But it also scares me., I think not all of the effects of the company on the world are the best, he added. Let us know. Others went on to other major companies. Davis didn't stick around for long, however, leaving Amazon in 1996, and he currently juggles heading Linux Audio Systems and completing ultramarathons. According to Amazon's first employee, Shel Kaphan, Benson was the one who got Amazon on Netscape's Whats New' and Whats Cool pages when she worked there. And the specifics of her parents' occupation are still a mystery. Despite his short stay he made a decent profit, managing to sell his stake in the company for a cool $1.3 million (1 million)at LinkedIns IPOin 2011. Please try again later. I mean, nobody at the beginning had any clue how big Amazon could become, recalls Kaphan, now 58. As of the year 2022, his Net Worth is estimated to be $1-$3 million. What she's doing now: She's worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs and has spent the last few years focused on sustainable agriculture, according to LinkedIn. He wrote the code that did the automatic layout of Amazon's packing slips and built the site's payment system, which he notes scaled from "300 sales on a big day" to $1 billion a year while he worked on it. Over the years he has held a variety of positions in developer support, AppleScript engineering, and more. My friend Herb (Jellinek) and I were kicking around a lot of ideas to do something on this new platform. Rebecca Allen was an early Amazon engineer. Date worked for Amazon: 1995 1998, September 2016 Present, First Amazon title: Recruiting and Operations, What he's doing now: "Principal TPM Middle Mile" at Amazon, Lovejoy worked with Bezos at D.E. Apple employee #8, Chris Espinosa was the company baby. He also performs original songs that are style pastiches of the work of other acts . Dean, who started out as a senior engineer, has been instrumental in designing everything from the search engine's query retrieval systems to its advertising serving architecture. You have to do it on carbs, he told Brad Stone for Stone's book on Amazon, The Everything Store. Tod Nelson now mentors student entrepreneurs. There wasnt a lot of extraneous activity., Nothing unusual from those early days? Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing and changing us. Shel Kaphan net worth is in the millions and the fact that he is related to Amazon's history, lots of eyes are on him. And it just didnt seem like something that I wanted to make a big deal about at the time., What were those early days like at the first Amazon headquarters in the converted garage in the Bellevue house? It might have happened without the personal connection, but who knows, maybe not.". At the same time, being large or powerful is not illegal on its own. A high school friend of Steve Jobs, Fernandez introduced the late co-founder to Steve Wozniak, who was his neighbour. Heather Cairns was Google's first ever HR manager. In that year Roberts left the young company and then went on to be employee #8 at wearable tech company Fitbit in 2010. First Amazon job title: VP of Research and Development. , As of the year 2022, Eric Varvel Net Worth is $14 million. Looks like that email address is already registered. Paul Davis was hired by Jeff Bezos in the autumn of 1994 back when the company was headquartered in the Bezos' garage in Bellevue. Brad Stone's book "The Everything Store," plus a 2017 conversation with early employees Tom Schonhoff and Mike Hanlon, helped us figure out the names of some of Amazon's first critical employees. Amazon. Strauss had a variety of jobs at Amazon, including answering customer service calls, writing code, packing books, giving presentations, and anything else you can imagine. The Kaphan Foundation was founded in 2005 by Sheldon Kaphan, Amazons first employee. This is only an estimate as we have yet to learn about her assets, but we are sure it will fall within this range. In 2022, she has also served with magazines including Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, W, and Elle. His story sheds new light on the companys early days and the characteristics that continue to drive Amazon today. Everyone was working long hours, and my girlfriend (now wife) Molly would come hang out in the warehouse in the evenings to help us pack up shipments. Copyright 2023 InfluenceWatch. When he left his job at the University of Washington, his coworkers passed around a coffee can to collect a few dollars for him in case the risky venture failed. Benson was part of Amazon's editorial staff (employees wrote all the first reviews) and she would eventually win the title of editor in chief. Kaphan is not the co-founder but Jeff mentioned him as the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com.. Shel Kaphan once said that it took Jeff Bezos all summer to convince him to work with him since he had previously worked as a programmer on several failing startups. Bezos is now one of the most powerful figures in tech, with a net worth of roughly $82 billion. Seven yearslater Graves resigned,two months after Kalanick was ousted. Kaphan also called out Bezos' claims of "too many inaccuracies" to be difficult to validate without more evidence, facetiously saying "breaking news: a new 372 page book has some errors!". He has American Nationality. Most recent Amazon title: Site merchandiser/editor. Software engineer Ellen Ratajak worked on Amazon's early IT. He has earned a name and become so famous personality. Nearly all of the company's earliest 21 employees have since left the company for other ventures like . VP R&D & CTO. Bezos and Kaphan are no longer in touch. The former Mrs Bezos is currently worth $36 billion (28.8bn), having agreed a record-breaking divorce settlement last year, making her the fourth richest woman in theworld, according to Forbes. