Right People, Right Opportunity

The Silicon Valley playbook for growing startups often involves hiring executives from big-name companies. The culture at Zoom, observes Emergence Capital general partner Santiago Subotovsky, was different: Rather than hiring outsiders and giving them C-level titles, founder and CEO Eric Yuan took a more organic approach, matching the right people with the right opportunities and allowing them to grow within the company. Hiring people who want to learn, rather than people who want fancy titles, adds Yuan, builds loyalty, and those people are often better suited to the decade-long marathon of building a startup.