Few people have been made as wealthy by the coronavirus crisis as Eric Yuan.
As the founder and chief executive officer of Zoom, the app that has become synonymous with video conferencing for the socially-distanced multitudes, Mr Yuan has enjoyed what can only be described as an embarrassment of riches. This week, the value of his personal stake in the company he founded nine years ago rose above $10bn for the first time, vaulting him into the rarefied ranks of Silicon Valley’s deca-billionaires.
So it is a relief to see that he can still make the same kind of amateur mistake as the most tech-befuddled beginner. On a conference with Wall Street this week to announce his company’s latest earnings, the 50-year-old forgot to un-mute himself, leading to the kind of pantomime that has been played out on screens around the world during the crisis. Investors still got the message, lifting Zoom’s shares to new heights.