The Ledger
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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: 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…”
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…”
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.”
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 …”
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.”
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.”
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 …”