Tony Hsieh – Co-Founder of the Online Shoe and Clothing Company Zappos
For constant growth, one needs to take risks, from time to time. Getting into a new business, or changing a line of work, or anything that keeps your adrenaline rush at its peak as it will lead you to most fulfilling experiences. The success, of course, follows and, so does money. Entrepreneurs are known for their risk taking abilities and venturing into newer forays. Tony Hsieh, is one such figure, who has kept evolving his talent from time to time and has reached the topmost position in the corporate world.
Early Life
Tony Hsieh was born on 12 December 1973, in Illinois, US, to Richard and Judy Hsieh, who shifted from Taiwan to Illinois. He was brought up on the bay area of San Francisco with his two brothers, Andy Hsieh and Dave Hsieh.
He graduated in Computer Science from Harvard University, in 1995. While studying in Harvard, Tony managed the Quincy House Grille and, sold pizza to the students in his dorm. Here he met Alfred Lin, who was his best pizza customer and, a future colleague.
Career
Tony landed his first job with Oracle Corporation, soon after he graduated. But, just in half a year, he realized that the corporate environment was not meant for him and, left the job. Later he went on to set up LinkExchange – an advertising network – along with his college friend and ex-Oracle employee Sanjay Madan.
The central aim of LinkExchange was to advertise the sites of companies, interested in the company. Tony landed his first 30 clients, via e-mail and, just within three months, the site displayed ads of 20,000 web-pages. Members were allowed to advertise their site using banner ads on LinkExchange. The banner ads were displayed over 10 million times and, by 1998, the site registered 400,000 members and 5 million ad rotations daily. The company was sold to Microsoft for $265 million, in November 1998.
The next business Hsieh started was an incubator and investment firm, whose name was originated as a result of a dare. One of Tony’s friends said that she would invest everything, she has got, if they named the company ‘Venture Frogs’ and, thus, accepting the challenge, the company with the same name was born. Venture Frogs invested in several companies, like AskJeeves, OpenTable, and Zappos. The company did not witness huge profits but, led Tony to take interest in Zappos.
Founding Zappos
Nick Swinmurn, the person with the original idea of Zappos, approached Tony, in 1999, with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh wasn’t interested in the early days but, when Swinmurn mentioned that footwear business accounted to $40 billion in the US alone, of which 5% was sold by paper mail orders.
The figures struck Tony, and through Venture Frogs, he decided to invest in the business. He accepted the position of CEO of Zappos, investing $2 million, and in 1999 started ShoeSite.com. Tony enjoyed working in Zappos and set up an office in Venture Frogs premises itself. In 2000, the company received additional funding and generated about $1.6 million in revenue, and $8.6 million, in the next year.
In 2004, Sequoia Capital invested $35 million in Zappos as they saw the company made sales worth $184 million. In 2007, the company made sales worth $840 million and had expanded their products, in every sector, like kids, men’s, women shoes, etc. By this time, they had a dedicated headquarters situated in Henderson, Nevada.
The year 2009, was the most blooming for Zappos, as the company touched $1 billion in revenue. On July 22, 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos, for a whopping $1.2 billion, and Hsieh made about $214 million through this deal.
Later, Hsieh also joined JetSuite’s board in 2011 and closed a $7 million investment deal for the ‘very light’ jet project.
Personal Life
Tony Hsieh, apart from business, believes in sharing knowledge. Therefore, he wrote Delivering Happiness, which became an international bestseller. In the book, he explains the details of Zappos’ journey and achieving the feat of $1 billion, in less than a year. The book remained on top lists for 27 consecutive weeks.
Tony isn’t married and likes to party. He does not stay with his parents as they wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer. Hsieh received Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007. He lives in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, and also has a home in Southern Highlands.
Harshal Pawar is an avid reader, a TV show addict, and a writer. He has a personal blog brainwork.wordpress.com where he jots down his articles and poetry about love and life.
He is currently pursuing film-making and wishes to bring the words written on a paper to the screen. More of all he is a scorpio.