Jerry Yang

No one had a clue about the internet.

This was like Jerry Yang came and spoke at our club, and there was three people at Yahoo that came out here.

And so by virtue of no one knowing anything, you can become an expert in everything.

So I called up all the VCs in Silicon Valley and said, I'm the president of the tech media club at Harvard.

You know what I mean? So it was actually, um...

they're a great yin-yang, no pun intended, Jerry Yang.

Yeah, yeah.

[laughs] Jerry Yang.

[laughs]

They're a great yin-yang foundership because they really did cover different kinds of the sphere-

She's not online at all, but her mind is very fascinating.

I'm so glad she got to say yes to me.

And so we invested in Yahoo, and that's what played out at Yahoo.

And then Jerry Yang called one day and said, "You know, we're thinking about changing our search engine, and we're thinking about using the technology from a couple of people that we knew a little bit at Stanford, uh, Larry Page and Sergey." And I'd, I'd met Larry a few years earlier.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, he said, "But we're pretty apprehensive and nervous about it because it doesn't have any venture financing around it, and I don't think we're gonna license this unless it has venture backing." And that was the first time that I really heard about Google as a company.

Mayfield, which led the startup's earlier investment, also participated.

Other investors include Aramco Ventures, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, and Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, who is also on its board.

Founded back in May, Hang Ten is betting that AI can fundamentally reshape how large companies build and maintain software.

The startup advises companies, typically with over ten billion dollars in annual revenue, on AI strategy and also helps build and modernize software.

Did I miss anything?

That's Jerry Yang.

No, that's Jerry Yang's-

Yep

... investment firm.

This is a masterclass in what behavioral economists call anchoring bias, mixed with a heavy dose of executive denial and founder syndrome.

Yahoo's leadership, led by co-founder Jerry Yang, genuinely believed the company was worth significantly more.

They were mentally anchored to the memory of their peak valuation from the height of the dot-com bubble years earlier.

They looked at the Microsoft offer and felt personally insulted.

Let's actually pause here for a second and do a quick thought experiment.

Because I love alternate history.

What if Jerry Yang had swallowed his pride? What if Yahoo had said yes and took the Microsoft money? What does the internet look like today?

It is a fascinating what-if scenario.