Entreprneurinsights on Insta23 Apr 2025 11:55
For today as we pass the time!
"He applied for a US Visa and got rejected 8 times.
Finally getting approved on the 9th try.
Years later, during a global pandemic, the entire world would run on the tool he built.
Eric grew up in a small town in China. His parents were mining engineers. He didn't speak English.
But he loved maths, tech, and solving problems.
After college, he dreamed of working in Silicon Valley.. So he applied for a US visa.
He got rejected, again, and again, 8 times in a row.
On the 9th try, he got in. He moved to California in the mid-90's. Could barely speak English. Started at the bottom.
He joined a video conferencing start up called WebEx. Worked 14-hour days. Wrote thousands of lines of code.
Eventually, he became VP of engineering.
In 2007, Cisco bought WebEx. Eric stayed on. But something felt off. The product was clunky. Customers weren't happy.
He had ideas but Cisco wasn't listening.
So in 2011, he made a bold move. Quit his six-figure job. And started building something better from scratch.
He called it Zoom.
At first, nobody believed in it. People said the space was saturated. Investors passed. He almost ran out of money.
But Eric had one rule:
Always put the user first.
Make it simple.
Fast.
Reliable.
And actually enjoyable.
Zoom slowly caught on. Teachers loved it. Start ups adopted it. Then big companies gave it a shot.
Overnight, Zoom went from 10M users to over 300M. From classrooms to courtrooms. Everyone used it.
In 2019, Zoom went public. It opened at $36 a share. By the end of the day, it was worth over $16bn.
One of the rare tech IPOs that was already profitable.
Eric Yuan became a billionaire. But he stayed quiet. Humble. Still fixing bugs himself.
From 8 visa rejections to building the platform that kept the world connected.
Its about persistence.
Simplicity.
And building the right thing at the right time."
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