If you work in the tech world, chances are you’ve heard of — or more likely, you’ve used — the video conferencing application Zoom. At Drift, Zoom has become our go-to tool for running company meetings and hosting webinars. And based on Zoom’s 700,000 business customers, which include half of the companies in the Fortune 50, it’s clear that a lot of other teams are seeing its value, too. But it’s not just businesses using Zoom. Zoom’s customer base also boasts 6,900 educational institutions, which includes 90 percent of the top 200 U.S. universities. All customers considered, Zoom’s revenue grew nearly 300% in 2016, which marked the company’s fourth consecutive year of triple-digit growth. To support that growth, Zoom has built offices in San Jose, Santa Barbara, Denver, Kansas City, Sydney, and London. Overall, the company now employs 600+ people. By all measures, Zoom has become a hypergrowth company, joining the likes of Slack and MailChimp. And following a $100 million series D led by Sequoia, Zoom has also become a “unicorn,” as their valuation has now stretched beyond $1 billion. (Although here’s a fun fact: Zoom’s founder and CEO Eric Yuan hates the term “unicorn,” and tells Zoom employees not to use it.) After reviewing all of these stats, and remembering the ridiculous timeframe in which all of this happened, it begs the question: How the heck did Zoom do it?

1. The 3 Secrets Behind Zoom’s
Triple-Digit Growth

2. As someone who uses
Zoom every single day
to meet with my
teammates, it’s easy for
me to see the value.
me

3. But here’s what doesn’t make sense:
Video conferencing software isn’t new.
And when Zoom officially entered the market
back in 2013, it was absolutely crowded.

4. There were competitors in every direction,
including big established players as well as a
host of startups.

5. Flash forward to today, and Zoom has grown
its customer base to 700,000+ businesses.

6. 100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
4,500
30,000
170,000
450,000
700,000
Zoom’s
Customer
Growth
#ofbusinesscustomers
blog.drift.com/how-zoom-grew

7. Last year, revenue grew 300%, marking their
fourth consecutive year of triple-digit growth.

8. Oh, right, and since raising $100 million in
funding back in January, Zoom’s valuation
has grown to $1 billion. 🦄

9. Series A (Jan 2013)
Series B (Sep 2013)
Series C (Feb 2015)
Series D (Jan 2017)
$0 $25,000,000 $50,000,000 $75,000,000 $100,000,000
Total amount raised:
$145.5 million
valuation = $24 million
valuation = $48.5 million
valuation = n/a
valuation = $1 billion
Zoom’s
Funding
blog.drift.com/how-zoom-grew
$6 million
$6.5 million
$30 million
$100 million

10. By all measures, Zoom has become
a hypergrowth company, joining the likes
of Slack and MailChimp.
But how the heck did they do it?
I’ve uncovered 3 secrets behind Zoom’s
growth strategy…

11. 1) Being customer-driven
is ingrained in Zoom’s
company DNA.

12. Eric Yuan
Founder & CEO, Zoom
(founding engineer, WebEx)
From the moment we founded
Zoom, our main focus has
been to provide a cloud video
communications solution that
would make customers happy.
“

13. 2) Zoom is building a
product that can sell
itself.

14. 20,000,000
40,000,000
60,000,000
80,000,000
100,000,000
2013 2014 2015
Zoom’s
Meeting
Participant
Growth
#ofannualmeetingparticipants
3 million
30 million
100 million
blog.drift.com/how-zoom-grew

15. -Sequoia Capital spokesperson
We had been watching the video conferencing
space for many years because we were convinced
that it was a huge market primed for innovation.
But we couldn’t find a product that customers
loved to use. That changed when our portfolio
companies started raving to us about Zoom.
“

16. 3) Zoom isn’t afraid to
splurge when it comes
to building their brand.

19. Want to learn more about
how Zoom grew?
Click here to read
our in-depth post.

20. See why thousands of businesses are using
Drift to generate leads and close deals faster.