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. MacKenzie Tuttle, a D.E. Laurel Canan eventually married another early employee, Sara Jinks. Kaphan is the President of the foundation and it bestowed Families Against Mandatory Minimums with $50k and The Innocence Project, with $100K. Google's very first hire and its original director of technology, Craig Silverstein was recruited by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin way back in September 1998 when the company HQ was a suburban garage. Date worked for Amazon: Fall 1994 1999 First Amazon job title: VP of Research and Development Most recent Amazon title: CTO. I was interested in the type of software that could run on those. Strauss had a variety of jobs at Amazon, including answering customer service calls, writing code, packing books, giving presentations, and "anything else you can imagine.". From 1998 to 2001, he worked as a software engineer, developing finance and customer service applications at Amazon. Most recent Amazon title: Technical program manager. What he's doing now: Retired. According to Amazon's first employee, Shel Kaphan, Benson was the one who got Amazon on Netscape's "What's New' and "What's Cool" pages when she worked there. She and the rest of the editorial team were responsible for crafting witty messages for site visitors and recommending new products that they might be interested in, a job that became nearly obsolete when Amazon built an algorithm called Amabot that automatically generated recommendations in a standard format. Oct 1994. Employee #1 is a series of interviews focused on sharing the often untold stories of early employees at tech companies. After rising through different roles at the company over the course of eight years, including chief software architect and director of technology, Pujante moved onto his true passion: electronic music. Its looking at things through a particular, fairly narrow lens that its valid, but its not complete., Kaphan said Bezos likes to win at any cost. And, while he never heard Bezos explicitly say so, Kaphan says he found Bezos worldview to be essentially libertarian., Despite his concerns, Kaphan made one thing clear: breaking up parts of Amazons businesses wont fix systemic problems of lax regulation and the nature of capitalism itself that he believes allowed the company to grow. [4]. Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon since it was founded. Regrettably, Norma died in 2016 at the age of 95. He later decided to join him even though he was not sure of what they were doing at first, but it ended up being easy. Wigginton went on to create numerous Mac applications including Full Impact and MacWrite. AP. Now, Amazon's very first employee, Shel Kaphan, says a breakup of Amazon "could potentially make sense.". She is also a Photographer and well-known for her photographing fashion. Eric Benson and his wife, Susan, joined Amazon together. Thats all for Shel Kaphan Net Worth and biography. (Photos: Annie Laurie Malarkey) Amazon.com today is approaching 40,000 employees. Shaw research associate, married Jeff Bezos in 1993 and the duo founded Amazon together. Next up is Randy Wigginton, Apple employee #6. (The first 10 employees are listed in the order they were hired, though the others are not. Employed at Amazon: 1995 to 1998; September 2016 to present, First Amazon title: Recruiting and Operations, Lovejoy worked with Bezos at D.E. Trinkle won the National Spelling Bee in 1973 with the word "vouchesafe" and has served on the Bee's Word Panel since 1996, the same year she joined Amazon. Jillian D'Onfro contributed to an earlier version of this story. He started out in the company as a teenager in 1977 and was the company's first programmer. And there were a few interesting things. It is a purpose-driven Mortgage Company. That was really the only chance that Molly and I had to see each other, and her help enabled us to get home earlier than we would have otherwise. Shel Kaphan was Amazon's first employee besides Bezos and his wife. What he's doing now: "Principal TPM Prime Video" at Amazon. What he's doing now: McDonald now works as a high school teacher in Oregon. Benson joined the company as an engineer. He is an Employee at Amazon from 1944-1999. At the end of fiscal year 2018, the Foundations assets had a book value of $182,715,004. Karim Gharbi Net Worth. The firm's VP of research and development left in 1999 and is now a major philanthropist. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos. In fiscal year 2018, the Kaphan Foundation reported $62,023,402 in revenue, of which $61.5 million came from a stock contribution by Kaphan, and $931,349 came from dividends and interest. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. After graduating from MIT, she spent more than a decade at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab before joining Amazon. To most it would seem obvious, but Bezos, who had suggested buying knee-pads to make packing on the ground easier, praised him for years for the completely "brilliant idea.". Trinkle won the National Spelling Bee in 1973 with the word vouchesafe and has served on the Bee's Word Panel since 1996, the same year she joined Amazon. End Date. Shel Kaphan earns about $81,840 in salary. Shel Kaphan is his nickname. I got there in October of 1994, and a month later we hired the second technical guy from the UW, Paul Davis was his name. " because the name started with an A, it was above the fold so lots of people saw it," Kaphan said in an interview with the Y Combinator blog. He said he agrees that Amazon deserves scrutiny, like everything thats large in the economy and in society., Were in a lot of verticals, yes, Wilke added. Employed at Amazon: 1996 to at least 2001, Most recent Amazon title: Warehouse employee. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (/ j k v k / YANG-k-vik; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author.