-mouth by individual users, some of whom use our services at no cost. We prioritize innovation and the experience for users on our platform, as well as the growth of our user base, over short-term operating results. We frequently make product and service decisions that may reduce our short-term operating results if we believe that the decisions are consistent with our goals to improve the user experience and to develop innovative features that we feel our users desire. These decisions may not be consistent with the short-term expectations of investors and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect.

We provide service level commitments under our subscription agreements. If we fail to meet these contractual commitments, we could be obligated to provide credits or refunds for prepaid amounts related to unused subscription services or face subscription terminations, which could adversely affect our revenue. Furthermore, any failure in our delivery of high-quality customer support services may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and our financial results.

Our subscription agreements with customers provide certain service level commitments. If we are unable to meet the stated service level commitments or suffer extended periods of downtime that exceed the periods allowed under our customer agreements, we may be obligated to provide these customers with service credits, or we could face subscription terminations, which could significantly impact our revenue. Any extended service outages could also adversely affect our reputation, which would also impact our future revenue and operating results.

Our customers depend on our customer success organization to resolve technical issues relating to our services. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support services. Increased customer demand for these services, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, our sales process is highly dependent on the ease of use of our services, on our reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain high-quality customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could adversely affect our reputation and our ability to sell our services to existing and prospective customers.

If our services fail to perform properly or if we are unable to scale our services to meet the needs of our customers, our reputation could be adversely affected, our market share could decline and we could be subject to liability claims.

Our services are inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors. Any defects either in functionality or that cause interruptions in the availability of our services, as well as user error, could result in:

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The costs incurred in correcting any material defects or errors might be substantial and could adversely affect our operating results.

Because of the large amount of data that we collect and manage, it is possible that hardware failures, errors in our systems or user errors could result in data loss or corruption that our customers regard as significant. Furthermore, the availability or performance of our services could be adversely affected by a number of factors, including customers’ inability to access the internet, the failure of our network or software systems, security breaches or variability in customer traffic for our services. We may be required to issue credits or refunds for prepaid amounts related to unused services or otherwise be liable to our customers for damages they may incur resulting from some of these events. In addition to potential liability, if we experience interruptions in the availability of our services, our reputation could be adversely affected, which could result in the loss of customers. For example, our customers access our services through their internet service providers. If a service provider fails to provide sufficient capacity to support our services or otherwise experiences service outages, such failure could interrupt our customers’ access to our services, adversely affect their perception of our services’ reliability and consequently reduce our revenue.

Our errors and omissions insurance may be inadequate or may not be available in the future on acceptable terms, or at all. In addition, our policy may not cover all claims made against us, and defending a lawsuit, regardless of its merit, could be costly and divert management’s attention.

Furthermore, we will need to ensure that our services can scale to meet the needs of our customers, particularly as we continue to focus on larger enterprise customers. If we are not able to provide our services at the scale required by our customers, potential customers may not adopt our solution and existing customers may not renew their agreements with us.

If the prices we charge for our services are unacceptable to our customers, our operating results will be harmed.

As the market for our services matures, or as new or existing competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, we may experience pricing pressure and be unable to renew our agreements with existing customers or attract new customers at prices that are consistent with our pricing model and operating budget. If this were to occur, it is possible that we would have to change our pricing model or reduce our prices, which could harm our revenue, gross margin and operating results.

Sales to customers outside the United States or with international operations expose us to risks inherent in international sales.

A key element of our growth strategy is to expand our international operations and develop a worldwide customer base. To date, we have not realized a substantial portion of our revenue from customers outside the United States. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to regulatory, economic, geographic and political risks that are different from those in the United States. Because of our limited experience with international operations and significant differences between international and U.S. markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful in creating demand for our services outside of the United States or in effectively selling subscriptions to our services in all of the

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international markets we enter. In addition, we will face specific risks in doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business, including:

We both sell our services and incur operating expenses in various currencies. Therefore, fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies may impact our operating results when translated into U.S. dollars. We currently manage our exchange rate risk by matching foreign currency cash balances with payables but do not have any other hedging programs in place to limit the risk of exchange rate fluctuations.

