Topic
56 facts from 20 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1960s
Jeff Bezos says that at its peak the Apollo program consumed about two to three percent of US GDP.
“at the peak, that program was spending, you know, two or 3% of GDP, uh, on the Apollo program, so much resource that I think it was pulled forward in time.”
1986
Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986 and first worked at the startup Fitel before moving into finance.
“when Jeff graduates from college in 1986, he does not go into finance right away”
1994
Jeff Bezos says Amazon could rely on existing infrastructure such as credit cards and postal services, and he wants Blue Origin to build similar infrastructure for space.
“When I started Amazon, I didn't have to develop a payment system, it already existed. It was called the credit card.”
1994
Jeff Bezos says he told Amazon's early investors he thought there was about a 30 percent chance of success, meaning getting their money back.
“told all of our early investors that I thought there was a 30 chance of success.”
1995
Bezos spent most of a year and 60 meetings raising Amazon's first $1 million from 22 investors for 20% of the company.
“taking the better part of a year to raise one measly million dollars over 60 meetings, ultimately from 22 different investors to sell 20% of the company”
1995
Amazon opened for business in July 1995 with a small team handpicked by Jeff Bezos.
“Amazon opened for business in July 1995, staffed by a handful of people handpicked by Jeff Bezos.”
1997
Amazon's first shareholder letter in 1997 said it would prioritize growth, with an emphasis on long-term profitability and capital management.
“We will focus on growth with an emphasis on long-term profitability and capital management.”
1997
Lex Fridman says Jeff Bezos first wrote about 'day one' thinking in his 1997 letter to Amazon shareholders.
“I think you 1st wrote about it in 97 letters to shareholders.”
1997
In his first shareholder letter, Jeff Bezos wrote that setting a high bar in hiring would be the single most important element of Amazon's success.
“Setting the bar high in our approach to hiring has been and will continue to be the single most important element of Amazon's success.”
1998
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos invested $250,000 of their own money in Google at the seed price.
“he convinces Larry and Sergey to take another $250,000 of Jeff and Mackenzie's personal money.”
1998
Google's seed round raised about $1 million at a $10 million post-money valuation, with investors including Andy Bechtolsheim, David Cheriton, Ram Shriram and Jeff Bezos.
“all in, they end up raising a million dollars, had a $10 million post-money valuation.”
2001
In 2001 Jim Sinegal met Jeff Bezos for coffee, after which Amazon reversed a policy of raising prices, according to the hosts' account of Brad Stone's book.
“Jeff has this coffee with Jim and Jim explains this philosophy to Jeff.”
2003
In 2003, Jeff Bezos and a group from Amazon visited Apple's campus in Cupertino to meet Steve Jobs.
“Jeff and a bunch of people from Amazon traveled to the Apple campus in Cupertino to meet Steve Jobs”
2003
Around 2003 Jeff Bezos mandated that Amazon move from a monolithic software stack to services, which Garman says led to AWS.
“Jeff Bezos basically mandated across the company that in order to move from a big monolithic stack that wasn't gonna scale anymore for Amazon, we had to move everything to services.”
2004
In early 2004, Jeff Bezos and Colin Bryar read Edward Tufte's essay on the cognitive style of PowerPoint during a flight after a difficult presentation.
“After a particularly difficult presentation in early 2004, we had some downtime on a flight, and so we read and discuss an essay called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint”
2004
Jeff Bezos emailed his senior leadership team (the S team) that PowerPoint presentations were over and that they must write short narratives instead.
“S team members would be required to write short narratives describing their ideas.”
2005
When Kindle costs overran in mid-2005 and he was asked how much more he would invest, Bezos responded by asking the CFO how much money Amazon had.
“Jeff calmly turned to our CFO, shrugged his shoulders and asked, how much money do we have?”
2008
Jeff Bezos spoke at Y Combinator's 2008 Startup School shortly after Amazon Web Services launched, pitching startups on using AWS.
