By William Wei
Business Insider conducts exclusive interview with Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos
Hsieh is the CEO of the online shoe retailer Zappos.com. Before joining Zappos, he co-founded and sold LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million. He graduated from Harvard with a BA in Computer Science. In July 2009, Amazon.com announced the acquisition of Zappos.com. When Amazon first approached Zappos to talk about an acquisition, the online shopping behemoth wanted to fold the smaller shoe retailer into its site. Zappos didn’t budge.
Eventually, Amazon and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh came to an agreement preserving the Zappos independence and culture, and the company got sold. In this exclusive interview, Hsieh elaborates on how his company got sold and what it was able to achieve “more under the Amazon umbrella.”
This interview is part of our Inspiring Performers series.