Jeff Bezos

Biography

Bezos chose books as the wedge for 'the everything store', then let Amazon's logistics and AWS cloud profits fund expansion into entertainment, devices and space. His 'Day 1' management philosophy became a Silicon Valley scripture, and his post-Amazon chapter mixes Blue Origin with the $10 billion Earth Fund.

American entrepreneur who started Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994 and grew it into a global retail and cloud computing company.

Known for

Founding Amazon and the space company Blue Origin.

Notable works & defining projects

• Amazon
• Amazon Web Services
• Blue Origin

Notable achievements

• Founded Amazon in 1994 and led it until stepping down as CEO in 2021
• Founded aerospace company Blue Origin (2000)
• Owns The Washington Post, purchased in 2013

Timeline

1. 1994Founded Amazon as an online bookstore, initially called Cadabra
2. 1997Took Amazon public; it survived the dot-com crash that killed most rivals
3. 2021Stepped down as CEO and flew to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard

Did you know?

• He graduated from Princeton in electrical engineering and computer science and worked on Wall Street before Amazon
• Amazon's first office famously featured a desk made from a door — a frugality symbol the company kept for years