Pick Your Strengths, Yahoo Co-founder Jerry Yang Tells Startups

Jerry Yang discusses the importance for startups to choose their strengths and set goals.

In a discussion with BetterWorks CEO Kris Duggan, Jerry Yang talks about how to choose your strengths and set goals. (Photo altered by The Quint)

There is a myth among Silicon Valley startups that they need a product-focused founder to succeed – Facebook has Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter has Jack Dorsey, and Dropbox has Drew Houston.

But Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang doesn’t believe this to be true. In a discussion with BetterWorks CEO Kris Duggan, Jerry said he thinks it’s more important to choose your strenghts, whether its sales or product skills, and make them better.

<p>I think the Valley has the idea that, if you don’t have the great Mark Zuckerberg product technology founder, you’re not going to be great. I totally disagree with that. At the end of the day, a great sales company will do great. A great technology company will do great.</p>

To give greater credence to his belief, Yang said Cisco is built around a great sales culture while Alibaba’s Jack Ma is best-known for his emphasis on building trust and partnerships. Even Apple’s Steve Jobs wasn’t known for his technical skills.

Since leaving Yahoo in 2012, Yang has become a private invester, primariy focussed on early stage startups.

<p> What I say to a lot of our companies is, ‘Pick what makes you strong. Pick your strength and build around it. There’s no right or wrong.</p>

Jerry Yang