“in 2008, Bezos came and this was right after AWS had launched”
2010
Jeff Bezos hosted a secretive annual gathering called Campfire, first in Santa Fe for literary figures and later in Santa Barbara for the Hollywood elite.
“Bezos was hosting this secretive event first in Santa Fe among the kind literary elite.”
2014
Brad Stone says Jeff Bezos launched Alexa only a couple of months after the embarrassing Fire Phone flop.
“He humiliates himself with the Fire Phone, and then launches Alexa a couple of months later.”
2014
Katherine Boyle worked at The Washington Post from 2010 to early 2014 and left as Jeff Bezos bought the paper.
“I was there from 2010 to early 2014 I actually left right as Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post”
2014
Jeff Bezos wrote in his 2014 shareholder letter that he believed AWS's market size was unconstrained.
“I believe that AWS is market size unconstrained.”
2018
Amazon's HQ2 plans for Long Island City and Crystal City included requests for helipads, which Brad Stone connects to Bezos's interest in helicopters.
“the request for helipads in Long Island City and Crystal City that were part of HQ2”
2018
Brad Stone reports that Jeff Bezos bought a Bell helicopter at around the same time Lauren Sanchez's company registered a new Bell helicopter.
“he had personally bought a Bell helicopter and that Lauren Sanchez's company had also registered a new Bell helicopter at the same time.”
2019
Brad Stone says the National Enquirer never had an explicit photo of Jeff Bezos; Michael Sanchez had passed off an image taken from an escort website.
“what they had was a photograph that Michael Sanchez had taken from an escort website and passed off as an explicit photograph”
2021
After Jeff Bezos retired on July 5, 2021, Andy Jassy became CEO of Amazon and Adam Selipsky became CEO of Amazon Web Services.
“Andy Jassy becomes CEO of all of Amazon. Adam Slipsky becomes CEO of Amazon Web Services.”
2021
Andy Jassy succeeded founder Jeff Bezos as Amazon CEO in 2021 after running Amazon Web Services.
“He succeeded Jeff Bezos, who was the founder CEO of Amazon. He ran Amazon Web Services, which grew phenomenally. You know, he's been the CEO since 2021.”
2022
Ben Thompson says Amazon over-invested in logistics and over-hired after Jeff Bezos pushed one-day delivery.
“they dramatically over invested in their logistics network their cost structure got completely out of control they over hired”
2024
Jeff Bezos said he was very optimistic that New Glenn's first launch would happen in 2024.
“I'm very optimistic that the 1st launch of New Glenn will be in 2024.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos described the concept behind Alexa in an email to executives as a $20 computer whose brains are in the cloud and that is controlled by voice.
“a $20 computer whose brains are in the cloud, controllable by voice.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos told Tim O'Reilly that Amazon had to weave a rope of smaller advantages, a quote from The Everything Store.
“we don't have many big advantages, so we have to weave a rope of smaller advantages.”
Undated
Brad Stone found that Amazon, rather than Jeff Bezos personally, paid for the Campfire event.
“But in fact, as I looked into it, Amazon pays for it.”
Undated
Brad Stone quotes Jeff Bezos as saying the future of the world is the United States, China and India, and that Amazon needs to succeed in two of the three.
“the future of the world is the United States, China, and India. We need to succeed in two out of three.”
Undated
Brad Stone says Jeff Bezos authorized Prime Now and a move into fast grocery delivery partly because Google was launching Google Express in Seattle.
“he authorizes Prime Now and a real foray into grocery delivery and fast two-hour delivery because Google is launching Google Express.”
Undated
After Bezos walked out of a meeting over slow data collection, the Alexa team created the Amped program to collect data in the real world.
“he believes the Alexa team isn't collecting data fast enough, and he walks out of the meeting, and they come up with the Amped program”
Undated
Brad Stone says Bezos initially kept Blue Origin's investment and team small and started with suborbital flight, while Elon Musk's SpaceX pursued a much bigger effort.
