The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 43 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Hsieh: Zappos could expand into airlines and hotels within 10–20 years
“We're hoping, 1020 years from now, people won't even realize we started selling shoes online, and I can imagine one day there could be a Zappos Airlines or Zappos Hotel that, Is really just about the very best customer service and customer experience.”
Tony Hsieh Envisions Future Zappos Airlines and Hotels Within 20 Years
“We're hoping, 1020 years from now, people won't even realize we started selling shoes online. And I can imagine one day there could be a Zappos Airlines or Zappos Hotel that Is really just about the very best customer service and customer experience.”
Tony Hsieh: A CEO should architect the greenhouse, not be the plant
“And for me, I really think of my role as more about being the architect of the greenhouse, and then the, all the plants inside will flourish and thrive on their own.”
Hsieh: Deteriorating Culture Was the Real Reason LinkExchange Was Sold
“What a lot of people don't know is the real reason why we ended up selling the company, and the real reason was because the company culture had gone completely downhill, and I myself dreaded getting out of bed in the morning to go to my own company, which is k…”
Tony Hsieh: True success is being okay with losing everything you have
“And sometimes people ask me what my definition of success is, and I would say, for me, it's getting to the point where you're truly ok with losing everything you have.”
Tony Hsieh: CEOs should be greenhouse architects, not the tallest plants
“I'm probably different from a lot of typical CEOs where I like to use the analogy of imagine a greenhouse where maybe at a typical company, the CEO might be the strongest and tallest and Most charismatic plant that all the other plants strive to One day become…”
Hsieh sold LinkExchange because its company culture had gone completely downhill
“What a lot of people don't know is the real reason why we ended up selling the company, and the real reason was because the company culture had gone completely downhill, and I myself dreaded getting out of bed in the morning to go to my own company, which is k…”
Hsieh: Walked Away from Unvested Stock Following Microsoft Acquisition
“Well, in Silicon Valley, usually there's a four-year, what's known as a four-year vesting for your stock, and I'd only been there for two and a half years, so really had to stay for another year and a half after Microsoft acquired us in order to get the full a…”
Hsieh: Zappos originally validated demand by manually buying retail store shoes
“In order to test out the whole concept for real, Nick would actually just go down to the local shoe store, take pictures of all the shoes that were on the wall, and then put it on the website, and if someone bought something, then go down to the local shoe sto…”
Hsieh Liquidated San Francisco Apartments at a Loss to Fund Zappos
“And basically as Zappos was growing, it was also losing more money and we also need more money for inventory. And so I ended up one by one selling off the apartments and it's kind of like when in Monopoly, when you buy a hotel or houses and then you have to se…”
Hsieh: Investors refused to fund online shoe companies after dot-com crash
“No, and also there were huge companies like pets.com that were e-commerce that were kind of imploding at the time, and so even if someone wanted to invest in an internet company, the last thing they wanted to do was invest in an online shoe company, because no…”
Hsieh: Maximizing short-term profit would have prevented Zappos from building its brand
“You know, if we were just around trying to say maximize the profit margins, then we never would have gone down that path. And yes, we would have made more money in the short term during those days, but then we wouldn't have built our brand and reputation and s…”
Hsieh: Amazon preserved Zappos' independent culture seven years post-acquisition
“They approached us again and said, okay, we will let you guys be your own separate subsidiary with your own separate culture and own separate way of doing business. And happy to report seven years later, they've remained totally true to their word. And we've b…”
Following the dot-com crash, investors refused to fund online shoe startups
“No, and also there were huge companies like pets.com that were e-commerce that were kind of imploding at the time, and so even if someone wanted to invest in an internet company, the last thing they wanted to do was invest in an online shoe company, because no…”
Purpose-driven brands make nonsensical moves that competitors will not copy
“When you actually want your brand to stand for something or to have some sort of purpose, and in our case, it's about to be about the very best customer service and customer experience. You do things that are kind of nonsensical in some ways and that your comp…”
Amazon kept its promise to let Zappos operate autonomously post-acquisition
“They approached us again and said, okay, we will let you guys be your own separate subsidiary with your own separate culture and own separate way of doing business. And happy to report seven years later, they've remained totally true to their word. And we've b…”
Tony Hsieh: Success is being truly okay with losing everything you have
“And sometimes people ask me what my definition of success is, and I would say, for me, it's getting to the point where you're truly ok with losing everything you have.”
Hsieh: CEOs Should Be Greenhouse Architects, Not the Tallest Plant
“I'm probably different from a lot of typical CEOs, where I like to use the analogy of, imagine a greenhouse, where maybe at a typical company, the CEO might be the strongest and tallest Most charismatic plant that all the other plants strive to one day become,…”
Hsieh: Post-Crash Investors Believed No One Would Buy Shoes Online
“No, and also there were huge companies like pets.com that were e-commerce that were kind of imploding at the time, and so even if someone wanted to invest in an internet company, the last thing they wanted to do was invest in an online shoe company, because no…”
Hsieh: Purpose-Driven Customer Service Requires Decisions Competitors Would Never Make
“And so I think, you know, when you actually want your brand to stand for something or to have some sort of purpose, and in our case, it's about to be about the very best customer service and customer experience. You do things that are kind of nonsensical in so…”
Amazon Kept Its Promise of Autonomy Seven Years After Acquiring Zappos
“Happy to report seven years later, they've remained totally true to their word. And we've been able to continue doing our own thing and our culture is very different and distinct from Amazon's”
Tony Hsieh: Success is being truly okay with losing everything
“Sometimes people ask me what my definition of success is, and I would say, for me, it's getting to the point where you're truly ok with losing everything you have.”
