Employed at Amazon: 1995 to 1998; September 2016 to present, First Amazon title: Recruiting and Operations, Lovejoy worked with Bezos at D.E. He also did "stealth online promotion" and vendor negotiation. I left that in the Spring of 1994. Most recent Amazon title: Site merchandiser/editor. He's also in a band called Two Loons For Tea. What he's doing now: Knapp is now retired. Benson joined the company as an engineer. A number of senior Amazon executives also spoke to FRONTLINE for the film, and take decidedly different views on many of Kaphans concerns disputing the idea that because of its size there needs to be some kind of intervention, or that it is stifling competition in any way. Rugel is now using his digital expertise in a relatively new venture called The Seventh Spark Company, which brings together faith communities using mobile technology. "because the name started with an A, it was above the fold so lots of people saw it," Kaphan said in. Lemuel Plummer is a , Shervin Mirhashemi Net Worth and Business journey: He is the CEO of the Legends Board of Directors. Shel Kaphan, who joined Amazon after it was founded in 1994, made his comments in a documentary on PBS' "Frontline.". And I do understand why, when youre in a lot of them, it can seem like were everywhere. What he's doing now: Founder of Linux Audio Systems. Most recent Amazon title: Editor, Music and Video. In his first in-depth media interview since leaving Amazon.com in 1999, Kaphan talks extensively about his history with the company including the technical challenges Amazon overcame in its early days; what it was really like to work for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; how the company surpassed even the most optimistic expectations of the people who started it; and Kaphans feelings about the companys runaway success. Davis was Amazon's fourth employee, joining before the company launched its website and working with Shel Kaphan to make Bezos' dreams a reality. You cant just ask one player to change the way that they act.. He funds a private space company called Blue Origin, which is working on developing technology for private space travel. Theres video and theres commerce, theres [Amazon] Web Services, theres all these things. One of the many things Benson worked on was the site's Similarities system, which recommended books based on what users had already read. The corgi fast becamesomething of a fixture at the company. Most recent Amazon title: Editor, music and video. Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos. Times Syndication Service. Nick Strauss did a little bit of everything at Amazon. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), https://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-employee-1/, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/amazon-first-employee-shel-kaphan-calls-company-huge-unstoppable-force/, https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation (Non-profit), Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) (Non-profit), Democracy Now Productions (Democracy Now!) What he's doing now: Nelson now serves as executive director of CalPoly's Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. And I dont remember the specific numbers, but it was a lot, lot smaller than it turned out to be.. Shel Kaphan was hesitant to join Jeff Bezos as Amazon's first employee in 1994. It was an office in a house. I watched as the first PC wave happened and got bigger and bigger and bigger, and at some point I realized: Oh, I kind of missed getting on that wave. So, I always had in the back of mind, if I see something that I want to be participate in coming, next time, I am going to act on it. Seventeen years ago, Shel. According to Mike Hanlon, Amazon's seventh employee, Knute Sears and Fred Eiden were Amazon's ninth and tenth employees, hired in 1995. Shel Kaphan was the very first employee hired by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in 1994. Although he only stayed with Amazon for less than two years, he was absolutely critical to the development of the site, helping to create the entire backend. The real name of the popular entrepreneur is Sheldon Kaphan. 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.". Stephen Beitzel worked as a software developer at numerous small tech companies and spent almost three years at Apple before joining the team at LinkedIn. Kaphan also called out Bezos' claims of "too many inaccuracies" to be difficult to validate without more evidence, facetiously saying "breaking news: a new 372 page book has some errors!". Do you wish to know about Shel Kaphan net worth? He also worked as operations manager and eventually helped launch Amazon's German site. [3] [4] Davis grew up in the English Midlands and in London. In 2018, the Kaphan Foundation provided grants including $300,000 in general support to the left-of-center news organization Democracy Now!, $150,000 in general support to abortion provider Planned Parenthood, and $25,000 in general support to the Union of Concerned Scientists. After graduating from MIT, she spent more than a decade at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before joining Amazon, according to LinkedIn. Browse Individual Contributions: Sheldon Kaphan. FEC.gov. These days, Amazon is one of the most valuable companies in the world and Bezos is the richest person in the world with a net worth of about $105 billion. While at Amazon, Kochmer helped develop the browse system for books and worked within the teams that developed the company-wide data infrastructures. Join GeekWire's membership program. He was born on Sep 12, 1952, in the USA. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. He has earned a name and become so famous personality. HaiPick Robots. First Amazon job title: VP of Research and Development. Strauss had a variety of jobs at Amazon, including answering customer service calls, writing code, packing books, giving presentations, and "anything else you can imagine.". But it also scares me.. Although he only stayed with Amazon for less than two years, he was absolutely critical to the development of the site, helping to create the entire backend. He has no social media accounts. Short Bytes: Shel Kaphan, the first Amazon employee, talked about his initial days at Amazon in an interview with The Macro. Jillian D'Onfro contributed to an earlier version of this story. While at Amazon, Kochmer helped develop the browse system for books and worked within the teams that developed the company-wide data infrastructures. But that was it. In January 2010, Uber founder Travis Kalanick tookto Twitter for tips on people to hire for his brand new start-up Ryan Graves replied with his email address and two months later he was Ubers first official employee, stepping into the role of CEO. Laurel Canan eventually married another early employee, Sara Jinks. He is currently pursuing personal interests and still living in Seattle. 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. Wigginton went on to create numerous Mac applications including Full Impact and MacWrite. She's now a writer living on the East Coast. The Foundation also funded left-of-center electoral administration policy organizations, including $200,000 in general support to FairVote, a campaign to abolish the electoral college; $10,000 in general support to Fix Democracy First, which advocates the reversal of the Citizens United decision and taxpayer funding of election campaigns; and $300,000 in general support to the political finance organization MapLight. According to the web, Shel Kaphan Net Worth is about $1-$3 million. Evan Henshaw-Plath was the first official employee at Twitter, where he worked as the lead developer from 2004, when podcast platform Odeo was the teams main focus, through until 2006. Copyright 2023. Working as a developer, he pretty much created the early site's infrastructure. Eric Varvel is the CEO and President of Amazon.com today is approaching 40,000 employees. As of the year 2022, his Net Worth is estimated to be $1-$3 million. I got there in October of 1994, and a month later we hired the second technical guy from the UW, Paul Davis was his name. Sorry, something went wrong. According to his LinkedIn,Hanlon managed real estate operations and administrated UNIX and telecom systems from 1995 to 1997. Meet Amazon.Coms First Employee: Shel Kaphan. GeekWire.com, June 14, 2011. He aided the Amazon organization and made it the largest retailer foundation in the world. Alfred Nickson is a famous , Dolf De Roos Wikipedia and Net Worth: As of the year 2022, Dolf De Roos Net Worth is $5 million. Really, we all just were pretty much doing what we had to do. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. Eiden was a software developer until 2000 and now designs customer furniture, a craft he took up after he left Amazon. Kaphan was its first employee. The foundation is based in the USA and does not have any online websites. (The first 10 employees are listed in the order they were hired, though the others are not. Amazon Shel Kaphan: He is a former Amazon employee and was the Chief Technology Officer. 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. Karim Gharbi is currently a successful founder. Our high-capacity ACRs provide a remarkably small footprint with a vertical reach of over 30ft high, allowing our solutions to reduce a facility's storage footprint by up to 75%. The broken Twitter everyone warned us about is finally here. How much a company is worth is typically represented by its market capitalization, or the current stock price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. A high school friend of Steve Jobs, Fernandez introduced the late co-founder to Steve Wozniak, who was his neighbour. One thing I remember from very early on, within the first week or two that I was there, I had rented a house in Wedgwood here in Seattle, and I was commuting over the bridge. At the time, I was more enamored of what we then thought of as bigger machines, the kind of machines that the universities had. Whats New' and Whats Cool pages when she worked there. Correction 2/13/20: This post has been updated to remove an erroneous description of ARPANET; and to clarify that Kaphans view that Bezos likes to win at any cost isnt linked to what Kaphan describes as Bezos essentially libertarian worldview. Most recent Amazon title: Editor, Books division. He left the role in 2009 and sat on the boards of Spotify and Vodafone before returning to Google in August 2015 to take up the position of chief business advisor, then senior advisor. Kaphan says he still owns some Amazon shares; he wouldn't specify how many. In 1977, two years after launching Microsoft, Bill Gates hired his former Harvard classmate Bob Greenberg to work as a BASIC programmer. After graduating from MIT, she spent more than a decade at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before joining Amazon. The Foundation does not have an online presence. Jeff is the chairman of Amazon and earns an $81,840 salary. Date worked for Amazon: Fall 1994 1999 First Amazon job title: VP of Research and Development Most recent Amazon title: CTO. But it also scares me., I think not all of the effects of the company on the world are the best, he added. Documenting evidence of potential war crimes in Ukraine. In fact, Amazon says it "owes its remarkable dog-friendly culture to Rufus. Please try again later. 