Failure to adequately expand our direct sales force will impede our growth.

We will need to continue to expand and optimize our sales infrastructure in order to grow our customer base and our business. We plan to continue to expand our direct sales force, both domestically and internationally. Identifying and recruiting qualified personnel and training them requires significant time, expense and attention. Our business may be adversely affected if our efforts to expand and train our direct sales force do not generate a corresponding increase in revenue. If we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel or if new direct sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time, we may not be able to realize the intended benefits of this investment or increase our revenue.

If we are unable to maintain and promote our brand, our business and operating results may be harmed.

We believe that maintaining and promoting our brand is critical to expanding our customer base. Maintaining and promoting our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide useful, reliable and innovative services, which we may not do successfully. We may introduce new features, products, services or terms of service that our customers do not like, which may negatively affect our brand and reputation. Additionally, the actions of third parties may affect our brand and reputation if customers do not have a positive experience using third-party apps or other services that are integrated with Box. Maintaining and enhancing our brand may require us to make substantial investments, and these investments may not achieve the desired goals. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

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Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties.

In order to grow our business, we anticipate that we will continue to depend on our relationships with third parties, such as alliance partners, distributors, system integrators and developers. For example, we have entered into agreements with partners to market, resell, integrate with or endorse our services. We also partner with channel partners and resellers to sell our services. Identifying partners and resellers, and negotiating and documenting relationships with them, requires significant time and resources. Also, we depend on our ecosystem of system integrators and developers to create applications that will integrate with our platform. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to third parties to favor their products or services, or to prevent or reduce subscriptions to our services. In addition, acquisitions of our partners by our competitors could result in a decrease in the number of current and potential customers, as our partners may no longer facilitate the adoption of our services by potential customers.

If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third parties, our ability to compete in the marketplace or to grow our revenue could be impaired and our operating results may suffer. Even if we are successful, we cannot assure you that these relationships will result in increased customer usage of our services or increased revenue.

Furthermore, if our partners and resellers fail to perform as expected, our reputation may be harmed and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We depend on our ecosystem of system integrators and developers to create applications that will integrate with our platform.

We depend on our partner ecosystem of system integrators and developers to create applications that will integrate with our platform. This presents certain risks to our business, including:

Many of these risks are not within our control to prevent, and our brand may be damaged if these applications do not perform to our users’ satisfaction and that dissatisfaction is attributed to us.

Our corporate culture has contributed to our success, and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and teamwork fostered by our culture, and our business may be harmed.

We believe that our culture has been and will continue to be a key contributor to our success. From January 31, 2014 to October 31, 2014, we increased the size of our workforce by over 158 employees, and we expect to continue to hire aggressively as we expand. If we do not continue to develop our corporate culture or maintain our core values as we grow and evolve both in the United States and internationally, we may be unable to foster the innovation, creativity and teamwork we believe we need to support our growth. Moreover, liquidity available to our employee security holders following this offering could lead to disparities of wealth among our employees, which could adversely impact relations among employees and our culture in general. Our transition from a private company to a public company may result in a change to our corporate culture, which could harm our business.

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Our services contain open source software, and we license some of our software through open source projects, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products, and services in a manner that could have a negative impact on our business.

We use open source software in our services and will use open source software in the future. In addition, we regularly contribute software source code to open source projects under open source licenses or release internal software projects under open source licenses, and anticipate doing so in the future. The terms of many open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our services. Additionally, we may from time to time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated services unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software. Additionally, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we are unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Future acquisitions and investments could disrupt our business and harm our financial condition and operating results.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to expand our services and grow our business in response to changing technologies, customer demands, and competitive pressures. In some circumstances, we may choose to do so through the acquisition of complementary businesses and technologies rather than through internal development, including, for example, our recent acquisitions of Crocodoc, Inc., a company with advanced HTML5 based document rendering technology, Streem, a company with technology that allows users to mount a cloud drive onto their computer and MedXT, a company with technology that allows us to display medical images (DICOM) files in an online and mobile viewer. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming and costly, and we may not be able to successfully complete identified acquisitions. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions include:

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Our failure to address these risks or other problems encountered in connection with our past or future acquisitions and investments could cause us to fail to realize the anticipated benefits of these acquisitions or investments, cause us to incur unanticipated liabilities, and harm our business generally. Future acquisitions could also result in dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses, incremental operating expenses or the write-off of goodwill, any of which could harm our financial condition or operating results.

