Anthony Hsieh ( ; December 12, 1973November 27, 2020) was an American

internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some CEOs ...

and

venture capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company

Zappos Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an ...

in August 2020 after 21 years. Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded the Internet advertising network

LinkExchange LinkExchange was a popular Internet advertising cooperative, similar in function to a webring, originally known as Internet Link Exchange or ILE. It was founded in March 1996 by 23-year-old Harvard graduates Tony Hsieh (who later went on to inves ...

, which he sold to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

in 1998 for $265 million.Cf. ''Delivering Happiness'' book by Hsieh. "In 1996, I co-founded LinkExchange, which was sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million."

Early life and education

Hsieh was born in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the 38th-most populous municipality in Illinois. It ...

, to Richard and Judy Hsieh, immigrants from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

who met in graduate school at the University of Illinois. Hsieh's family moved to 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 Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

with a degree in computer science. While at Harvard, he managed the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to the students in his dorm; his best customer,

Alfred Lin Alfred Lin is an American venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.Arrington, Michae"Alfred Lin Has The Midas Touch: The Man With $2 Billion In Acquisitions Under His Belt" ''TechCrunch'', July 28, 2009. Lin was the COO, CFO, and Chairman of Zappos ...

, would later become Zappos's chief financial officer and chief operating officer.I Am CNBC Tony Hsieh Transcript
''CNBC''. August 15, 2007. After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation. After five months, he left to co-found the

advertising network.

Career

LinkExchange

In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called

with his college classmates Sanjay Mandan and

Ali Partovi Ali Partovi ( fa, علی پرتووی; born 1972) is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and angel investor. He is best known as a co-founder of Code.org (which he founded with his twin brother Hadi), iLike, LinkExchange, an early advisor at Dropbo ...

.BEato, Greg
Scans: Barter for Banners
September 29, 1997. Members were allowed to advertise their site over LinkExchange's network by displaying banner ads on its website. 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 its banner ads displayed over 10 million times.Internet Link Exchange: 3rd month of operation celebrated. ''M2 Newswire'' vi
LexisNexis
June 17, 1996. By 1998, the site had over 400,000 members and 5 million ads rotated daily.Frierman, Shelly

The New York Times. December 2, 1998. In November 1998, LinkExchange was sold to

for $265 million, in which Hsieh's personal stake netted himself $40 million of that sum.Wei, William
Tony Hsieh: Here's Why I Quit My Corporate Job At Oracle With No Real Plan
Business Insider. October 28, 2010.

Venture Frogs

After LinkExchange sold to Microsoft, Hsieh co-founded and owned Venture Frogs, an

incubator An incubator is anything that performs or facilitates various forms of incubation, and may refer to: Biology and medicine * Incubator (culture), a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures * Incubator (egg), a de ...

and investment firm, with his business partner, Alfred Lin.Venture Frogs Launches New Incubator For Net Startups
''URLwire''. September 19, 1999.Lee, Tom

. ''Asian Week''. August 17, 2000. 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.Nelson, Erik

. ''Profit Magazine''. January 2000. They invested in a variety of tech and Internet startups, including

Ask Jeeves Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves) is a question answering–focused e-business founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky, from his own design. Wart ...

OpenTable OpenTable is an online restaurant-reservation service company founded by Sid Gorham, Eric Moe and Chuck Templeton on 2 July 1998 and is based in San Francisco, California. In 1998, operations began with a limited selection of restaurants in ...

and

Zappos

In 1999,

Nick Swinmurn Nick Swinmurn is the founder of Zappos.com. He started the company in 1999. He left in 2006, before it reached $1 billion sales in 2008, and was sold to Amazon in 2009. Early life and education Swinmurn was born in England and moved to the Unit ...

approached Tony Hsieh and

with the idea of selling shoes online. Hsieh was initially skeptical and almost deleted Swinmurn's initial voice mail. After Swinmurn mentioned that "footwear in the US is a $40 billion market, and 5% of that was already being sold by paper mail order catalogs," Hsieh and Lin decided to invest through Venture Frogs. Two months later, Hsieh joined Zappos as the CEO, starting with $1.6 million of total sales in 2000. By 2009, revenues reached $1 billion.Hsieh, Tony
Why I Sold Zappos
'' Inc. Magazine''. June 1, 2010.Kee, Tameka
Amazon Buying Out Zappos.com For About $850 Million
''Washington Post''. July 23, 2009. 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 Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, which claims to distribute authority and decision-making through a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. Holacracy has ...

