Tony Hsieh (1973–2020) was an American Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He was CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos for 21 years. Before joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded the Internet advertising network LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft in 1998.
Born to Taiwanese immigrants in Urbana, Illinois, Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a computer science degree. He worked for Oracle Corporation and quit after five months to co-found the LinkExchange advertising network.
Hsieh then started Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm. He was one of the original investors in online retail store Zappos and got sucked in to help the founder as CEO. Amazon.com bought Zappos in 2009 for $1.2 billion.
Hsieh went about building an intentional corporate culture dedicated to employee empowerment and the promise of delivering the best customer service. He also offered free shipping and free returns years before these features became mainstream—giving customers as long as a year to send back unwanted products. His bestselling memoir, Delivering Happiness (2010,) discusses the importance of cultivating happiness as a springboard to better business results.
Hsieh died from smoke inhalation from a house fire in Connecticut.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Tony Hsieh
Money alone isn’t enough to bring happiness . . . happiness is when you’re actually truly ok with losing everything you have.
—Tony Hsieh
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