We may require additional capital to support our operations or the growth of our business, and we cannot be certain that this capital will be available on reasonable terms when required, or at all.

On occasion, we may need additional financing to operate or grow our business. Our ability to obtain additional financing, if and when required, will depend on investor and lender demand, our operating performance, the condition of the capital markets and other factors. We cannot guarantee that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to the rights of our Class A common stock, and our existing stockholders may experience dilution. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support the operation or growth of our business could be significantly impaired and our operating results may be harmed.

Financing agreements we are party to or may become party to may contain operating and financial covenants that restrict our business and financing activities.

Our existing credit agreement with certain lenders contains certain operating and financial restrictions and covenants, including the prohibition of the incurrence of certain indebtedness and liens, the prohibition of certain investments, restrictions against certain merger and consolidation transactions, certain restrictions against the disposition of assets and the requirement to maintain a minimum level of liquidity. These restrictions and covenants, as well as those contained in any future financing agreements that we may enter into, may restrict our ability to finance our operations, engage in, expand or otherwise pursue our business activities and strategies. Our ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond our control, and breaches of these covenants could result in a default under the credit agreement and any future financial agreements that we may enter into. If not waived, defaults could cause our outstanding indebtedness under our credit agreement and any future financing agreements that we may enter into to become immediately due and payable.

Adverse economic conditions may negatively impact our business.

Our business depends on the overall demand for Enterprise Content Collaboration and on the economic health of our current and prospective customers. The financial recession resulted in a significant weakening of the economy in the United States, Europe and worldwide, more limited availability of credit, a reduction in business confidence and activity, and other difficulties that may affect one or more of the industries to which we sell our services. In addition, there has been pressure to reduce government spending in the United States, and tax increases and spending cuts at the Federal level (the sequester) have gone into effect. In the event lawmakers cannot agree on matters such as the national debt ceiling or future budgets, the United States could default on its obligations. This may reduce demand for our services from organizations that receive funding from the U.S. government and this could negatively affect the U.S. economy, which could further reduce demand for our services. Furthermore, the economies of certain European countries have been experiencing difficulties associated with high sovereign debt levels, weakness in the banking sector and uncertainty over the future of the eurozone. We have operations in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and current and potential customers in Europe. If economic conditions in Europe and other key markets for our services continue to remain uncertain

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or deteriorate further, many customers may delay or reduce their information technology spending. This could result in reductions in sales of our services, longer sales cycles, reductions in subscription duration and value, slower adoption of new technologies and increased price competition. Any of these events would likely have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial position. In addition, there can be no assurance that Enterprise Content Collaboration spending levels will increase following any recovery.

Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our services, and could have a negative impact on our business.

The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet as a primary medium for commerce, communication and business services. Federal, state or foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Changes in these laws or regulations could require us to modify our services in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations may begin to impose taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet-related commerce or communications generally, or result in reductions in the demand for internet-based services such as ours.

In addition, the use of the internet and, in particular, the cloud as a business tool could be adversely affected due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease of use, accessibility, and quality of service. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool have been adversely affected by “viruses,” “worms” and similar malicious programs, and the internet has experienced a variety of outages and other delays as a result of damage to portions of its infrastructure. If the use of the internet is adversely affected by these issues, demand for our services could suffer.

We employ third-party licensed software for use in or with our services, and the inability to maintain these licenses or errors in the software we license could result in increased costs, or reduced service levels, which would adversely affect our business.

