Tony Hsieh

Anthony Hsieh ( ; was an American Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos in August 2020 after 21 years. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded the Internet advertising network LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million.

Early life Hsieh was born to a Taiwanese American family in Urbana, Illinois. His parents were Richard and Judy Hsieh, immigrants from Taiwan who met in graduate school at the University of Illinois. Hsieh's family moved to the Lucas Valley area of Marin County, California, when he was five. His mother was a social worker, and his father a chemical engineer at Chevron Corp. He had two younger brothers, Andy and Dave. Hsieh attended the Branson School.

In 1995, Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science. While at Harvard, he managed the Quincy House grill selling pizza to the students in his dorm; his best customer, Alfred Lin, would later become Zappos's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation. After five months, he left to co-found the LinkExchange advertising network.

Career LinkExchange In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called LinkExchange with his college classmates Sanjay Madan and Ali Partovi. LinkExchange allowed members to advertise on other members' sites in exchange for placing LinkExchange banner advertisements on their own sites. They launched in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO, and found their first 30 clients by direct emailing webmasters. The site grew, and within 90 days LinkExchange had over 20,000 participating web pages and had had its banner ads displayed over 10 million times. By 1998, the site had over 400,000 members and 5 million ads rotated daily. In November 1998, LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for $265 million; Hsieh personally netted $40 million from the sale.

Venture Frogs After LinkExchange sold to Microsoft, Hsieh co-founded and owned Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm, with his business partner, Alfred Lin. The name originated from a dare. One of Hsieh's friends said she would invest everything if they chose "Venture Frogs" as the name, and the pair took her up on the bet, although they had not seen any money as of 2011. They invested in a variety of tech and Internet startups, including Ask Jeeves, OpenTable and Zappos.

Without a precedent to guide him, Hsieh learned how to make customers feel comfortable shopping for shoes online. Zappos offered free shipping and free returns, sometimes of several pairs. Hsieh rethought Zappos structure, and in 2013 it became for a time a holacracy without job titles, reflecting his belief in employees and their ability to self-organize. The company hired only about 1% of all applicants. Named for the Spanish word for 'shoes', , Zappos was often listed in Fortune as one of the best companies to work for, and beyond high salaries and being an inviting place to work it delivered extraordinary customer service.

On July 22, 2009, Amazon announced the acquisition of Zappos.com in a deal valued at approximately $1.2 billion. Hsieh is said to have made at least $214 million from the sale, not including money made through his former investment firm Venture Frogs.

On August 24, 2020, Hsieh retired as the CEO of Zappos after 21 years at the helm.

Real estate rejuvenation projects

Downtown Project (DTP) – Las Vegas From 2009 until his death, Hsieh, who was still running the downtown Las Vegas-based Zappos.com business, organized a major re-development and revitalization project for downtown Las Vegas, which had been for the most part left behind compared to the Las Vegas Strip's growth. Hsieh originally planned the Downtown Project as a place where Zappos.com employees could live and work, but the project grew beyond that to a vision where thousands of local tech and other entrepreneurs could live and work. Projects funded include The Writer's Block, the first independent bookseller in Las Vegas and Downtown Container Park, made of shipping containers.

Park City, Utah After stepping down as CEO of Zappos in August 2020, Hsieh bought multiple properties in Park City, Utah, with a total market value around $56 million.

Awards Hsieh was a member of the Harvard University team that won the 1993 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in Indianapolis, ranking first of 31 entrants.

Hsieh received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Northern California region in 2007.