Welcome to the Neighborhood!
On May 14, Zoom announced they will be opening a research and development center in Pittsburgh! Recruiting will begin immediately for software engineering and the facility space will be located near Carnegie Mellon University. The company plans to hire around 250 engineering roles, and will focus on tapping new graduates from local universities. Very exciting to see the tech pool grow in the steel city!
I’m always curious to know the story behind the vision, and Zoom has a pretty neat narrative. Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, was born in China’s Shandong province. His college years focused on studying applied mathematics and engineering. Inspired by the dot-com bubble, Yuan moved to California in 1997 to begin work in Silicon Valley. Completely immersed in his work, Yuan worked for Cisco Systems and WebEx before founding Zoom.
Back when he was first dating his now wife, there was a 10-hour train ride separating their schools. Unable to visit her but a few times each year, Yuan dreamed of a time video could be incorporated into teleconferencing systems, like Cisco. So, naturally he pitched the idea to the folks at Cisco. He was turned down, which led to him founding Zoom. Several years later, Cisco admitted that they made a mistake. I’m sure Yuan can look back at that experience and smile to think that he was able to take this idea and turn it into a company now valued at over $35 billion.
In a world where ideas are endless, the path to success may not always be a straight line! Rejections are just another piece of the personal growth and fuel that inspires us to move forward.
Let’s Talk About It
Do you have a story where rejection ended up being a good thing?