A job advert posted by Jeff Bezos in Amazon’s early days has resurfaced online, leaving people stunned.
The multi-billionaire founded the e-commerce giant from the garage of his Bellevue, Washington home in July 1994.
Initially just selling books, it soon expanded to music and videos and then third-party sellers. Three decades on, it’s now worth a massive $2.41 trillion and is the world’s second-largest retailer behind Walmart.
A little over a month after starting up the business, Bezos was on the hunt for a software developer. And there’s one particular detail of the job advert that’s caught people’s attention.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in July 1994 (Najlah Feanny/Corbis via Getty Images)
Dated August 22, 1994, the post was titled: “Well-capitalized Seattle start-up seeks Unix developers.”
It continued: “Well-capitalized start-up seeks extremely talented C/C++/Unix developers to help pioneer commerce on the Internet.
“You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems, and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible.”
Bezos wanted the candidates to have a ‘BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or the equivalent’ as well as ‘top-notch communication skills’.
The post continued: “Familiarity with web servers and HTML would be helpful but is not necessary.”
Bezos said new hires would be working with ‘talented, motivated, intense, and interesting co-workers’. And, way before remote working, workers would’ve been required to relocate to the Seattle area – though the company would ‘help cover moving costs’.
Bezos’ Amazon job advert (Reddit)
While the advert didn’t disclose a salary, it stated: “Your compensation will include meaningful equity ownership.”
“We are an equal opportunity employer,” Bezos wrote, finishing up with a quote from pioneering computer scientist Alan Kay who said: “It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.”
Taking to Reddit to discuss the ad, people reckoned Bezos was asking for a hell of a lot. But others couldn’t get over the offer of ‘equity’ in the now-trillion-dollar company.
One person said: “So incredibly easy to dismiss right? Yet acted on would net the person tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars within two decades. Insane.”
A second reckoned: “Whoever took that job almost certainly made a lot of money just off the stock options… Unless they sold them early.”
Amazon has a market capitalization of $2.41 trillion today (Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images)
And a third asked: “I’d be interested to know what happened to whoever got hired from that ad. Are they still with the company? Are they filthy rich now?”
Amazon stock was priced at $18 at its initial public offering (IPO) in 1997.
Taking into account the four stock splits that occurred since, the price for that first share would have cost jusr $0.075.
So one single share bought at IPO would mean you’d have 240 shares today, worth around $47,280.
As it was such early days, it’s likely the employee would’ve had more than one share in the company, meaning it could’ve been worth millions today.
Talk about a risk paying off!