Our services incorporate certain third-party software obtained under licenses from other companies. We anticipate that we will continue to rely on such third-party software and development tools in the future. Although we believe that there are commercially reasonable alternatives to the third-party software we currently license, this may not always be the case, or it may be difficult or costly to replace. In addition, integration of the software used in our services with new third-party software may require significant work and require substantial investment of our time and resources. Also, to the extent that our services depend upon the successful operation of third-party software in conjunction with our software, any undetected errors or defects in this third-party software could prevent the deployment or impair the functionality of our services, delay new services introductions, result in a failure of our services, and injure our reputation. Our use of additional or alternative third-party software would require us to enter into additional license agreements with third parties.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations could be impaired.

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems and resources.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures, and internal control over financial reporting. We are continuing to develop and refine our disclosure

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controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms. We are also continuing to improve our internal control over financial reporting. We have expended, and anticipate that we will continue to expend, significant resources in order to maintain and improve the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting.

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may become inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business, including increased complexity resulting from our international expansion. Further, weaknesses in our disclosure controls or our internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls, or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations and may result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could also adversely affect the results of management reports and independent registered public accounting firm audits of our internal control over financial reporting that we will eventually be required to include in our periodic reports that will be filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls and procedures, and internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on the NYSE.

We are not currently required to comply with the SEC rules that implement Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and are therefore not required to make a formal assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for that purpose. Upon becoming a public company, we will be required to provide an annual management report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting commencing with our second annual report on Form 10-K. Our independent registered public accounting firm is not required to audit the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until after we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. At such time, our independent registered public accounting firm may issue a report that is adverse in the event it is not satisfied with the level at which our internal control over financial reporting is documented, designed or operating.

Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could have a material and adverse effect on our business and operating results, and cause a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.

We are an emerging growth company, and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, and, for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emerging growth companies,” including: not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years following the completion of this offering. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest to occur of (i) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have more than $1.0 billion in annual revenue; (ii) the date we qualify as a “large accelerated filer,” with at least $700 million of equity securities held by non-affiliates; (iii) the date on which we have issued, in any three-year period, more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (iv) the last day of the fiscal year ending after the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering. We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A

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common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result of any choices we make to avail ourselves of these exemptions, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock and the market price of our Class A common stock may be more volatile.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this accommodation allowing for delayed adoption of new or revised accounting standards, and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not emerging growth companies.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

As of January 31, 2014, we had U.S. federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $263.7 million and state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $262.6 million. Under Sections 382 and 383 of Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income and taxes may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” occurs if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5% shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We have in the past experienced an ownership change which has impacted our ability to fully realize the benefit of these net operating loss carryforwards. If we experience additional ownership changes as a result of this offering or future transactions in our stock, then we may be further limited in our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax assets to reduce taxes owed on the net taxable income that we earn. Any such limitations on the ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and other tax assets could adversely impact our business, financial condition and operating results.

Tax laws or regulations could be enacted or changed and existing tax laws or regulations could be applied to us or to our customers in a manner that could increase the costs of our services and adversely impact our business.

The application of federal, state, local and international tax laws to services provided electronically is unclear and continuously evolving. Income, sales, use or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted or amended at any time, possibly with retroactive effect, and could be applied solely or disproportionately to services provided over the internet. These enactments or amendments could adversely affect our sales activity due to the inherent cost increase the taxes would represent and ultimately result in a negative impact on our operating results and cash flows.

In addition, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be interpreted or applied adversely to us, possibly with retroactive effect, which could require us or our customers to pay additional tax amounts, as well as require us or our customers to pay fines or penalties, as well as interest for past amounts. If we are unsuccessful in collecting such taxes due from our customers, we could be held liable for such costs, thereby adversely impacting our operating results and cash flows.

We may be subject to additional tax liabilities.

