How Zoom grew 30x almost overnight

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Eric Yuan** (1:21)
The market was extremely crowded. However, I did spend a lot of time on talking with those users. Do you like Skype? Do you like Webex? I did not see a single happy customer who told me that really liked the existing solution. Then I realized, what if I build a better solution? I think I have a chance to survive.

**Jeff Berman** (1:49)
Eric Yuan was determined to build a challenger to video call tools like Skype and Webex, but he knew a great product would only be part of the equation. The Zoom founder, like many of the guests on Masters of Scale believes a strong culture is essential for scaling a business.

**Eric Yuan** (2:07)
If you do not have a great culture, you really cannot scale your business. You can grow your business to a level and very soon you are going to hit the wall because you do not have a great culture.

**Jeff Berman** (2:19)
This is Masters of Scale. I'm Jeff Berman, your host. This week on the show, Zoom founder and CEO, Eric Yuan reveals how feeling stuck at a big tech company led him to strike out on his own, how Zoom handled astronomical overnight growth at the start of the COVID pandemic, and how the company is now evolving in the age of AI. Eric still remembers the moment he decided to move to Silicon Valley. It was the early 1990s and he had a chance to see Bill Gates speak. Bill's message? Computers were about to upend the world.

**Eric Yuan** (2:56)
I was so fascinated by his speech. I realized the internet was going to change everything. I was blown away and I thought about what should I do? And the best way to embrace the first wave of internet revolution is to go to Silicon Valley. And I tried so many times. I was in Beijing, China, and I applied for the visa. Long story, every time the reason is different and they did not give me the visa.

**Jeff Berman** (3:28)
Eric's visa applications were denied eight times. His ninth attempt finally worked.

**Eric Yuan** (3:35)
I still remember that moment when they gave me the green light, say, yeah, this is your visa. I was so excited because I dreamed of going to Silicon Valley for a long time.

**Jeff Berman** (3:45)
Eric, did you have a job lined up in Silicon Valley?

**Eric Yuan** (3:48)
Yeah, yeah, I did. Because that is H1 working visa, the company WebEx sponsored me to come here to write software.

**Jeff Berman** (3:58)
And what was it like for you coming to the US in the late 90s to join WebEx and start a Silicon Valley life? On a personal level, how did you experience that transition?

**Eric Yuan** (4:09)
Mentally, I was ready because when I was a kid, I always liked reading the books about what's happening in Silicon Valley, like HP, Apple, Oracle. And Silicon Valley has a wonderful culture. I think after three or four months, I feel like I'm already part of Silicon Valley, because everyone here is so friendly, and they all want to support you, help you, and a very inclusive culture here. No matter where you came from, and as long as you can contribute, you stay humble, you work hard, the culture here really welcomes you. So I feel extremely excited after a few months.

**Jeff Berman** (4:51)
And Eric, you're joining WebEx. We're still in the dial-up days. We're in Web 1 era. I mean, we have audience members who were not born in this time frame. What was it like trying to scale WebEx in that era?