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, "zapatos", 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. Hsieh loved the game of poker and moved Zappos headquarters to Henderson, Nevada, and eventually to downtown

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. On July 22, 2009,

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

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.

JetSuite

Hsieh joined JetSuite's board in 2011. He led a $7 million round of investment in the growing private "

very light jet A very light jet (VLJ), entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small business jets seating four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operati ...

" field with that company. The investment allowed

JetSuite Superior Air Charter (previously JetSuite) is a private jet charter company based out of Dallas, Texas. The company was founded in 2006 by Alex Wilcox. In 2008, the company was re-branded from Magnum Jet after a push from financial backers. Wi ...

to add two new

Embraer Phenom 100 The Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 is a light business jet designed and produced by the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. The project was announced in November 2005. On 26 July 2007, the aircraft made its first flight. It was awarded a type ...

jets which have two pilots, two engines and safety features equivalent to large commercial passenger jets but weigh less than and are consequently highly fuel-efficient.

Real estate rejuvenation projects

Downtown Project – 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 Writer's Block is an independent bookseller, publisher, and literacy educator in downtown Las Vegas. The Writer's Block was established in 2014 by 826NYC co-founder Scott Seeley and Drew Cohen. It was opened with former BSSco. store manage ...

, the first independent bookseller in Las Vegas.

Park City, Utah

After stepping down as CEO of Zappos in August 2020, Hsieh bought multiple properties in

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake Cit ...

, 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 The ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest, known as the ICPC, is an annual multi-tiered competitive programming competition among the universities of the world. Directed by ICPC Executive Director and Baylor Professor Dr. William B. ...

in Indianapolis, ranking first of 31 entrants. Hsieh received an

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Northern California region in 2007.

Delivering Happiness

Hsieh's 2010 book '' Delivering Happiness'' focused on his entrepreneurial endeavors. It was profiled in many world publications, including ''The Washington Post'', CNBC, TechCrunch, ''The Huffington Post'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''.McDonough-Taub, Glori
Top Books: Delivering Happiness
''CNBC''. August 19, 2010.Delivering Happiness: A Movement
''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately $ ...

''. May 1, 2010.Carrol, Pau
Getting a Foothold Online
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. June 7, 2010. It debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List and stayed on the list for 27 consecutive weeks.

Personal life

Hsieh resided primarily in

Downtown Las Vegas Downtown Las Vegas (commonly abbreviated as DTLV) is the central business district and historic center of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the original townsite, and the Downtown gaming area was the primary gambling district of Las Vegas prior to the S ...

, and also owned a residence in

Southern Highlands, Nevada Southern Highlands is a master-planned community located in the southern foothills of the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, United States. The community surrounds the private Southern Highlands Golf Club. It contains a resort, two retail centers, recreati ...

. Hsieh was known for taking extreme challenges regarding his body, including starving himself of oxygen to induce hypoxia, using

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has ...

, and fasting to the point where he was under . Singer Jewel said that she was aware of Hsieh's extreme drug abuse and sent him a letter months before his death to warn him.

Death

On the morning of November 18, 2020, Hsieh was injured in a house fire in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

, although his identity was not revealed at the time. It has been reported that he was visiting family for Thanksgiving, and he either became trapped in a pool shed during the fire, or barricaded himself inside and would not answer the door. The exact cause of the fire is under investigation. He was rescued by firefighters and transported to the Connecticut Burn Center at

Bridgeport Hospital Bridgeport Hospital is a not-for-profit general medical and surgical hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is a member of Yale New Haven Health System and affiliated with Yale School of Medicine. During 2018, Bridgeport Hospital received profes ...

to undergo treatment for burns and smoke inhalation, where he died on November 27, two weeks before his 47th birthday. The Connecticut medical examiner determined that Hsieh died from smoke inhalation, and ruled his death was an accident. News sources have suggested that his drug use and nitrous oxide use may have played a role in his death. The ''Wall Street Journal'' reported that according to property records, Hsieh was staying at a house that was possibly owned by a former Zappos employee, Rachael Brown.

References

External links

Tony Hsieh

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsieh, Tony 1973 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople Accidental deaths in Connecticut Amazon (company) people American people of Taiwanese descent American computer businesspeople American people of Chinese descent American technology chief executives American technology company founders Businesspeople from Illinois Businesspeople from Nevada Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Businesspeople in online retailing Competitive programmers Deaths from fire in the United States Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni People from the Las Vegas Valley Private equity and venture capital investors