JEFF BEZOS: THE 90% CRASH THAT ALMOST KILLED AMAZON

15 SEPTEMBER 2026 · 9:26 · 41 VIEWS

In 1999 Jeff Bezos was Time's person of the year and Amazon's shares passed one hundred dollars. Two years later they were worth about six, analysts were calling the company Amazon dot bomb, and it had never made a profit. This episode follows the whole story: the hedge fund desk, the regret minimisation framework, the business plan written on the drive to Seattle, the garage in Bellevue, the door desks, get big fast, the 1997 shareholder letter, the crash, the first profit, and the three decisions nobody understood at the time: Prime, Amazon Web Services and the Kindle. It also covers the six page memos and two pizza teams, Whole Foods, Blue Origin, the pandemic year, stepping down in 2021 and the flight to space fifteen days later. Founder Stories tells the story of one founder per episode, told plainly and in order.