14 months.
My favorite, very fuzzy memory of "early investors in amzn" concerns someone who appears to have successfully dropped off the map. We had hired a guy called who had graduated from a college in OR known for being a bit "wooly" but nevertheless generated high quality grads. Jeff wanted to hire some more people from the school, and asked the guy for suggestions. We ended up hiring (among others) a philosophy grad who was also a carpenter and cycling fiend. This guy designed and built the first specialized packing tables for the company. He was a gentle, reflective soul, not really into computers or tech or startups or any of what amazon was about, as I recall.
When he heard that Jeff was looking for "angel" investors (as opposed to VC money, which he wanted to avoid as much as possible), the carpenter went to see Jeff about putting his life savings into the company. My recollection is that he might have had about $35k saved up (he was a deeply frugal person, too). Jeff told him twice that it was a terrible idea, that the company was still incredibly risky, and it was insane for someone so young. The third time, Jeff relented, and allowed him to buy a bunch of stock.
Based on the article, if he had held onto his stock, it would have been worth about $5BN. More likely, he sold it along the way, and probably netted somewhere in the 10s to 100s of millions.
I have no idea what happened to the carpenter, but I hope that he's happy somewhere with some beautiful handtools in a woodshop he built himself, riding one of many custom made bicycles across a lovely landscape. Based on what I knew of him back then, definitely the most deserving and philosophically appropriate winner at the amazon stock roulette game.
My favorite, very fuzzy memory of "early investors in amzn" concerns someone who appears to have successfully dropped off the map. We had hired a guy called who had graduated from a college in OR known for being a bit "wooly" but nevertheless generated high quality grads. Jeff wanted to hire some more people from the school, and asked the guy for suggestions. We ended up hiring (among others) a philosophy grad who was also a carpenter and cycling fiend. This guy designed and built the first specialized packing tables for the company. He was a gentle, reflective soul, not really into computers or tech or startups or any of what amazon was about, as I recall.
When he heard that Jeff was looking for "angel" investors (as opposed to VC money, which he wanted to avoid as much as possible), the carpenter went to see Jeff about putting his life savings into the company. My recollection is that he might have had about $35k saved up (he was a deeply frugal person, too). Jeff told him twice that it was a terrible idea, that the company was still incredibly risky, and it was insane for someone so young. The third time, Jeff relented, and allowed him to buy a bunch of stock.
Based on the article, if he had held onto his stock, it would have been worth about $5BN. More likely, he sold it along the way, and probably netted somewhere in the 10s to 100s of millions.
I have no idea what happened to the carpenter, but I hope that he's happy somewhere with some beautiful handtools in a woodshop he built himself, riding one of many custom made bicycles across a lovely landscape. Based on what I knew of him back then, definitely the most deserving and philosophically appropriate winner at the amazon stock roulette game.