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Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the creator and founder of Amazon.com, a leading world wide online retailer. Bezos came up with the idea for Amazon on a business trip, and with funding from family, developed the multi-billion dollar retailer responsible for everything from books to electronics, and the Kindle.

About Jeff Bezos

Known for: Founding the online retailer Amazon.com.

Jeff Bezos showed signs of an aptitude for science at a very early age. As a toddler he attempted to dismantle his crib with a screwdriver, and even rigged an ordinary alarm clock to keep his siblings out of his room. He also created a laboratory in the family garage and built a solar microwave.

While attending Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Jeff attended the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida. In 1982 he was awarded the Silver Knight Award from the Miami Herald and in 1986 graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After graduating college Jeff took a position with a start-up company called Fitel. The company’s goal was to create a network for international financial trade. Bezos worked with the company for two years but when it became evident Fitel's goal was not going to be reached he took a job with Bankers Trust, developing software applications for pension-fund clients. He moved his way up through the company, eventually reaching the position of vice president. In 1990 Jeff transferred to the financial and techonology development firm D.E. Shaw in which he also served as vice president.

In 1994, in order to pursue a business plan he drew up on a road trip from New York to Seattle, Jeff left his six-figure salary on Wall Street. He had noticed the rise of the World Wide Web and saw a potential for business online. His vision was to launch a website where people could buy books on the Internet. The concept was to develop a website that could offer so much more than any conventional book store or mail-order catalog possibly could. With the help of a $300,000 investment by his parents, Amazon.com came to life.

By 2005, Amazon.com, Inc. was valued at $15 billion.

In 2007 Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com released a unique, new product they called Kindle. Kindle is a software and hardware platform that downloads books from a wireless internet connection and displays them on its screen for a reader. The product debuted on November 19, 2007 and sold out in only five and a half hours. In 2009 Amazon released the Kindle 2. The Kindle 3 launched on August 27, 2010.

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Jeff Bezos