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MASTER
MENTOR
What four entrepreneurs learned from
working side by side with Jeff Bezos.
BY J.J. MCCORVEY

Amazon has grown into the

largest internet retailer in
the world; it’s home to an
Oscar- and Emmy-winning
production studio; its subscription
service, Amazon Prime, reached

P H O T O G R A P H S BY C H R I S T O P H E R PAT E Y/ G E T T Y I M A G E S
90 million members last year (up from
58 million in 2016); and it’s made
founder Jeff Bezos one of the richest
men on the planet. This success
alone—to see opportunities where
others haven’t, and move into them
faster than others can—makes him one
of the most daring entrepreneurs of
all time. But alongside that, Bezos has
proven himself adept at taking on
totally unexpected challenges. Case in
point: Last year’s purchase of Whole
Jeff Bezos, Amazon
founder and CEO. Foods markets and his stewardship of
The Washington Post. f

1 2 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 S TA R T U P S
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In sum, Bezos doesn’t just
buy a company—he uses
it to rethink an industry. To
understand how his impact
spreads beyond his own
operation, we asked four
Amazon alumni—all of whom
now head up their own
companies—to share the
priceless lessons learned from
the boldest man they know.
LESSON 1
Don’t worry about
the money.
“My first year at Amazon, I was
in charge of ‘space manage-
ment,’ which meant overseeing
how the storage was used in
our warehouses. I made a
mistake and placed too much
product at the very top of our
shelves, and when orders came
in, workers couldn’t bring
items down fast enough to
fulfill them. It was a massive
mistake, so I presented Jeff
with a plan to save us money
[while canceling the least
number of orders]. I was proud
of myself—I thought I was
saving the situation. He looked
at me and said, ‘Stop. Don’t
worry about the money. Ship
everything you can as fast as
you can; don’t miss a single
order. Figure out how much it
cost us, and make sure it
doesn’t happen again.’
Don’t worry about the money?
Most companies claim the
customer is the most import-
ant thing, but they’ll do what’s
right for the company. For Jeff,
it’s genuinely what’s right for
the customer.”
—Nadia Shouraboura,
founder and CEO, Hointer
LESSON 2
Be a leader, not just
a decider.
“Back in 2003, I was one of a
handful of people who got the
chance to start Amazon Web
Services, which [provides
cloud-computing applications
and] today is a very large
1 4 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 S TA R T U P S
business. I was tasked with
figuring out how to monetize
Web Services, and I got to work
fairly closely with Jeff. About a
year in, my team had an idea
for a loyalty program. Our CIO,
Rick Dalzell, set up a meeting
with Jeff, who said that it
wasn’t a good idea for Amazon.
As meek as I was, I actually
asked him, ‘Can you explain
why?’ He could have easily
dismissed me, but he very
patiently and articulately
described why our idea wasn’t
good for the company but
would be good for other
businesses implementing
loyalty programs at the time. I
took away two very big things.
One was the clarity of thought
I saw from Jeff. It forced me to
think—and that’s the kind of
clarity of thought I aspire to.
Second, it strengthened my
belief in him as a leader,
because he used the moment
to educate me.”
—Vikas Gupta, cofounder
and CEO, Wonder Workshop
LESSON 3
Forget the output,
and focus on input. 50 CEOs in the past year during focused on the needs of the
“When you look at how Jeff sales meetings, and it customer. And the way you do
Bezos interacts with Wall unsettles me how the majority that is to organize your
Street, he says, ‘Look, I don’t of them are so emphatic about workforce into small teams
care about revenues and growth and revenue or profit that are close to the customers.
profits. If you want to hold me but don’t think too much In the early days of Amazon
accountable for revenues and about the inputs it takes to Web Services, my team was
profits, then Amazon is not the achieve these things.” very focused on customers
stock you should be buying.’ —Guru Hariharan, who wanted payments, while
Instead, he focuses on the founder and CEO, other teams were focused on
inputs: how new initiatives Boomerang Commerce customers who needed
integrate with Amazon Prime, storage. That notion of small
the number of U.S. households LESSON 4 teams, to maintain a tightness
he delivers to, the number of Even as you grow, with customers, was alive even
warehouses he’s built. If you find ways to stay small. within the bigger team that
look at scriptures and mytholo- “If I were to summarize the was AWS. At [cloud communi-
gies, many of them talk about gist of what it’s like having Jeff cations platform] Twilio, we’ve
warriors doing their duty and Bezos as the leader of the adapted this as ‘Wear the
not worrying about the company, it would be ‘Think customers’ shoes.’ Everywhere
outcome. It’s a very powerful big.’ Amazon’s internal slogan you walk in our offices, you see
concept, being at the top of actually became ‘Work hard, actual shoes sent in from our
your game with the things you have fun, make history.’ Come clients. It’s a constant
can control and not worrying with big ideas, but be thorough reminder of how to succeed.”
about what’s out of your in how we can achieve them. —Jeff Lawson, cofounder
control. I’ve talked to maybe The key is to keep everyone and CEO, Twilio