Tony Hsieh: I only own two pairs of shoes
“Right now I'm wearing black Asics, and then I have a pair of flip-flops that I wear, and those are the only two pairs.”
Hsieh: I Am Passionate About Culture and Customer Service, Not Shoes
“I'm actually not passionate about shoes at all. I'm passionate about customer service and company culture, so I can talk forever about those two things, but I can't say anything about shoes.”
Hsieh: LinkExchange Grew to 100 People and Sold to Microsoft for $265M
“Yeah, over two and a half years, we ended up growing the company, which was called Link Exchange, to about a hundred or so people. And then ultimately ended up selling the company to Microsoft in 1998 for two hundred sixty five million.”
Hsieh: Zappos rejected an early Amazon acquisition before Amazon launched Endless
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us, and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership, and kind of loses its original identity, and so we said, Know very quickly. And then they…”
Tony Hsieh was passionate about customer service and culture, not shoes
“I'm actually not passionate about shoes at all. I'm passionate about customer service and company culture, so I can talk forever about those two things, but I can't say anything about shoes.”
LinkExchange started by cold-emailing 100 random websites to swap banner ads
“And so we literally just contacted a hundred random websites that we thought were interesting... Basically that we're trying this thing out, and if you just put this little piece of code into your website, banners will start showing up, and in exchange, you se…”
LinkExchange grew to 100 employees and sold to Microsoft for $265 million
“Over two and a half years, we ended up growing the company, which was called Link Exchange, to about a hundred or so people. And then ultimately ended up selling the company to Microsoft in 1998 for two hundred sixty five million.”
Tony Hsieh walked away from 18 months of Microsoft stock vesting
“Well, in Silicon Valley, usually there's a four-year, what's known as a four-year investing for your stock, and I'd only been there for two and a half years, so really had to stay for another year and a half after Microsoft acquired us in order to get the full…”
Mail-order catalogs proved a $2 billion footwear market existed before Zappos
“And then the other interesting fact was that at the time, mail order catalogs, those paper catalogs, that was actually the fastest growing segment of the footwear industry in the U.S., and that represented five percent, so two billion dollars a year and growin…”
Zappos tested demand by photographing local shoe store inventory for its website
“Yeah, I mean, so, in order to test out the whole concept for real, Nick would actually just go down to the local shoe store, take pictures of all the shoes that were on the wall, and then put it on the website, and if someone bought something, then go down to …”
Hsieh sold his personal real estate at a loss to fund Zappos
“And basically, as Zappos was growing, it was also losing more money, and we also need more money for inventory, and so I ended up, one by one, selling off the apartments, and it's kind of like when in Monopoly, when you buy a hotel or houses, and then you have…”
Zappos initially rejected Amazon's acquisition offer to protect its company culture
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership and kind of loses its original identity. And so we said no very quickly.”
Tony Hsieh Owns Two Pairs of Shoes and Dislikes Footwear
“Right now I'm wearing black Asics, and then I have a pair of flip-flops that I wear, and those are the only two pairs. I'm actually not passionate about shoes at all. I'm passionate about customer service and company culture, so I can talk forever about those …”
LinkExchange Grew to 100 Employees and Sold to Microsoft for $265M
“Over two and a half years, we ended up growing the company, which was called Link Exchange, to about a hundred or so people. And then ultimately ended up selling the company to Microsoft in 1998 for two hundred sixty five million.”
Hsieh Sold LinkExchange Because the Company Culture Went Completely Downhill
“What a lot of people don't know is the real reason why we ended up selling the company, and the real reason was because the company culture had gone completely downhill, and I myself dreaded getting out of bed in the morning to go to my own company”
Tony Hsieh Walked Away From 1.5 Years of Unvested Microsoft Stock
“Well, in Silicon Valley, usually there's a four-year, what's known as a four-year vesting for your stock, and I'd only been there for two and a half years, so really had to stay for another year and a half after Microsoft acquired us in order to get the full a…”
The US Footwear Market Was $40 Billion Annually When Zappos Pitched
“One was that footwear at the time was a forty billion dollar a year industry in the US. Yeah. And I'm not into shoes at all, so that was News to me. And then the other interesting fact was that at the time, mail order catalogs, those paper catalogs, that was a…”
Zappos Tested Demand by Fulfilling Orders From a Local Brick-and-Mortar Store
“So in order to test out the whole concept for real, Nick would actually just go down to the local shoe store, take pictures of all the shoes that were on the wall, and then put it on the website. And if someone bought something, then go down to the local shoe …”
Tony Hsieh Sold His San Francisco Apartments at a Loss for Zappos
“And so I ended up, one by one, selling off the apartments, and it's kind of like when in Monopoly, when you buy a hotel or houses, and then you have to sell them, but you lose money on the sale.”
Zappos Rejected Amazon's First Buyout Offer to Protect Its Corporate Identity
“Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us, and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership, and kind of loses its original identity, and so we said, Know very quickly.”