Jeff Bezos

HE SOLD BOOKS. NOW HE OWNS THE CLOUD, A NEWSPAPER, AND ROCKETS

Bezos left a Wall Street quant firm to sell books online, then accidentally built the cloud (AWS), bought The Washington Post, started a rocket company, and stepped down from Amazon while it kept growing. He ran it all on the 'Day 1' doctrine — his coined phrase for never acting like an incumbent — books to cloud to rockets, always the long game.

1. 1986

   A PRINCETON ENGINEERING DEGREE, THEN OFF TO WALL STREET

   Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science before moving into finance and technology roles on Wall Street.

   SOURCES: Princeton Engineeringreported

2. 1990

   HE RISES AT D.E. SHAW

   Bezos joined quantitative investment firm D.E. Shaw in 1990 and became a senior vice president before leaving in 1994.

   SOURCES: U.S. SEC / Amazonfirst-party

3. 1994

   HE LEAVES WALL STREET FOR AN ONLINE BOOKSTORE

   Bezos moved to Seattle and founded Amazon in 1994, initially building the company around books sold over the internet.

   SOURCES: Princeton Engineeringreported

4. 2000

   HE STARTS A ROCKET COMPANY TOO

   Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, adding long-horizon private spaceflight to the businesses surrounding him.

   SOURCES: Princeton Engineeringreported

5. 2006

   AMAZON STARTS RENTING THE INTERNET'S ENGINE ROOM

   Amazon launched AWS in 2006, turning internal infrastructure lessons into cloud services that would become one of the company’s most consequential businesses.

   SOURCES: AWSfirst-party

6. 2013

   THE E-COMMERCE BARON BUYS THE WASHINGTON POST

   Bezos became owner of The Washington Post in 2013, adding a major news institution to his personal holdings.

   SOURCES: Princeton Engineeringreported

7. Jul 2021

   HE STEPS DOWN, KEEPS THE CHAIR

   Bezos moved from Amazon chief executive to executive chair in July 2021 after more than two decades running the company.

   SOURCES: U.S. SEC / Amazonfirst-party