We are subject to income, sales, use, value added and other taxes in the United States and other countries in which we conduct business, and such laws and rates vary by jurisdiction. Certain jurisdictions in which we do not collect sales, use, value added or other taxes on our sales may assert that such taxes are applicable, which could result in tax assessments, penalties and interest, and we may be required to collect such taxes in the future. Significant judgment is required in determining our worldwide provision for income taxes. These determinations are highly complex and require detailed analysis of the available information and applicable statutes and

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regulatory materials. In the ordinary course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. Although we believe our tax estimates are reasonable, the final determination of tax audits and any related litigation could be materially different from our historical tax practices, provisions and accruals. If we receive an adverse ruling as a result of an audit, or we unilaterally determine that we have misinterpreted provisions of the tax regulations to which we are subject, there could be a material effect on our tax provision, net income or cash flows in the period or periods for which that determination is made. In addition, liabilities associated with taxes are often subject to an extended or indefinite statute of limitations period. Therefore, we may be subject to additional tax liability (including penalties and interest) for a particular year for extended periods of time.

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the SEC and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results, and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock and this Offering

The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who held our capital stock prior to the completion of this offering, including our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, which will limit your ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.

Our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share, and our Class A common stock, which is the stock we are offering in this offering, has one vote per share. Upon the completion of this offering, stockholders who hold shares of our Class B common stock, including our executive officers, employees and directors and their affiliates, will collectively hold approximately 98.8% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B common stock and Class A common stock, after the completion of this offering, the holders of our Class B common stock will collectively continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our capital stock and therefore be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of our Class B common stock represent at least 9.1% of all outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock. These holders of our Class B common stock may also have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of our company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of our company and might ultimately affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Future transfers by holders of our Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting into shares of our Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning or charitable purposes. The conversion of shares of our Class B common stock into shares of our Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Messrs. Levie, Levin and Smith retain a significant portion of their holdings of our Class B common stock for an extended period of time, they could control a significant portion of the voting power of our capital stock for the foreseeable future. As board members, Messrs. Levie, Levin and Smith each owe a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith and in a manner they reasonably believe to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As stockholders, Messrs. Levie, Levin and Smith are entitled to vote their shares in their own interests, which may not always be

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in the interests of our stockholders generally. For a description of the dual class structure, see the section titled “Description of Capital Stock.”

Anti-takeover provisions contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, as well as provisions of Delaware law, could impair a takeover attempt.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions which could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our board of directors. Among other things, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions:

These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.

As a Delaware corporation, we are also subject to provisions of Delaware law, including Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation law, which prevents certain stockholders holding more than 15% of our outstanding capital stock from engaging in certain business combinations without approval of the holders of at least two-thirds of our outstanding common stock not held by such stockholder.

Any provision of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our capital stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our Class A common stock.

An active trading market for our Class A common stock may never develop or be sustained.

Our Class A common stock has been approved for listing on the NYSE under the symbol “BOX.” However, we cannot assure you that an active trading market for our Class A common stock will develop on that exchange or elsewhere or, if developed, that any market will be sustained. Accordingly, we cannot assure you of the liquidity of any trading market, your ability to sell your shares of our Class A common stock when desired or the prices that you may obtain for your shares of our Class A common stock.

The market price of our Class A common stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Prior to the completion of this offering, there has been no public market for shares of our Class A common stock. The initial public offering price of our Class A common stock will be determined through negotiation

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between us and the underwriters. This price will not necessarily reflect the price at which investors in the market will be willing to buy and sell shares of our Class A common stock following this offering. In addition, the market price of our Class A common stock following this offering is likely to be highly volatile, may be higher or lower than the initial public offering price of our Class A common stock and could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control and may not be related to our operating performance.

Fluctuations in the price of our Class A common stock could cause you to lose all or part of your investment because you may not be able to sell your shares at or above the price you paid in this offering. Factors that could cause fluctuations in the market price of our Class A common stock include the following:

In addition, in the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. This litigation, if instituted against us, could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources.

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A total of 106,973,689, or 89.5%, of the outstanding shares of our capital stock after this offering will be restricted from immediate resale but may be sold on a stock exchange in the near future. The large number of shares of our capital stock eligible for public sale or subject to rights requiring us to register them for public sale could depress the market price of our Class A common stock.

