Gurley notes Amazon ran same-day delivery experiments on Uber while most $20-30M companies would refuse due to accounting concerns.
“This is a company that's worth 100 billions of dollars that is running an experiment on top of Uber. And Yeah.”
Gurley contrasts Bezos's respectful shareholder communication with other founders who antagonized Wall Street in their S-1 letters.
“All the entrepreneurs that followed Jeff that wrote that letter were kind of like, screw you, Wall Street. I'm going to run it my own way.”
“E. Shaw and because he came from Wall Street, he understood how to talk to shareholders in a way that no one else did.”
Gurley quotes Bezos saying he only invests when founders will pursue their vision regardless of funding.
“I only look for one thing. I want to know that this person's gonna go do this thing come hell or high water, whether I invest or not.”
Gurley says Bezos looks for unbridled determinism in founders who will execute regardless of investor involvement.
“I only look for one thing, which is that this person's going to go do this thing.”
Gurley describes how Bezos developed his 80-year-old self framework while David Shaw tried to retain him.
“David Shaw was trying he worked at DE Shaw. David Shaw was trying to get him to not go, and he came up with this idea which is”
Gurley quotes Bezos saying he only invests in founders with unstoppable determination to execute regardless of funding.
“He said, I wanna believe this person's gonna go do this, come hell or high water, whether I get involved or not, nothing's gonna stop him.”
Gurley says Bezos only looks for one thing in founders: determinism that they'll succeed regardless of his involvement.
“Because it's not like he's got a lot of free time. He said, I only look for one thing, the determinism of the founder.”
Gurley asked Bezos how he made successful angel investments while running Amazon, learning his one criterion.
“have that? I'll give you a few. And the first one I borrowed from Jeff Bezos.”
Gurley quotes Bezos saying he only looks for determinism in founders who will succeed regardless of investment.
“He said, I wanna believe this person's gonna go do this, come hell or high water, whether I get involved or not, nothing's gonna stop him. And that's the trade he's looking for.”
Gurley quotes Bezos saying he only asks if entrepreneurs will do this no matter what.
“when I meet an entrepreneur, there's only one thing I ask myself. Is this person gonna do this no matter what?”
Gurley says Bezos looks for unbounded determinism when making angel investments.
“Bezos likes to talk. I because I asked him once how he had all these amazing angel investments. He he's looking for unbounded determinism.”
Gurley says Amazon ran same-day delivery experiment using Uber while most companies over $30M wouldn't.
“I know for a fact that most of the companies I've worked with that have gotten over 20 or 30,000,000 in revenue would not run that experiment”
Gurley quotes Bezos saying internal experiments get killed only when the last person with good judgment gives up.
“They ask him, when does a internal experiment get killed? And he said, when the last person with good judgment gives up.”