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Kaphan is not the co-founder but Jeff mentioned him as "the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com." Accessed March 13, 2021. According to Mike Hanlon, Amazon's seventh employee, Knute Sears and Fred Eiden were Amazon's ninth and tenth employees, hired in 1995. 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According to the web, Shel Kaphan Net Worth is about $1-$3 million. Davis told Recode in December that Amazons role as both a retailer and the operator of a retail marketplace on which other merchants sell goods and Amazons access to their data that can be used to compete against them is unfair. Benson joined the company as an engineer. So, we just started shaking our networks, and talking to people.. Google's very first hire and its original director of technology, Craig Silverstein was recruited by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin way back in September 1998 when the company HQ was a suburban garage. He also did "stealth online promotion" and vendor negotiation. Eric Benson and his wife, Susan, joined Amazon together. Break it up: Not the ringing endorsement one wants from the man known as the company's first employee, but Shel Kaphan said he doesn't see the Amazon effects as entirely positive. According to Amazon's first employee, Shel Kaphan, Benson was the one who got Amazon on Netscape's "What's New' and "What's Cool" pages when she worked there. He and Susan, his wife, would always bring their dog Rufus to work with them because of the long hours. Shel Kaphan is known for Frontline (1983) and Panorama (1953). Eric Knapp is retired and living in Oregon. According to the web, Shel Kaphan Net Worth is about $1-$3 million. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. Silverstein had studied for his PhD alongside the pair at Stanford University. And theyll continue to do that unless theyre constrained by other forces in society., Later in the film, the CEO of Amazons consumer business, Jeff Wilke, is asked about the current scrutiny of the company. by John Cook on June 14, 2011 at 10:43 amAugust 5, 2017 at 10:03 am. And the specifics of her parents' occupation are still a mystery. Track all of GeekWires in-depth startup coverage: Sign up for the weekly startup email newsletter; check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory; and follow our startup news headlines. What he's doing now: Hanlon cofounded a company called Abett that uses data to help you make stressful decisions. Hanlon was Amazon's seventh employee. GeekWire Interview: Shel Kaphan, Amazon.com's first employee Part 1 . At the time, I was more enamored of what we then thought of as bigger machines, the kind of machines that the universities had. Most recent Amazon title: Information architect. Seventeen years ago, Shel Kaphan was No. Thats all for Shel Kaphan Net Worth and biography. I left, despite significant stock and other inducements to remain, because I am a technical person and had little interest in playing a role in the growth of the company. Expenses: $2,299,980 He completed his bachelors in Mathematics from US Santa Cruz. Former Tow Journalism Fellow, FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism Fellowship, Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO; Andy Jassy Moves Up, Watch 2020s 10 Most-Streamed FRONTLINE Documentaries, Watch FRONTLINEs 5 Most-Streamed Documentaries of 2020 (So Far), From the Archives: How the World's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak Unfolded, Russias Invasion of Ukraine, One Year Later, War Crimes Watch Ukraine: More Than 650 Documented Events, From the Archives: How the U.N. & World Failed Darfur Amid "the 21st Century's First Genocide". In 2012, he donated $2.5 million to defend gay marriage in Washington. Jeff Bezos has been the CEO of Amazon since the very beginning. When Jeff Bezos realized that Molly was helping us in the warehouse, he came down and had her sign a non-disclosure agreement. Most recent Amazon title: Site merchandiser/editor. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. Next up is Randy Wigginton, Apple employee #6. While at Amazon, Kochmer helped develop the browse system for books and worked within the teams that developed the company-wide data infrastructures. He is one , John Delony is a famous bestselling author and anchor of The Dr. John Delony Show. If you know someone else who was there in the earliest days, let us know). PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. One of the many things Benson worked on was the site's "Similarities" system, which recommended books based on what users had already read. A few are happily retired. And I do understand why, when youre in a lot of them, it can seem like were everywhere. Shel Kaphan came from Santa Cruz in a U-Haul before the company was called Amazon. She and Shel Kaphan, Amazon's first employee, shared an office and would sometimes blast rockabilly music as they hacked away on the site, even late on Friday nights. He seems to be a very personal man. For our 29th annual guide to the globe's richest, we found a record 1,826 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago. The ex-Uber employee had a net worth of $1.6 billion (1.3bn)last year and is now the CEO of private investment companySaltwater Capital, which he founded in 2018. Scott left in July 1981. Employee #1 is a series of interviews focused on sharing the often untold stories of early employees