who made amazon

It’s hard to imagine a world without Amazon. With a few clicks, a package arrives at your door, or a movie starts streaming on your screen. But this global giant didn’t appear out of thin air. It began with a single person and a simple idea that grew into something much larger than anyone could have predicted.

The story of Amazon’s creation is a fascinating journey that started in a garage, much like other legendary tech companies. It’s a tale of vision, risk, and a relentless focus on the customer that reshaped how we all shop and live.

The Man Behind the Idea: Jeff Bezos

The founder of Amazon is Jeff Bezos. In 1994, he was working at a New York City hedge fund when he noticed the incredible growth of the internet. He saw an opportunity to sell books online, a product with a massive selection that could be shipped easily. Despite having a secure job, he decided to take a chance, drove cross-country to Seattle, and started the company in his garage.

From Cadabra to Amazon: A Name With Meaning

The company wasn’t always called Amazon. Bezos originally named it Cadabra, but he soon changed it after his lawyer misheard it as “cadaver.” He settled on Amazon, after the world’s largest river. This was a strategic choice, reflecting his grand vision for the company to be the “earth’s biggest bookstore” and, eventually, the earth’s biggest store of anything.

The Humble Beginnings in a Seattle Garage

Amazon’s first office was Bezos’s rented garage in Bellevue, Washington. The early days were modest, with doors being used as desks. The first book sold was Douglas Hofstadter’s Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies. From that single book sale, the company focused obsessively on customer experience, which became the cornerstone of its explosive growth.

Building More Than a Bookstore

While books were the initial focus, Bezos always planned for Amazon to be much more. The company expanded slowly, adding music and videos, before eventually opening up its platform to third-party sellers. This move, along with groundbreaking innovations like Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services (AWS), transformed it from a simple online retailer into the tech and logistics behemoth it is today.

So, while Jeff Bezos is the individual who made Amazon, its story is also about a powerful idea executed with remarkable persistence. It serves as a powerful reminder that even the largest ventures can start with a single step, a good idea, and a willingness to take a risk.