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Santi Subotovsky
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Acquired · The Zoom IPO (with Santi Subotovsky)
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What Has Zoom Showed in the Markets
Markets care about profitability. The key driver to help Zoom deliver results is by making sure the customers are still happy. If the customers are happy, then the employees, investors, and partners will be happy. Also, making sure Zoom is attracting the right people is equally important.
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Why Is It Important to Focus on Revenue Early on
With a lot of capital available, companies tend to focused on spending a lot of money to grow at any cost, rather than doing the right thing. Eventually they will have to care about profitability, and it might not be easy.
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What’s the Difference Between Okay CEOs and Great CEOs
A great CEO will know when to say no, and that’s probably harder than to say yes. It's better to say no to something if the company is not ready for it.
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Why Sell to Small Businesses Before Big Companies?
Yes, it's a great strategy. When selling to SMBs, you end up spending a lot of time focusing on the end user. If you cannot convince an individual to buy your product, then the product isn't good enough.
Eventually once you are ready to move mid-market and above, you will have to learn how to sell to the CIO, and to integrate their opinion into the platforms being used.
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Who Does Zoom Choose to Hire as Their Team
They don’t recruit publicly known execs, but they seek to invest in rockstars before they are recognized. People who are hungry and have the capacity to learn. They look for those that work and connect with the mission of the company.
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Why Did Zoom Cap Free Meetings at Forty Minutes?
Eric knew from the stats that the most productive business meetings were 45 minutes long, which is why 40 was the magic number. He gave new users just enough time to experience Zoom's full potential, but cut off just a bit, nudging them to convert into paid customers.
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Why Did Devices Come First, but Now, It’s Bring Your Own Software
It went from bring your own device to bring your own app. When bringing your own device, you had full control on what was installed. They knew you had to hook them and deliver value, which rewired the way people thought about business applications.
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What Move Helps a First-time Founder Most?
You should always find the right partner and group of people, those that believe in you before the business. They will be with you in the good and bad times because the tough times is when you would need a true partner.
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Who Is Eric Yuan
He is the founder of Zoom IPO. Inspired by Bill Gates while he was in Japan, later in time, Yuan applied for a work visa nine times until he was accepted to work in the US to enhance technology and change the world. His most important philosophy is about happiness, and how to pursue and sustain it.
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What’s Something About IPOs That Most People Wouldn’t Think of
The work and the cultural changes required can be greater than what people realize. The first audit for public disclosure can delay IPO timing. Second, some public culture policies can be a culture shock to tech companies that are used to being transparent with their employees.
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Who Is Santi Subotovsky
Santi Subotovsky is from Argentina. He founded AXG Tecnonexo, a SaaS e-learning company in Argentina. He has been on the board of Zoom since 2014, when he lead Emergence Investment in the company.