Think You Raised a Company's Revenue from Zero to $700 Million

But when you told the management that some improvements have to be done inside the
product, then the management did not give you much.

How would you feel?

Same happened with ERIC YUAN but the person who can apply for the ninth time after
being rejected 8 times US visa

where was he going to give up on these little things

Nobody even knew about company in India till 2019, where we are doing everything
from meetings to online classes

Today more than 300 million people who do zoom meeting but interestingly

Hardly anyone knows that Zoom didn't spent any money on marketing

And with 49% of market shares, Zoom is dominating video conferencing market

It is questioned that despite the presence of Microsoft and Google, Zoom is leading
the market

And most importantly what are those business lessons we can learn and implement in
our business ?

So this story begins with Eric yuan's college life as he was completing his degree
in Maths and computer science applied

In those days his girlfriend lived far away, so he had to travel a lot to meet her.

And being frustrated ,he needed a way that he could see her everyday.

Inspired by the speech of Bill Gates, Eric Yuan makes up his mind to work in US's
internet companies.

His visa is rejected eight times and goes for ninth time which was accepted

Inspired by the idea of video conferencing, he starts working in a company called

WebEx

And on seeing, he raises his head and makes the company a 700 million dollar
company
Then in 2007 Cisco acquires WebEx in 3.2 Billion dollars

And everything was about to change from here WebEx was good but it had many
shortcomings inside

due to which user experience was not that good

Connectivity so unstable, audio-video always lacking and installation process so

complicated. What to tell?

The question is, why did people used Webex even after so many problems?

People wanted to leave WebEx but they had no options

Seeing this, Eric Yuan realized that if no changes are made then people will shift.
And when he told this to the management, the management did not listen. Eric Yuan
did not know much English but he had a skill

and that was CODING

By working in the WebEx, he had done so well for his coding that if he wanted, he
could solve any problem.

But unfortunately could not do that, then one day came where everything was going
to change

In the year 2011, Eric leaves WebEx's job and decides to start his own startup,
seeing his passion

40 more Employee joined him and his journey started

With more than 300 million customers, Zoom is beating big companies like
Microsoft ,Google

So the question arises, how is Zoom able to do all this?

And the reason is PRODUCT BEFORE EVERYTHING

When the zoom started their focus was on video first

Skype and GoTo meeting used to run in that market but both of them were on audio
first mentality.

In simple word, Audio should be clear ,may video be clear or not

Eric says in the interview that when he was in WebEx and used to talk to the
customer, he used to hang his head in shame

None of the customer was happy with WebEx and that's why he didn't launch his
product for 2 years after leaving WebEx

When product was not launched for 2 years then all the investors started worrying
whether our money will be lost.

And when the product was launched, everyone was stunned because as soon as the
product was launched, they got more than 1 million customers.

No quality analysis, no product manager, Zoom only had engineers.

The question is, they only had engineers, so how did they make such a good product?

The reason is CUSTOMER CENTRICITY

Zoom's Engineer went to all the people who have used video conferencing at some
point or the other

Everyone used to know coding, then they took everyone's feedback to improve it

again took feedback and improved it

The link is in the description,you can check it out

In 2015, Finally Zoom hired its Marketing Team

whose work was to make brand's profile

The question arises, why is it so, no matter how good the product is, marketing is
needed, isn't it?

Well It's not the case, now understand very carefully. There is a tendency in us

which is know is better out.

In simple words, we humans are not happy with anything we need Better Option of
Everything

Honda owner wants Mercedes and Mercedes's owner want Rolls Royce

Similarly people had video conference software but wanted a better option

The question is "What was in zoom that the rest of the competitors were not able to
give?

The answer is TOO MUCH FOR TOO LESS. In simple words more goods for less money

HD calling, Mobility, Group web meeting in just Rs.700/month

If you compare with market product, then the rest of the products are very
expensive and less featured.

Not only this, the features for which Skype, Microsoft , Google charges are given
in the zoom for free

You notice and see that if your network is week, then your meetings will not go
well is other platforms but Zoom will work perfectly

On the initial days of the zoom, when a customer used to leave, Eric personally
used ask or message that person that "What were the problems?"

What is missing in our product and what can we improve?

And even then a big problem had cropped up in front of the zoom and that was Zoom
bombing

Many times it used to happen that the people who are sitting in the meeting and
third person used to enter in it which had nothing to do with it.

This thing made people's experience so bad that people came out and started
criticizing Zoom

And after hearing this Eric Yuan came out openly apologized and said we will fix
this mistake

Surprisingly Zoom fixed all mistakes in just one week

Most people think Zoom just grew due to Pandemic but it's not like that

Because pandemic was same for Google Meet and MS team too but why their growth was
not like Zoom

The reason for growth of Zoom Company is something else and that is
COMPANY FORENSICS

In 2017 Zoom became a unicorn but it was profitable even before

So the valuation of Startup was one Billion dollars in 2017,

Its IPO address has exceeded $20 Billion since its launch in 2019

But from a different part of Zoom's profit, which very few people know.

And that is VALUE BEFORE SALE

Any business earns when it gives value and any business makes more money when it
gives value before money

Zoom works in fremium to premium model i.e. first sell the product free and then
sell it for money.

Now many people will say that this model is followed by everyone then what Zoom
does unique ?

Tell Me Honestly, You and Me most of us still use Zoom's free version only

Have any of you ever wondered why it is

Why do we use the free version for, 90% of our work is done in the free version
only

Until & Unless If there are no business meetings or Educational classes, then none
of us would think to buy the paid version of Zoom.

And due to this one preposition, Zoom is ruling the market of video conferencing
today.

And most importantly what are those business lessons we can learn and implement in
our business?

1. EVERY PROBLEM HAS A HIDDEN REWARD

There is a huge reward hidden inside every customer's problem and most of the
company ignores it.

and then customers go to their opponent.

Zoom caught these small problems of the customers inside the market and made a
product around it

which brings us towards second lesson

2. AIM FOR MASSES

Problem solving is different, but if you see big business then those people don't
focus on small things

Zoom didn't solve any big problem but solved small problems of many people

Because of which Zoom has become such a big company, and this bring us towards
third business lesson
3. CUSTOMERS ARE ONLY LOYAL TO EXPERIENCES

There is no such thing as customer loyalty these days, customer are only loyal to
experiences

If the customer's experience goes bad, then no matter how big brand you make, they
will go to your competitor only.