Shel Kaphan

Shel Kaphan is an American computer programmer who was the first employee of technology company Amazon. Working there from 1994 to 1999, he co-wrote the first Amazon website, wrote the product review system, and contributed to 1-Click. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos described Kaphan as "the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com," and Brad Stone wrote in his book about Amazon, The Everything Store, that "Kaphan was an introverted hacker with an idealistic streak and little intuitive leadership ability."

After meeting with Bezos, Kaphan was interested in working with him because they shared an interest in creating new web technologies. and reluctant to leave his long-time residence of Santa Cruz, but Bezos convinced him to move to Seattle and hired him as Vice President of Research and Development. In 1997 he became Chief Technology Officer, which did not act as a promotion as he had no direct responsibilities and acted as an advisor. According to Kaphan, Bezos asked him if he wanted the job, to which he said he did not, and Bezos gave him the job without choice.

Views of Amazon Towards the end of Kaphan's time at Amazon, his opinion of the company grew more negative and his relationship with Bezos deteriorated, having gone from initially living with Bezos and his wife for a short time upon first moving to Seattle, He also expressed concerns that Amazon is not interested in adding necessary oversight to its services, specifically criticizing their Ring doorbell cameras for sharing video with police.