[Chapter 6: Yahoo! Portal Launch]
Time was always fair to everyone. Before they knew it, a whole month had passed.
Inside a garage in Silicon Valley, the atmosphere was lively -- well, it was the infamous garage culture after all.
"Attention, the all-new redesigned Yahoo! portal officially launched today. Yahoo is about to start a new internet journey, a new internet era!" Jerry Yang and David Filo, along with seven or eight tech staff, shouted excitedly.
With Jerry's words, everyone was extremely thrilled and noisy. After all, a month of hard work had finally become a reality, filling everyone with pride.
Watching the boisterous crowd, John Leighton felt deeply moved. Hanging out with a bunch of tech geeks was really tough and exhausting.
Zach was there too. Yes, he had been hired as the company's legal advisor at John's request, and Jerry and David were fine with that.
After all, Zach had helped out a lot in the early days, and having a lawyer was sometimes quite handy.
John had directly given Zach a 5% stake, which finally convinced Zach to resign from his job and work alongside John.
John knew exactly what the 5% meant, but money wasn't everything, was it?
He appreciated Zach's help and figured having a lawyer around would make many things easier. Besides, there would be plenty of opportunities to make money later on.
At the same time, John had taken a leave of absence from school. Since he would be busy, he wouldn't have time to attend school with those kids anymore. So he sent Zach back to Los Angeles to handle his leave of absence paperwork and Zach's own resignation.
Zach almost got into trouble at the school office. The U.S. was particularly strict about protecting minors. When the school heard Zach was there to file a leave request, they worried John was being mistreated and couldn't attend school anymore. It wasn't until John called the school that the process was completed.
...
That month had been incredibly busy. Once they finalized the partnership agreement, they decided to register the company that very day.
Registering a company in Silicon Valley was incredibly fast, and with Zach around, many things were quickly done. The company was successfully registered.
Two days later, they found that garage space -- about 100 square meters, enough for the early days. There were many garages like this in Silicon Valley; after all, garage culture was well-known in the Valley.
They cleaned out the garage, bought networking equipment, recruited people, and completed everything within a week. At the same time, news about Jerry Yang and David Filo spread all over Stanford.
After all, in Silicon Valley and Stanford, things like this happened every day, so there was little surprise.
Historically, this phase should have been when Yahoo! approached Sequoia Capital. Sequoia only officially invested in March or April, missing the initial opportunity because of John. John had no regrets; he silently thought, "Follow your own path and keep others from following."
He also wondered why Sequoia hadn't shown up yet in January, even though history recorded that Sequoia reached out then.
What John didn't know was that Sequoia had heard about Yahoo through an introduction, but after learning Yahoo had completed its initial angel investment, they temporarily stopped following up. After all, there were so many projects to invest in Silicon Valley; missing one wasn't a big deal.
...
Afterwards, Jerry and David worked day and night with seven newly hired tech engineers. The Yahoo portal's design was finished last week, and after a week of testing, they decided to launch today.
The website was designed based on the initial guide framework. It mainly included major categories like Current Events News, Financial News, Sports, Entertainment, Automotive, Yahoo Relationships, and Yahoo Search.
John himself checked in every day. Though he didn't know much about tech, having seen so many websites before, being a small tester and user experience officer was pretty good.
Earlier, Yahoo, which was just the Web Guide, was more like an internal search engine, but having to look up and store information oneself was cumbersome.
During this time, John made many suggestions that improved the user experience of the Yahoo portal significantly -- he helped make Yahoo Search and the portal appear at least 18 months earlier than in our timeline. At this point, Yahoo online was a real game-changer.
Because of this, everyone in the company respected this minor-aged kid, John. According to Jerry and David, John was the best product tester and user experience officer.
...
The Yahoo! portal had been live for three days. Early one morning, John stood beside Jerry.
"Finally, the launch was successful. Feedback online over these three days has been great. Looks like we succeeded at the start," Jerry said to John.
"Isn't that great? As long as the launch feedback is positive, we've succeeded."
"Wow, Jerry, John, the online response is fantastic. After checking out our redesigned site, everyone loves it. Already, over 300,000 people have registered accounts within just three days, many have posted comments -- it's amazing. There are lots of messages saying the new site is better than before. We did it."
Based on John's suggestion, visitors could register member accounts, though there was no free email service yet since they lacked funds. Free email required server support.
They also added a comment feature. Though simple, it greatly reduced the distance between the website and users, and among users themselves.
At this time, most internet users could basically only read content but not share opinions, so Yahoo's comment feature became widely welcomed. Although chat rooms existed, this felt different.
For the past three days, the online reaction to Yahoo had been overwhelmingly positive, and website traffic steadily increased.
Starting yesterday, they even began receiving phone calls inquiring about advertising on the site. This surprised everyone and led to cheers.
...
"Jerry, it's up to you guys now. I'm headed back to Los Angeles. I've been out here for over a month."
"What? Heading back to LA? Just stay in Silicon Valley," Jerry said in surprise.
"No way, Jerry. I'm still under 18 -- you don't want to be accused of hiring child labor, right? Not to mention the union troubles." John replied.
"Saint, get out of here," Jerry snapped.
Since they'd met, John's maturity had far exceeded everyone's expectations. When together, no one would suspect he was still a minor -- he was definitely street-smart.
John was a bit speechless at being called "Saint". Many at Yahoo who knew John's background called him by his first name, "Saint."
Because of his maturity and accomplishments, they joked he was a gift from God, hence the nickname "Saint." Some even called him St. John or just John.
"Next time I come back will probably be when we start raising funds."
"What?" David Filo was clearly surprised.
"You expect me, a 15-year-old kid, to keep tagging along with you guys?" John rolled his eyes at David and smiled.
"Alright, I forgot our young Saint is only 15. Jerry, what were you doing when you were 15?" David joked.
Hearing David's joke, Jerry rubbed his forehead, speechless. He could only think: Nothing compares to a prodigy.
...
"Moving forward, it's really up to you two. I think in the next month we'll start getting advertising revenue. Though it won't be much, it will clearly signal that our commercial model works.
Then that's when we officially start fundraising. After all, free email and paid membership email services need funds.
Also, you guys will have to pull some strings and recruit top talents. We'll need professionals in operations, advertising, and more.
You two will be busy. I think if we can get through a month or two, we'll definitely succeed.
Lastly, I've thought it over -- from now on, our website valuation isn't the 5 million it was before. It's at least 100 million, which is what it's truly worth. Are you two ready to be millionaires?" John joked.
Upon hearing this, both were stunned. They had been so busy they hadn't considered this. Now that John mentioned it, they realized it.
Of course, they weren't yet sure about John's valuation of 100 million, but given the site's prospects, both were sure their net worth was already in the tens of millions.
"Alright, don't overthink it. From now on, we'll have confidence talking with anyone.
As for me, I'm heading back to Los Angeles. Waiting for good news from you guys," John said, saying goodbye to Zach as they left the Yahoo garage.
...
"David, do you think we're going to be millionaires soon?"
"I think so. So, Mr. Millionaire, you're going to be busy with this."
"Yeah, being a millionaire and still so busy! That kid took Zach with him back to LA. Believe it or not, David, that kid's probably off dating Hollywood stars."
"I understand your envy and jealousy, Jerry, but I also feel we're just working for him," David said self-mockingly.
"Jerk, get to work, Mr. Millionaire."
"Okay, Mr. Millionaire!"
*****
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