Eric Yuan turned a simple belief into Zoom, the platform that kept the world moving through a once-in-a-century shutdown and redefined modern work.
On this episode of Grit, the Zoom CEO shares why velocity beats size, how a family-first ethos powered his leadership during COVID, and why the coming wave of AI dwarfs the original internet boom.
He details how he’s refreshing Zoom’s culture for 7,500 people, opting for virtual deal calls over in person meetings, settling into life as an empty-nester, and keeping Zoom nimble enough to outpace Big Tech and the next wave of AI startups.
Guest: Eric S. Yuan, Founder & CEO of Zoom
Chapters:
00:00 Trailer
00:44 Introduction
01:47 Walking with swagger
03:48 Extremely exciting moment
10:05 Classic innovators’ dilemma
12:59 Laser-focused bandwidth
17:56 Family first: lead by example
22:09 Everybody was doing their road shows
25:34 The entire world was dependent
28:04 Community care
31:57 Valuation and a co-founder
35:17 A lot of unhappy days
39:25 Building Zoom for consumers
46:57 Holograms?
52:01 Home
53:23 Huge competition, high velocity
1:00:33 Where companies get wrong
1:04:52 Giving back
1:13:12 Who Zoom is hiring
1:13:24 What “grit” means to Eric
1:14:24 Outro
Mentioned in this episode: Webex by Cisco, Glean, Apple, HP, Netscape, Yahoo, Brian Armstrong, Emilie Choi, Coinbase, New Limit, Elon Musk, Windy Hill, Magic Leap, Rony Abovitz, Jony Ive, OpenAI ChatGPT, Bill McDermott, ServiceNow, Carl Eschenbach
Links:
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Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