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. Over the years he has held a variety of positions in developer support, AppleScript engineering, and more. Dean, who started out as a senior engineer, has been instrumental in designing everything from the search engine's query retrieval systems to its advertising serving architecture. At the current time Parker, who was fired from his role as Facebook president in 2006 due to a drug-related incident, is the founder and chairman of online campaigning platform Causes and video chat app Airtime, as well as a Spotify board member. The first few Web sites started coming around. Most recent Amazon title: Catalog specialist, Strauss had a variety of jobs at Amazon, including answering customer service calls, writing code, packing books, giving presentations, and "anything else you can imagine.". Kaphan used this wealth to found the Kaphan Foundation in 2005. And I dont want to see that.. That was really the only chance that Molly and I had to see each other, and her help enabled us to get home earlier than we would have otherwise. [10] Kaphan has since gone on to say that it might make sense for the government to break Amazon up, but that the fundamental problem is with the economic system of capitalism itself and the lack of regulations in the market. Arguably the most well-known of Facebook's early employees, Sean Parker was already a tech industry bigwig when he joined the social network as its president in June 2004, having co-created free file-sharing service Napster, as well as co-founding online address book Plaxo. Paul Davis (formerly known as Paul Barton-Davis [1]) is a British-American [2] software developer best known for his work on audio software ( JACK) for the Linux operating system, and for his role as one of the first two programmers at Amazon.com. Accessed March 13, 2021. Date worked for Amazon: 1995 to at least 1998 (we weren't able to find further information on Canan). In his own words: "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. He was born on Sep 12, 1952. Google Pay. Other critics have called for Amazon to separate its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing business from its retail business, based on a belief that Amazon uses profits from AWS to subsidize low prices in its retail business. Now what? Twenty-six years ago, programmer Shel Kaphan helped build the foundation for the worlds largest internet retailer. He completed his bachelors in Mathematics from US Santa Cruz. Shel Kaphan earns about $81,840 in salary. He ran the whole customer service department for the first several months, working with Bezos to establish Amazon's famous "it's all about the customers" attitude. She's admitted that Bezos could be a "royal a**hole" with "irrational stubbornness," but that it all came from his unrelenting desire to delight customers. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. Kaphan is not the co-founder but Jeff mentioned him as the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Date worked for Amazon: 1996 at least 2001. 'Wizard' was way too old school, 'Jedi' wasn't yet in vogue, he jokes on LinkedIn. When the pair first met in 1994, he said, something clicked into place., He came out to Santa Cruz and we all met at my house and went out to get pancakes for breakfast at one of the local places and drove around, he recounted. And I wish it wasnt so, but I had something to do with bringing it into existence; its partly on me., Asked if he favors a breakup of the company, which has been advocated by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and some anti-monopoly activists, Kaphan said, I think theyre now at the scale where that could potentially make sense.. What drew him to work with Bezos, Kaphan said, was a desire to work on cutting-edge web architecture, or hypertext, and his love of working with books. Continue reading for our conversation. 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. She is well-known for her business and is also active on social media. What he's doing now: Philanthropy at the Kaphan Foundation. Eric Knapp is retired and living in Oregon. Its so vast, were just a speck.. Kaphan considered the possibility that Amazon should be broken up to level the playing field his first time speaking out about this and his other concerns: Kaphan said his concerns about Amazon are not just about the retail platform but on software products on AWS as well. He ran the whole customer service department for the first several months, working with Bezos to establish Amazon's famous "it's all about the customers" attitude. A few are happily retired. She became the fledgling company's first accountant and. Success! She upheaves organic grass-fed beef there. It has also previously said, Amazon only succeeds when sellers succeed and claims to the contrary are wrong. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has also called for the breakup of the company he helped form with Mark Zuckerberg. The previous job I had was with Kaleida Labs, which was an Apple-IBM joint venture that called itself a startup but really wasnt. Yes, Kaphan answered, theyre doing what the business schools teach people to do. This is only an estimate as we have yet to learn about her assets, but we are sure it will fall within this range. MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 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