NETGEAR #12 Edit 5

Neil Hughes31min

Speaker 1

00:03

Welcome to switched on thinking a podcast that explores the real world networking challenges faced by businesses of today and the future. Twice a month we deliver insightful and informative analysis of the key role that networking technology plays in driving business success and ensuring business continuity. switched on thinking is brought to you by Netgear, delivering innovative networking solutions you can count on, so you can spend more time on what matters most growing your business. Now, here's your host, acclaimed author and tech columnist, Neal C. Hughes.

Neil Hughes

00:39

Welcome back to The switched on thinking podcast. And I think we have covered so many topics in this first season. And off the top of my head, I'm thinking mobile working audio, visual, small business networks home offices of the future, and ultimately proving that connectivity is now crucial to almost every aspect of our life. And yes, although it has been an incredibly difficult year, there are so many positives that we can take away from 2020 that were buried in the doom and gloom. Now we launched this podcast with Richard younker. NEC is vice president of SMB product line management. And I thought it would be somewhat poetic to have him back on the podcast for the final episode of 2020. So let's learn more about the trends that he's observed. And what makes him not only hopeful but quite excited about the next year ahead. So massive Welcome back to the podcast. Richard, it almost feels like we've come full circle here because we launched this podcast with you. And now we finish in 2020. With you, but for anyone that missed that previous chat. Can you remind everyone listening with a little about who you are and what you do at Netgear?

Richard Jonker

01:54

Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Richard yonker. And I run product management for Netgear for business products. And very long ago, we kicked off this podcast series, and I think, yes, 11th episodes, right. Yeah, it's been quite the right. We started this, I think, when this whole COVID thing was just happening. And yeah, I guess we learned a lot.

Neil Hughes

02:20

We really have read. since our last conversation, I did read that you met with the CEO of zoom, when they were just a startup before, obviously, they are huge. They are now where the bigger than most airlines combined. But is that right? Richard is anywhere anything you can share from that conversation?

Richard Jonker

02:39

I can those about four years ago, when Eric you want is the founder of zoom, invited us over for a chance and not go into the specifics of the chat. But I can tell you, we have a floor with a couple of rooms in San Jose, California, close to where Nick gear is. And he talks about what he did before. So he's the guy that with a few other people made WebEx, the leading video conferencing company in that time. And he sold it to Cisco, for over $3 billion. So I should have been warmed right. He did it already once. And then he said I just want to do something now that just makes customers happy. Right? That's that's his whole shtick. He wants to make customers happy. And yeah, has consistently been saying the same thing ever since he left WebEx and now started zoom. At that time, we just heard was valued at 100 million after the the next financing round as these things always go. So we asked them, yeah, what what are you gonna do? Are you gonna sell it when it's like a billion? Aha. He said, No. Because this time, I think it's going to be at least 10 billion. And we're like, Sure, of course, you know. Yeah. And it's going to be all in the cloud and independent of any device. While at that time, video conferencing was still tied to all these, you know, big screens and big cameras and all this electronics that you needed to put it together. And nobody thought it was easy to use. everyone hated it. And zoom. Yeah, we started using it after those meetings. And yeah, it's kind of easy. And then four years forward, zoom hadn't gone already public, but more than a year ago, not for the 10 billion that we thought he wouldn't make. It was worth 25 billion done. And this October, became valued at $150 billion dollars. So that's pretty amazing story. So I think in the end, he was right, his product became the most popular video solution because it's the easiest one to use. So if you'd be fine, it's better Because it has more, I don't know horsepower resolution bells and whistles. No, it's the most popular one because everyone can use it. Which literally happened, right? Everyone's using it now. It gets in school, Grandpa and Grandma, everyone that's working somewhere, has been using zoom. So yeah. So that to me is one of the learnings of this COVID thing, right? If technology makes your life better, then yeah, it's going to be more valuable. And this is a very extreme example.

Neil Hughes

05:33

And 2020 will be remembered as being a turbulent year. And obviously, we will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. But I want to try and get a little bit controversial with you today, Richard, because we've already just mentioned a couple of positives. So I'd like to explore some more positive outcomes from COVID-19 and try and end 2020 with a positive slant. So let's resurrect the david letterman top 10 things list. So that was going to go with 10 things that are better since COVID-19. Now I did ask you before we started recording today, so hopefully, you've got a few ideas, but we'll count you in. And let's start at number 10 of the 10 things better since COVID-19.

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