Jeff Bezos is the founder, CEO, and president of Amazon, he is currently the richest entrepreneur in the world with a net worth of $130 Billion. But how did he get there?
Bezos showed an early interest in how things work, turning his parents’ garage into a laboratory and rigging electrical contraptions around his house as a child. In 1996 Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton University with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. After graduating Bezos found work at several firms on Wall Street. In 1990, Bezos became D.E. Shaw’s youngest vice president. However in 1994 he quit his job and moved to Seattle to target the untapped potential of the Internet market by opening an online bookstore.
After asking his friends to test out his website in July 16, 1995 Bezos opened Amazon.com. Amazon ended up selling books across the United States and in 45 foreign countries within 30 days. In two months, sales reached $20,000 a week. This was growing faster than Bezos and his startup team of 300 could have envisioned. Bezos continued to diversify Amazon’s offerings with the sale of CDs and videos in 1998, and later clothes, electronics such as the series of Kindles, toys and more through major retail partnerships. Amazon flourished with yearly sales that jumped from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011. Jeff was on the road to becoming the richest man entrepreneur in the world!
Currently Jeff is Richest entrepreneur in the world with a net worth of $130 Billion. While always re-investing and finding new business ventures to add to his already jaw dropping resume he is also very charitable. Since 2011 he has donated $236 Million to different charity’s and organisations. His biggest donations have been $98.5 million to fighting homelessness, $33 million to TheDream.us, a non-profit that funds college scholarships for immigrants and much more. Such as $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage, a same-sex-marriage advocacy group.
While still growing his business ventures and changing peoples lives, Jeff Bezos still inspire many. Make sure to read last weeks blog Bill Gates: Becoming A Billionaire Entrepreneur