at tech companies. He completed the preliminary version in only two weeks. "'Wizard'" was way too old school, 'Jedi' wasn't yet in vogue," he jokes on LinkedIn. He took up various media roles in the following years, including senior director at cable TV channel ESPN, and a director position at global media company Cond Nast. After graduating from MIT, she spent more than a decade at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before joining Amazon. When Mosaic came out, a light bulb went off in a lot of peoples heads that said: Oh, OK, that was the missing piece. You have to have some UI for it that makes it easier for non nerdy people to access it and do different things with it. His story sheds new light on the companys early days and the characteristics that continue to drive Amazon today. He has no social media accounts. And I dont remember the specific numbers, but it was a lot, lot smaller than it turned out to be.. Shel Kaphan (Annie Laurie Malarkey Photo/GeekWire) You know the story of Jeff Bezos, the Wall Street computer science guru with the Texas-sized laugh who founded Amazon.com after a cross-country . I just went over (to the Bellevue office) one day, and Jeff and Mackenzie said: We are not working today. To most it would seem obvious, but Bezos, who had suggested buying knee-pads to make packing on the ground easier, praised him for years for the completely "brilliant idea.". Fresh from a stellar four-year stint at web company Netscape, Omid Kordestani was snapped up by Google in May 1999 to work in sales and business development. It was a very pleasant and optimistic kind of a meeting.. He shared this fun anecdote via email in 2017: "During Christmas 1995, the site really took off. As of the year 2022, Eric Varvel Net Worth is $14 million. According to his LinkedIn,Hanlon managed real estate operations and administrated UNIX and telecom systems from 1995 to 1997. " because the name started with an A, it was above the fold so lots of people saw it," Kaphan said in an interview with the Y Combinator blog. She became the fledgling company's first accountant and, according to Brad Stone, was the one "handling the finances, writing the checks, and helping with hiring.". What he's doing now: Retired. Rainier because this is probably one of the last days of the year that we are going to be able to do that. We were all new to the area, so we just got in the car and drove to Paradise, and hiked around a little bit, and blew that day off from working. He completed his bachelors in Mathematics from US Santa Cruz. Amazon has defended its data usage in its retail business, saying it only uses aggregate data and not individual seller data. And theyre doing it aggressively and skillfully and with great intelligence. She is a well-known celebrity. Copyright 2023 InfluenceWatch. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. by John Cook on June 14, 2011. He decided to leave after Bezos hired two new tech managers and named him CTO, essentially taking him off the front lines and curtailing his ability to make any real change within the company. Jewels Maben net worth is an estimated rate of $1 million to $5 million. The real name of the popular entrepreneur is Sheldon Kaphan. Kaphan says he still owns some Amazon shares; he wouldn't specify how many. How the Great Recession paved the way for influencers to inherit the earth. But Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Justice are all engaged in simultaneous investigations of the Big Four tech companies, which includes Amazon, to evaluate whether any of their business practices are anticompetitive or otherwise unlawful. Karim Gharbi Net Worth. Heather Cairns was Google's first ever HR manager. Bezos and Kaphan are no longer in touch. The main thing I am concerned about is just preserving the ability for small companies to innovate and to do so without fear of having their business taken away, he said. The founding of Facebook has produced a fair few billionaires over the years, and the social networks earliest employees have gone on to have enviable careers even after leaving the company. Software engineer Ellen Ratajak worked on Amazon's early IT. In August 2013, Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million. Now what? From 1998 to 2001, he worked as a software engineer, developing finance and customer service applications at Amazon. (Photos: Annie Laurie Malarkey) Amazon.com today is approaching 40,000 employees. [12]. Now presumably retired, he left his last role, software architect at start-up Paper G, in June 2016. All Rights Reserved. He completed the preliminary version in only two weeks. Shel Kaphan is Amazons first ever employee. Interactive chart of historical net worth (market cap) for Shell (SHEL) over the last 10 years. The multi-talented professional is now president of Coastal Streets, a real estate development enterprise based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. End Date. Nick Strauss did a little bit of everything at Amazon. In fiscal year 2018, the Kaphan Foundation reported $62,023,402 in revenue, of which $61.5 million came from a stock contribution by Kaphan, and $931,349 came from dividends and interest. Millions turn to Vox to educate themselves, their family, and their friends about whats happening in the world around them, and to learn about things that spark their curiosity. Amazon's eighth employee, Laurel Canan, gave up coffee when he joined Amazon. The foundation had $4,405,381 in