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Eric Yuan: A Short BiographyBy Landon Z.
Zoom started as a relatively small company. However, it grew rapidly to a company valued over a 100 billon US dollars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnmoVuBdAE4
What led to its founder, Eric Yuan, to such astounding success? How did he come up with the idea of ZOOM? What can we learn from him?
In this biography, we will cover his journey and unravel the mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnmoVuBdAE4
What led to its founder, Eric Yuan, to such astounding success? How did he come up with the idea of ZOOM? What can we learn from him?
In this biography, we will cover his journey and unravel the mystery.
Eric Yuan's early life:
He was born in China's Shandong province in 1970. When he was a kid, he tried to make money. One attempt was to extract metal from scrap to sell it. But that attempt burned his neighbor's shack.
He earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics with a minor in computer application from China University of Mining and Technology in 1991. Then, he attended Shandong University of Science and Technology and received a master's degree in geology engineering in China University of Mining and Technology. In 2006, he completed the Stanford University executive program.
Yuan immigrated to the United States in 1997. He joined Webex the same year and was very successful. After Cisco bought Webex, Yuan was promoted to Vice President of Engineering and was paid extremely high 6-figure salaries. However, he noticed that the majority of customers were unsatisfied with the service. His plans for the reconstruction of the Webex product were rejected buy his superiors.
He quit Cisco and founded ZOOM in 2011. When developing the ZOOM platform, the company did not even had a marketing team. Yuan email every customer and get their feedback. After a while, ZOOM started to make profits and hired a marketing team. Eventually, it became clear that ZOOM was a very efficient online meeting software. The covid pandemic, started in 2020, prompted many workplaces and schools to use ZOOM. On September 1, 2020, Yuan's net worth was estimated to be US$16.4 billion.
He quit Cisco and founded ZOOM in 2011. When developing the ZOOM platform, the company did not even had a marketing team. Yuan email every customer and get their feedback. After a while, ZOOM started to make profits and hired a marketing team. Eventually, it became clear that ZOOM was a very efficient online meeting software. The covid pandemic, started in 2020, prompted many workplaces and schools to use ZOOM. On September 1, 2020, Yuan's net worth was estimated to be US$16.4 billion.
For most Chinese immigrants working in the tech industry in the Silicon Valley, a large percentage of them came from top universities in China. It is literarily difficult to find alumni from Yuan's Alma Maters in leading high tech companies.
Vision: he never stopped dreaming. He never felt intimidated by his lack a degree from a leading university from China or USA. He believes in his potentials and worked hard to bring it out. When Cisco said no to his proposal to redesign its product, he was not afraid to start him own company.
So, what does that mean? Yuan achieved what he achieved through extraordinary vision, effort, and grit.
Effort: he worked as an engineer first and knew too well what customers want and what technology could deliver. Once he had a plan, he held on to it and worked hard to make it a reality.
Grit: In the early days of ZOOM, he experienced difficulties with hiring and money flow. He would not give up. He built on small successes until he achieved his goal: making ZOOM the No. 1 video conferencing company in the world.