Silicon Valley’s hottest IPO isn’t a ride-hailing firm or a social network: It’s Zoom, a humble video chat app that wins by just working better by alexrkonrad
, his bashful grin giving way to a look of focus as he said, “A new game starts today.” Sure, his startup wasn’t as well-known as Lyft and Pinterest, two consumer companies that also just made their IPO debuts. But to anyone familiar with Yuan, the shock wasn’t how he got there. It’s that he was physically present at all., which provides video conferencing software over the internet, Yuan practices what he preaches.
With hypergrowth comes risk, of course, and Zoom still must prove it can continue to best its competitors: massive companies, like Google and Microsoft, that scared off most venture investors in Zoom’s early days eight years ago. Cisco, Yuan’s former employer, may privately rue letting him leave, but it’s not shying away from a fight.
Within months, Yuan realized he wanted to target the video conferencing business again. The VCs had reason to be skeptical. With Microsoft owning Skype, Google in the market via Hangouts and Cisco still leading in market share, video conferencing had entrenched incumbents; there were also multiple startups, including the well-funded BlueJeans Network. “It would require flawless execution to win,” says one investor who passed on Zoom.
, the famed venture firm had been fighting to get a piece of it for more than two years. “We were going through all the due diligence, and I remember saying there have to be a thousand Eric Yuans in the world, because everyone we spoke to, they knew Eric, big or small,” says Sequoia partner Carl Eschenbach.
veteran he hired away from BlueJeans Network three years ago. But you’ll seldom find Yuan there. A few times a year, the CEO takes a temporary desk with a team he wants to focus on by sitting side-by-side, marking his choice with two small family portraits and a stack of books to give out. Yuan’s been with the engineers since Zoom announced a voice product in October, now called Zoom Phone.
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