The Ides of March 2020 marked the introduction of Zoom to most of the world, as a tsunami of consumers suddenly, unexpectedly needed a platform for virtual connection and real-time collaboration - not only for work, but for family dinners, classes all the way from primary school to post-secondary programs, weddings, and everything in between.
But the company, founded as an enterprise technology nine years earlier, was always more underdog than pack leader, having entered an already-crowded market with less initial funding than many of its competitors. So how did Zoom, under the leadership of founder and CEO Eric Yuan, zoom ahead?
Here, as part of the Iconversations series, Yuan talks with Greylock General Partner Sarah Guo about the path of real-time, virtual collaboration so far - and where he sees it heading. (For starters, Yuan says, “I think we just started.”)
You can read a transcript of this interview here: greylock.com/greymatter/zoom-...
You can listen to the podcast from this interview here: soundcloud.com/greylock-partn...
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:37 Background
4:40 Real-Time Collaboration
6:42 Working at Webex
10:45 Team Building Philosophy
13:51 Strategizing Zoom
16:15 Early Days of Zoom
18:08 Happy Customers
21:17 Company Culture
23:07 Surge During Covid
26:21 Ambitious Entrepreneurs
28:42 Talking to Customers
30:11 Handling the Pandemic
34:13 Zooming Ahead
37:07 Zoom in the Hybrid Model
38:36 Lightning Round
41:28 Proximity Bias
42:54 Decisions That Matter
44:52 Embracing Innovation