expenses, of which $4.4 million were disbursed as contributions and grants. Regrettably, Norma died in 2016 at the age of 95. What he's doing now: McDonald works as a high school teacher in Oregon. The retail market we operate in is fiercely competitive, and Amazon represents less than 4% of US retail sales.. Instead, he joined Amazon, taking over operations in the company's warehouse. "That was, in my opinion, a super important connection for us. (Non-profit), Electronic Frontier Foundation (Non-profit), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) (Non-profit), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) (Non-profit), Kaplan Foundation, IRS (Form 990 PF), 2018, Part XV. The first non-founder executive to join the team, Roberts helped Fitbit to grow into a company fit for its IPO in 2015 , and now works as an adviser to a number of digital health and fitness companies. Wigginton went on to create numerous Mac applications including Full Impact and MacWrite. Tom Schonhoff was Amazon's fifth employee and built the customer service department from scratch. Start Date. Date worked for Amazon: Fall 1994 1999 First Amazon job title: VP of Research and Development Most recent Amazon title: CTO. "That was, in my opinion, a super important connection for us. What she's doing now: Susan Benson served as a board member at the Seattle Town Hall, a nonprofit devoted to arts and education, until 2016. Most recent Amazon title: Technical program manager. In fact, to be completely technically true about it, he is the founder. The corgi fast becamesomething of a fixture at the company. Most recent Amazon title: Catalog specialist. In the early days, Nelson used to be in charge of churning out book reviews for Amazon.com. Whats New' and "Whats Cool" pages when she worked there. I had been working in computers since the mid-70s and had sort of seen the first wave of the PC revolution come, and I didnt jump on that. During Christmas 1995, the site really took off. There wasnt really much else going on at that time, but there was quite a bit of buzz about the Web, so my friend and I were thinking that we should do something about this, it is a big opportunity. (The first 10 employees are listed in the order they were hired, though the others are not. The foundation is based in the USA and does not have any online websites. Most recent Amazon title: Editor, books division. When he left his job at the University of Washington, his coworkers passed around a coffee can to collect a few dollars for him in case the risky venture failed. Remote), Software Development Engineer III New Initiatives. Since founding Amazon, Bezos has donated $42 million and part of his land in Texas to the construction of The Clock Of The Long Now, an underground clock designed to work for 10,000 years. He completely gave up coffee soon after. Whats New' and Whats Cool pages when she worked there. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. Working as a developer, he pretty much created the early site's infrastructure. It might have happened without the personal connection, but who knows, maybe not. After graduating from MIT, she spent more than a decade at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before joining Amazon. Kaphan left Amazon in 1999, accumulating an enormous amount of wealth due to his stock options with the company. What he's doing now: He nows works as a program manager for Microsoft. He left Amazon because his work was reduced from technical to. Kaphan said he's proud of his early role in Amazon's history, but . He funds a private space company called Blue Origin, which is working on developing technology for private space travel. She is well-known for her business and is also active on social media. Phone numbers were never meant to protect or identify us, but we use them to do that all the time. MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. That was, in my opinion, a super important connection for us. Trinkle won the National Spelling Bee in 1973 with the word "vouchesafe" and has served on the Bee's Word Panel since 1996, the same year she joined Amazon. Kaphan spoke to FRONTLINE for the upcoming documentary Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, which airs Feb. 18. He says hes proud of the company and the services it provides, and also casts new light on Amazons earliest days and its founder Jeff Bezos now the planets richest person. Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. He is currently an angel investor in Silicon Valley. What she's doing now: She's a board member of Organically Grown Company, an organic produce wholesaler, and an independent IT consultant. HaiPick Robots. 'Wizard' was way too old school, 'Jedi' wasn't yet in vogue, he jokes on LinkedIn. [5], On criminal justice policy, the Foundation gave $50,000 in general support to Families Against Mandatory Minimums and $100,000 in general support to the Innocence Project, which seeks to exonerate incarcerated people through DNA testing. When asked for comment on Kaphans remarks, Amazon spokesperson Jack Evans sent a statement: Amazons retail business competes in the worldwide market for retail sales and our competitors include all other online and brick-and-mortar stores that people shop at every day. Steve Chen, for instance, worked as a senior software engineer at Facebook for just a few months in 2005, but then went on to co-found YouTube that same year. 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