Originally Published in April 2019
I had the opportunity to meet with Eric Yuan and Nick Chong of Zoom in 2011 at an ed tech conference in Boston, when I was unemployed, in search of a position. (I’d previously been at a number of video and collaboration and ed tech firms.) Although I didn’t get a position, I understood then, and especially now, why Zoom is so successful. If only all companies could emulate these characteristics.
Modesty
Eric was and is extremely modest. Just this morning I saw a Fortune article where he said he didn’t understand why their IPO popped so much. In the early days (and up until a few years later) whenever I emailed Eric, he would answer me, however briefly. Modesty in a CEO and leader is a trait that may not fly in the valley or in Boston, but when it does, it is often a critical success factor. I don’t think he’ll be able to write me back after the IPO, but I want him to know his model of modesty is something I try to emulate. (I don’t always do so well!)
Product, Product, Product
Their team had a laser-like focus on what every other video collaboration product said they had — but never really did. I was a PM for some of these products, so I know.
- Excellent high frame rate in software
- Great audio
- Make sure the camera and mic setup is truly automatic and works every time
- Make it easy to schedule and join a conference
And there you go. If we are honest, from the nascent days of CU-SeeMe in the mid 90’s until Zoom in 2011, no vendor actually did this. And Zoom did. They met the needs of the market. Sure they have a lot of bells and whistles. But they focused on core quality of the basic stuff and grew from there.
Unafraid of free
Try and buy with basically a full product, not limited in a way that makes it less than usable. If you are good, and it is feasible economically, give it away to get market share.
Bonus #4
Marketing isn’t always done by a department. Marketing needs to be baked in to everything that a company does. Marketing is about the relationship between the customer and the product and the company. Eric understood that from the start.
Which, by the way, is why he didn’t hire me in 2011. He didn’t need someone with the skills I presented him. At least I hope that was the reason! I should have better understood what he was looking for at that point in the company’s lifecycle.
And now, I am at a company that has many of the same characteristics as Zoom. And although I don’t have fat stacks from the IPO, I am happy in the knowledge that Zoom pushed the industry where it needed to go.
Congratulations Eric and Zoom team! A job well done. Keep it up!
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