Why Yahoo's iconic color is purple

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo just posted an interesting video that would fit nicely in a time capsule: Company CEO Marissa Mayer interviewing co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in a fireside chat, reminiscing on the Internet icon's first 22 years.

After a rocky start — Yang jokingly recalled that Filo, a teaching assistant in his computer architecture class at Stanford University, gave Yang his first-ever "B" for a midterm — they teamed up while in school to create a company whose products and services reach billions of people. (Deadpanned Filo about Yang's grade: "It was well deserved.")

"We were in the right place at the right time, and had a lot of luck," Filo said.

In four clips, Yang and Filo explain how they met, crafted a business plan when the Internet was a rumor to most Americans, and ended up building a corporate icon with far-reaching impact globally. The clips highlight a 45-minute chat the trio had Dec. 8, 2016, as part of an annual technical event Yahoo held at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

The discussion had been kept secret until the company — on the verge of being acquired by Verizon — decided to make it public because of the historic nature of the gathering.

Yang and Filo, prodded by Mayer's questions, also touched on:

— The most-tantalizing tech on the horizon. Filo thinks its artificial intelligence, which holds "both positive and negative" impacts on society, he said. Yang believes it is the "convergence between life science and big data."

"You're talking about the clash of two huge disciplines," Yang said. What could emerge, he added, is faster genomics and drug discovery through computation.

—The origin of purple as Yahoo's corporate color. Yang recounted asking Filo to fetch some gray paint for a wall. Yet when that particular shade dried, it appeared to be lavender or purple. "We were purple before it was cool to be purple," said Yang, who said his and Filo's girlfriends at the time (now their wives) thought it very "metrosexual" of them to go with purple.

— A surprising piece of Yahoo's early business plan. "We had a business plan to sell text books," said Yang, who confided that Amazon would have "killed us."

— Yahoo's impact. In the early days, Yang would ask audiences if they were familiar with the Internet and about 20% would raise their hands, he said. By 1997, Yahoo was the go-to destination for most Web surfers. "This was a brand and service critical to so many people's lives," he said.

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