Tony Hsieh

Tony Hsieh was an internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is best known for being the leader and visionary mind behind Zappos, a billion-dollar internet shoes and clothing powerhouse.

He joined the company in 2000, and under his leadership, it was able to achieve sales amounting to $1.6M. In 2009, its revenues skyrocketed to $1B, and he then sold it to Amazon, with a deal valued at $1.2B. He retired as its CEO in August 2020.

In 1998, he co-founded LinkExchange, an advertising network that was soon sold to Microsoft for $265M. Not long after that, he co-founded the incubator and investment firm Venture Frogs. He’s also credited for organizing a revitalization project for downtown Las Vegas, envisioning it as a place where Zappos.com employees, along with thousands of local and tech entrepreneurs, can live and thrive.

Hsieh wrote the book “Delivering Happiness,” which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List – on which it stayed for 27 consecutive weeks. In addition, the book has been profiled in many world publications, including CNBC, TechCrunch, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harvard University, where he played for the team that won the 1993 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in Indianapolis. In 2007, he received the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Northern California region.

Hsieh passed away in November 2020 because of injuries sustained from a house fire accident