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Jeff Bezos 1997 Interview

Chuck Severance

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

1.9M views12 years ago3 recommendations

History and cultureCareers and interviewsHistory of computingStartupsInside tech companies

Jeff Bezos explains why Amazon started by selling books online and outlines his early vision for electronic commerce in 1997.

This is an interview with Jeff Bezos - the founder of Amazon in 1997. It is very clear that Jeff is already on the right track in 1997 (three years after the introduction of NCSA Mosaic). While his words seem obvious now 15+ years later - in 1997 - he was way ahead of his time. The book "Long Tail" by Chris Anderson was published in 2006 (9 years later). Watch the baby in the background escape from its mother at and run towards the taping :) The mother came rushing through the frame to get the baby which caused the edit at . Taped June 1997 at the Special Libraries (SLA) conference in Seattle, WA. Video courtesy of Richard Wiggins.

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a precise, historical look at Amazon's early business strategy and market timing.

ignoramouson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Email from Jeff Bezos to employees”

> This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. Jeff's pitch at the time (1997); so on point, so precise: link to this video > The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while. Here's Jeff explaining the Internet (at a TED talk): link > Invention. Invention is the root of our success. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal... If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. Jeff speaking about innovation, invention (based on first…
View on Hacker News

HenryBemison Hacker News • Recommends

On “Monkey.org”

…tion if anyone who knows: does Google search engine give preference to websites that display Google ads, or it is agnostic? I assume Google's crawlers can 'read' if a website is using X, Y, or Z advertiser's ads. (I haven't used Google for many many years and I usually block any google search and ads related IPs and URLs)(and ads in general). 0: link to this video I suggest you spend the 5mins to watch this video. He made it sound so easy..…
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redredroboton Hacker News • Recommends

On “I killed my startup”

Here is a 1997 interview with Jeff Bezos that I like where he talks about why he created Amazon - link to this video . He describes a purely logical explanation of seeing data about internet growth and identifying books as being a uniquely good product to sell on the internet. Which is not to say he wasn't "willing to dedicate himself entirely to solving the problem", but I think it agrees with your take about finding market opportunities rather than following a passion.
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adkadskhjon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Email from Jeff Bezos to employees”

By his words1 it was because books had a large possible inventory, allowing him to build a store larger than any one physical store could manage. Though i imagine a lot of reasons justified books. 1: link to this video
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sradmanon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Jeff Bezos Pitching Amazon.com (1997) [video]”

At 4m48s: > This is day one. This is the very beginning. This is the Kitty Hawk stage of electronic commerce. link to this video
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belteron Hacker News • Mentions

On “Managing mental health while running a startup”

As you mentioned, many of the suggested techniques can only take you so far. And it's a problem of the privileged enough to think about a startup. I find that one thing that can help, and that I would use both as self-help or as an investor judging a possible founder, is the amount of what I would call "lucid self-awareness". Is the founder able to phrase to others clearly what he is good on and why, and why the journey is worth taking, in more details than just: We should try or is where is the opportunity. Also is the founder also to detail where are the challenges and how can we overcame these. At the personal level or at the corporate level. Warning signs would be explanations at the cor…
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ignoramouson Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Ideation Flywheel (or how to get better startup ideas)”

> Amazon never set out to solve specific problems, but rather found cool new applications for maturing technologies. This ( timing the market ) is probably the most important aspect of building any hyper -growth business. Also explains why early-stage investors tend to jump from one hype to another like no tomorrow. Jeff Bezos in June 1997 explaining why now and why books : link to this video / mirror: link to this video
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Auncheon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Amazon Just Happens to Hold Book Sale During Independent Bookstore Day”

This is why Amazon started as a bookstore. Jeff Bezos didn't just happen to like books. It was meant to sell everything from the start. Rather, he started out with books because he identified it as an area where an online marketplace solves a problem that a physical store cannot. link to this video
View on Hacker News