Friendship and business are often strangers.
But for David Filo and Jerry Yang, their bond fired a common interest in the internet, and sustained a university venture – the first successful navigation tool, Yahoo.
David Filo
Despite different starts in life (Filo was born in Louisiana and Yang only immigrated to the US at the age of 10) their paths overlapped when reading Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Drawn to the burgeoning wonders of the World Wide Web, the two set about categorising their favourite sites on the increasingly complex internet.
Like so many things, Yahoo was originally devised with modest intentions. Filo and Yang simply wanted to help their friends at Stanford find the websites they wanted, quickly; the internet was growing exponentially – and so too did Yahoo.
It was a labour of love, and their passion was shared by numerous, enthusiastic end-users. Working 20-hour days, their creation celebrated its first one-million-hit day in ’94, as word of mouth spread and the close-knit internet community rallied behind the resource.
Jerry Yang
One problem remained though: there were no actual sales. Although profit wasn’t their primary concern, they soon realised that advertising sales could satisfy two requirements: Yahoo! would remain free, while work would still be play.
After securing $2m in 1995 Yahoo! Inc was founded, and has evolved into the global media brand that we all know and use today. As well as being one of the few serious rivals to Google’s all-conquering search engine, Yahoo is also one the biggest email providers in the world.
Both men are valued at around $3bn, so one wouldn’t expect either of them to be tight about getting a round in at the bar.
Not that Filo is likely to be seen raising hell on the Californian bar circuit. While Yang is the ‘face’ of the company and does all the networking, Filo keeps a lower profile and is happier tending to the proverbial back end of operations.
In a little over 10 years, Filo and Yang have cornered the market, and wooed it into submission. And their secret? They were never in it solely for the money.