“Bezos was constraining his investment at Blue Origin and wanted to keep the team small and wanted to start with suborbital space.”
Undated
Lawrence Preston "Pop" Giese, Jeff Bezos's maternal grandfather, was the head of Sandia National Laboratories.
“He actually not only worked at Sandia, he was the head of Sandia.”
Undated
Bezos's grandparents had a 24,000-acre ranch in West Texas, 100 miles from the nearest store, where he spent summers.
“I mean a 24,000 acre ranch in West Texas that is 100 miles from the nearest retail outlet.”
Undated
According to Steve Yegge's post as read on the show, Jeff Bezos mandated that all Amazon teams expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.
“all teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces”
Undated
Benchmark's partner dinners have included guests such as Toby from Shopify and Jeff Bezos, and the partners travel to Bezos rather than bringing him to the table.
“Toby from Shopify. Jeff Bezos has been, we travel to Jeff.”
Undated
Working Backwards co-authors Colin Bryar and Bill Carr worked with Jeff Bezos for a combined 27 years, and Bryar served as Bezos's shadow.
“The two co-authors actually worked with Jeff for a combined twenty seven years, and one of the co-authors, Colin, was actually Jeff's shadow”
Undated
Amazon's mandatory Customer Connection program requires corporate employees to work as customer service agents for a few days every two years, and Bezos took part too.
“Every two years, the corporate employee is required to become a customer service agent for a few days.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos used Kodak, which missed the shift from film to digital, as a warning example for Amazon.
“You don't want to become Kodak, he would say, referring to the once mighty photography giant that had missed the turn from film to digital.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos publicly called AWS's 5-7 year head start over competitors the largest gift in business history, according to Adam Selipsky.
“our founder, Jeff Bezos, has actually publicly called that 5 to 7 year head start the largest gift in business history.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says he spent every summer from age four to sixteen on his grandfather's ranch in Texas.
“I spent all my summers on that ranch from age four to sixteen, and my grandfather was really taking me those in the summers.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says his mother was 17 when she had him.
“he was doing that because my mom was so young, she had me when she was 17.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos switched from studying physics to computer science at Princeton after concluding he would be a mediocre theoretical physicist.
“I switched to computer science and um, and you know, that worked out really well for me.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos flew on the first crewed New Shepard flight and brought his brother along.
“I was gonna go on the 1st one, and not only was I gonna go, but I was gonna bring my brother too.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says he stepped down as Amazon CEO mainly to spend time on Blue Origin.
“And the reason, the primary reason I did that is so that I could spend time on Blue Origin.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says that during an early Amazon business review he called the customer-service line and waited many minutes, showing the reported wait-time metric was wrong.
“And I picked up the phone and I dialed the 1800 number and called customer service.”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says the human brain runs on about 20 watts, while current AI techniques use many kilowatts for comparable tasks.
“the human brain does remarkable things, and it does it on about 20 watts of power.”
Undated
Kahn says Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoint presentations at Amazon because he worried that bullet points produced sloppy thinking.
“That's why Jeff Bezos had famously kind of banned PowerPoint presentations at Amazon because he was very worried about the kind of sloppy thinking”
Undated
David Senra attributes to Jeff Bezos the statement that people who cannot tolerate critics should not do anything new or interesting.
“If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting.”
Undated
Khosla interviewed with owner Jeff Bezos as part of being hired at The Washington Post.
“I interviewed with Washington Post, they had a great team. I interviewed with Jeff Bezos”
Undated
Alison Beard likens Michael Watkins's advice on reversible commitments to Jeff Bezos's idea of one-way and two-way doors.
“Yeah, that reminds me of the I think it's Jeff Bezos, that sort of there's the one-way door and the two-way doors.”
Undated
Alex Hormozi recounted Jeff Bezos saying Amazon bets on things that will not change, such as customers preferring lower prices, more selection and faster delivery.
“We believe that customers will prefer cheaper prices 10 years from now just as much as they do now.”
Episodes