The Inspiring Backstory of Eric S. Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom

“The first time I applied for a U.S. visa, I was rejected. I continued to apply again and again over the course of two years and finally received my visa on the ninth try.”

I had the great privilege to interview Eric S. Yuan. Eric is the founder and CEO of Zoom. Prior to founding Zoom, he was Corporate Vice President of Engineering at Cisco, where he was responsible for Cisco’s collaboration software development. Eric is a named inventor on 11 issued and 20 pending patents in real time collaboration.

Yitzi: Thank you so much for your time, Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I first envisioned Zoom when I was a freshman in college in China and regularly took a ten-hour train ride to visit my girlfriend (who is now my wife). I detested those rides and used to imagine other ways I could visit my girlfriend without traveling — those daydreams eventually became the basis for Zoom.

I decided to come to the U.S. in the mid ’90’s because of the Internet, which I knew was the wave of the future. It was red hot here, but hadn’t yet taken off in China. The first time I applied for a U.S. visa, I was rejected. I continued to apply again and again over…