The market price of our Class A common stock could decline as a result of sales of a large number of shares of our Class A common stock in the market after this offering, and the perception that these sales could occur may also depress the market price of our Class A common stock. Based on shares of our capital stock outstanding as of October 31, 2014, we will have 119,473,689 shares of our capital stock outstanding after this offering. Our executive officers, directors and the holders of substantially all of our capital stock and securities convertible into or exchangeable for our capital stock have entered into market standoff agreements with us and/or lock-up agreements with the underwriters under which they have agreed, subject to specific exceptions, not to sell any of our capital stock for 180 days following the date of this prospectus. As a result of these agreements, the provisions of our investors’ rights agreement described further in the section titled “Description of Capital Stock—Registration Rights” and the provisions of Rule 144 or Rule 701 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act), shares of our capital stock will be available for sale in the public market as follows:

Following the expiration of the lock-up agreements referred to above, stockholders owning an aggregate of up to 95,915,456 shares of our Class B common stock can require us to register shares of our capital stock owned by them for public sale in the United States. In addition, we intend to file a registration statement to register approximately 38,860,993 shares of our capital stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. Upon effectiveness of that registration statement, subject to the satisfaction of applicable exercise periods and expiration of the market standoff agreements and lock-up agreements referred to above, the shares of our capital stock issued upon exercise of outstanding options to purchase shares of our Class B common stock and upon the vesting of outstanding RSUs will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market.

Sales of our Class A common stock as restrictions end or pursuant to registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to fall and make it more difficult for you to sell shares of our Class A common stock.

In making your investment decision, you should understand that we and the underwriters have not authorized any other party to provide you with information concerning us or this offering.

You should carefully evaluate all of the information in this prospectus. We have in the past received, and may continue to receive, a high degree of media coverage, including coverage that is not directly attributable to statements made by our officers or employees, that incorrectly reports on statements made by our officers or employees or that is misleading as a result of omitting information provided by us, our officers or employees. We and the underwriters have not authorized any other party to provide you with information concerning us or this offering.

We may invest or spend the proceeds of this offering in ways with which you may not agree or in ways which may not yield a return.

Our net proceeds from the sale of shares of our Class A common stock in this offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. Additionally,

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we may use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire businesses, products, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments for any specific material acquisitions at this time. Our management will have considerable discretion in the application of the net proceeds, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the proceeds are being used appropriately. Until the net proceeds are used, they may be placed in investments that do not produce significant income or that may lose value.

Purchasers in this offering will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of their investment.

The assumed initial public offering price of $12.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our outstanding capital stock upon the completion of this offering. Therefore, if you purchase shares of our Class A common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate dilution of $10.05 in the net tangible book value per share from the price you paid. In addition, investors purchasing shares of our Class A common stock from us in this offering will have contributed 21.5% of the total consideration paid to us by all stockholders who purchased shares of our common stock, in exchange for acquiring approximately 10.5% of the outstanding shares of our common stock as of October 31, 2014, after giving effect to this offering. The exercise of outstanding options to purchase shares of our Class B common stock and the vesting of outstanding RSUs will result in further dilution.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, our market or our competitors, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our Class A common stock, the market price of our Class A common stock and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who may cover us adversely change their recommendations regarding our Class A common stock or provide more favorable recommendations about our competitors, the market price of our Class A common stock would likely decline. If any of the analysts who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause the market price of our Class A common stock or trading volume to decline.

We do not expect to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our Class A common stock in the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of our Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment. Investors seeking cash dividends should not purchase shares of our Class A common stock.

Prior to the completion of this offering, there has been limited trading of our securities at prices that may be higher than what our Class A common stock will trade at once it is listed.

Prior to the completion of this offering, our securities have not been listed on any stock exchange or other public trading market, but there has been some trading of our securities in private transactions. These transactions were speculative, and the trading prices of our securities in these transactions were privately negotiated. We cannot assure you that the market price of our Class A common stock will equal or exceed the price at which our securities have traded prior to the completion of this offering.

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