Who is Eric Yuan | CEO of Zoom
Eric Yuan joined WebEx as one of the first several software engineers.
At WebEx, he quickly proved his technical abilities and rose through the ranks. He was instrumental in developing the WebEx videoconferencing technology and eventually became Vice President of Engineering. In 2007, Cisco acquired WebEx for $3.2 billion, and Yuan continued with the company as their Corporate Vice President of Engineering.
During his time at Cisco, Yuan began noticing increasing customer dissatisfaction with existing video conferencing solutions. He proposed a new smartphone-friendly video conferencing system to Cisco’s management, but his idea wasn’t accepted. This rejection, combined with his vision for better technology, led him to make a life-changing decision.
In 2011, at the age of 41, Yuan left his secure position at Cisco to found Zoom. He started the company with 40 engineers, many of whom followed him from Cisco.
The early days were challenging – Yuan faced significant skepticism from investors who felt the video conferencing market was already saturated. However, he remained convinced that existing solutions weren’t meeting user needs effectively.
Yuan’s approach to building Zoom was heavily influenced by his customer-centric philosophy. He personally emailed every customer who canceled their Zoom subscription to understand their issues. This dedication to user experience helped shape Zoom into a more user-friendly platform than its competitors.
The company launched its first product in 2013 and achieved significant milestones in subsequent years:
- By 2015, Zoom had 40 million users
- In 2017, it reached unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation
- In 2019, Zoom went public in a highly successful IPO
- In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom became a household name as remote work and virtual meetings became essential
A SaaStr deep dive on their first 8 years here with Eric Yuan:
Beyond his professional achievements, Yuan is known for his management philosophy and company culture. He emphasizes happiness – both for employees and customers – as a key metric of success. He’s been recognized with numerous awards, including:
- Time Magazine’s Businessperson of the Year
- Bloomberg Businessweek’s 50 People Who Defined Global Business
- Forbes’ Meet America’s Most Successful CEO During The Pandemic
Yuan’s personal life reflects his humble nature despite his success. He’s married with three children and is known to maintain a relatively modest lifestyle. He often credits his success to his immigrant experience and the values of hard work and persistence that it taught him.
And another great deep dive with Eric on the First $100,000,000 in revenues here:
And the latest on Zoom at $4.3 Billion in revenue here:
(bio in part from Claude here)
