Shel Kaphan was Amazon's first employee besides Bezos and his wife. 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. [7], The Foundation also provided $100,000 in general support to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and $75,000 to Wikipedia. He left Amazon in 1999 and is currently president of the Kaphan. His current age is 70 years old. Yan Pujante was part of LinkedIn during its formative years even before the team had an office and getin.com was still a possible name. Her ethnicity, however, is white, and she is an American citizen. Jewels Maben is a very successful content creator at the moment. There wasnt really much else going on at that time, but there was quite a bit of buzz about the Web, so my friend and I were thinking that we should do something about this, it is a big opportunity. Interestingly it was Greenbergs knowledge of assassinated presidents, which won him a photoshoot via a phone-in radio competition,that led tothe creation of the famous 1978 image of the early Microsoft team. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. In the documentary, the host asks Kaphan whether Amazons current state just encapsulates what capitalism is. Jeff Bezos is the CEO of Amazon since it was founded. After writing early code and helping to build the company, he left in 2012 to work for online education non-profit Khan Academy, where he remains today as dean of infrastructure. Correction 2/13/20: This post has been updated to remove an erroneous description of ARPANET; and to clarify that Kaphans view that Bezos likes to win at any cost isnt linked to what Kaphan describes as Bezos essentially libertarian worldview. He says hes proud of the company and the services it provides, and also casts new light on Amazons earliest days and its founder Jeff Bezos now the planets richest person. I just went over (to the Bellevue office) one day, and Jeff and Mackenzie said: We are not working today. 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What he's doing now: Nelson now serves as executive director of CalPoly's Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, according to LinkedIn. He has no social media accounts. Rebecca Allen was an early Amazon engineer. Most recent Amazon title: Software engineer. He is now the owner of The Kaphan Foundation. He also did stealth online promotion and vendor negotiation. [2] [3] The Foundation does not have a website and does not appear to solicit grant applications online. Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. 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. What she's doing now: Often writing about tech on her blog. And there were a few interesting things. Shaw research associate, married Jeff Bezos in 1993 and the duo founded Amazon together. It might have happened without the personal connection, but who knows, maybe not. Remote), Software Development Engineer III New Initiatives. Lets dive through Shel Kaphan net worth, Biography, marital status, and other related information. Twenty-six years ago, programmer Shel Kaphan helped build the foundation for the worlds largest internet retailer. At the time, I was more enamored of what we then thought of as bigger machines, the kind of machines that the universities had. What she's doing now: Allen retired after Amazon, and she's now a writer living on the East Coast. What he's doing now: Owner of Stark Raving Foods, which makes gluten-free frozen pizza. But in every one of them, we have intense competition. Im not all that comfortable with the way that that is used or thats being shared with the police departments, he said. Break it up: Not the ringing endorsement one wants from the man known as the company's first employee, but Shel Kaphan said he doesn't see the Amazon effects as entirely positive. At present, the genius computer scientist is a senior fellow at the firm. This is only an estimated rate and not an actual rate. We have used algorithms like his income and assets to calculate his net worth. Davis didn't stick around for long, however, leaving Amazon in 1996, and he currently juggles heading Linux Audio Systems and completing ultramarathons. Nearly all of the company's earliest 21 employees have since left the company for other ventures like philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and retirement. Software engineer Ellen Ratajak worked on Amazon's early IT. Twenty-six years ago, programmer Shel Kaphan helped build the foundation for the world's largest internet retailer. Social media used to be free. Tom Schonhoff was Amazon's fifth employee and built the customer service department from scratch. Lovemoney.com limited is a registered company in England & Wales.Company REG NO: 7406028 VAT NO: 945 6954 72. These days he's a top angel investor, sits on the board of an animal care and education centre and has even established a data science institute that bears his name at UC San Diego. 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. I had been playing around with the Internet since it was the ARPANET, back in the early 70s. " 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 was born on Sep 12, 1952, in the USA. Davis was Amazon's fourth employee, joining before the company launched its website and working with Shel Kaphan to make Bezos' dreams a reality. The Bensons are still together today, living in Washington. Others went on to other major companies. He left the role in 2009 and sat on the boards of Spotify and Vodafone before returning to Google in August 2015 to take up the position of chief business advisor, then senior advisor. The company's annual net income for fiscal 2022 amounted to $25.39 billion and the company has generated an annual net income of $13.26 billion, on average, over the past 20 years. But nobody else seemed to care about it or think much of it. 'Wizard' was way too old school, 'Jedi' wasn't yet in vogue, he jokes on LinkedIn. Certainly not Jeff. Karim Gharbi Net Worth. In his first in-depth media interview since leaving Amazon.com in 1999, Kaphan talks extensively about his history with the company including the technical challenges Amazon overcame in its early days; what it was really like to work for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; how the company surpassed even the most optimistic expectations of the people who started it; and Kaphans feelings about the companys runaway success. Shell net worth as of February 24, 2023 is $218.1B . Sorry, something went wrong. He seems to be a very personal man. In his own words: "I left, despite significant stock and other inducements to remain, because I am a technical person and had little interest in playing a role in the growth of the company. As of the year 2022, his Net Worth is estimated to be $1-$3 million. In 2011 he created goal tracking app Lift Worldwide, which formed the basis of his next venture Coach.me, a website and app created in 2015 that wantsto revolutionise the way that coaches and clients interact. He has also recently said that breaking up the e-commerce giant could potentially make sense, and while hes proud of what Amazon has become, it also scares him. And under the flag of customer obsession, they can do a lot of things, which might not be good for people who arent their customers.. November 2012 The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. She was Amazon's receptionist. Kaphan considered the possibility that Amazon should be broken up to level the playing field his first time speaking out about this and his other concerns: Kaphan said his concerns about Amazon are not just about the retail platform but on software products on AWS as well. The broken Twitter everyone warned us about is finally here. Kaphan spoke to FRONTLINE for the upcoming documentary Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos, which airs Feb. 18. He boasts a stone collection that was dubbed as one of the worlds greatest by the Royal Ontario Museum, and Scott has even written a book about his hoard of gems (pictured). In that year Roberts left the young company and then went on to be employee #8 at wearable tech company Fitbit in 2010. What drew him to work with Bezos, Kaphan said, was a desire to work on cutting-edge web architecture, or hypertext, and his love of working with books. He does not reveal any things that are related to his private life. A high school friend of Steve Jobs, Fernandez introduced the late co-founder to Steve Wozniak, who was his neighbour. He is the President of the company and makes massive money from the company. Apple employee #8, Chris Espinosa was the company baby. She became the fledgling company's first accountant and. Laurel Canan, Amazon's eighth employee, was a 24-year-old carpenter who planned to return to school to become a Chaucer scholar. According to Mike Hanlon, Amazon's seventh employee, Knute Sears and Fred Eiden were Amazon's ninth and tenth employees, hired in 1995. According to the web, Shel Kaphan Net Worth is about $1-$3 million. uses data to help you make stressful decisions, She's admitted that Bezos could be a "royal a**hole", She's admitted that Bezos could be a royal a**hole. It didnt seem worth the argument at the time, although I kind of felt like, well, you know, I mean I was there at the beginning. Heather Cairns was Google's first ever HR manager. Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos. Shel Kaphan, who joined Amazon after it was founded in 1994, made his comments in a documentary on PBS' "Frontline.". Now read about companies that started small. The company has been the subject of increasing attention in recent days with Democratic senators criticizing Amazon for how it treats workers, and Amazon publicly touting its commitment to its employees and its role in helping the American economy. 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