Today we are fortunate enough to give you all an interview with Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com. He started his first business, LinkExchange while at Harvard, which he later sold for a large amount to Microsoft. Thereafter he made an investment in a project that would sell footwear on the internet and has taken this project to an unbelievable level. Enjoy this insightful interview with Tony Hsieh!
Can you give us background information?
My bio is available here: http://about.zappos.com/meet-our-monkeys/tony-hsieh-ceo
You graduated from Harvard with a BA in Computer Science. How has this education helped you in life and business?
For me, the value of my college experience wasn’t so much the classes I took as it was the people I met and my non-academic experiences, including running a pizza business from the ground floor of my dorm. It was in college that I met Alfred Lin, who is now our CFO/COO. He was my #1 pizza customer!
LinkExchange was your first project. What was it like starting that business and growing it?
I co-founded LinkExchange with Sanjay Madan in 1996. Sanjay was my roommate during college and ran the pizza business with me. I remember the early days of the company were a lot of fun and very exciting. When it was just 5-10 of us, we were working around the clock, sleeping under our desks, and had no idea what day of the week it was. LinkExchange just started out as a side project, but within a week of launching we knew we were onto something big.
LinkExchange hit the jackpot when it was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million in 1998. What was that experience like?
A lot of people actually don’t know why we ended up selling the company, and the reason is because the company culture went downhill. Even though it was a lot of fun in the early days, by the time it was 100 people, I just didn’t look forward to going into the office anymore. At the time, we didn’t know any better to pay attention to company culture. With Zappos, I want to make sure that I don’t make the same mistake again, so from the beginning we’ve always made company culture a high priority.
Today, we’ve formalized the definition of our culture into 10 core values: http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values
You can learn more about our culture by reading our blogs: http://blogs.zappos.com
Today you are CEO of Zappos.com. You have been with Zappos since the beginning. Can you explain how it started, what made you invest, and how you have taken it to where it is today?
You can read about the beginnings of Zappos here: http://about.zappos.com/zappos-story/in-the-beginning-let-there-be-shoes
We really just want the Zappos brand to be about the very best customer service and customer experience. Our belief is that if we get the culture right, most of the other stuff — such as delivering great customer service or building a long term enduring brand — will happen naturally on its own. So we’ve incorporated our core values into everything we do, including the hiring process, training, and ongoing performance reviews.
You took a risk when investing in Zappos.com. Obviously it was a good investment, but what can you say about taking risks in life?
I think a lot of people are worried about making mistakes, but if you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not taking enough risks. Taking risks and making mistakes is how you grow, on both a business level and personal level.
How did you overcome obstacles you faced with Zappos?
We’ve always had amazingly passionate people at Zappos that believe in our long term vision and our culture. I’ve found that in general, passion usually wins in the long run.
You have over 560,000 followers on Twitter and you have a blog. What is your personal opinion on social networking and how do you think it benefits businesses?
For Zappos, part of delivering a great customer experience means developing personal emotional connections, both with employees and customers. Our primary way of doing so is through the telephone, which is why we have our 1-800 number at the top of every page of our web site. Twitter and blogging are just additional ways for us to connect with people on a more personal level.
We have over 400 employees on Twitter: http://twitter.zappos.com/employees
And you can view their aggregated tweets here: http://twitter.zappos.com/employee_tweets
You can also find me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/zappos
What advice can you give to someone looking to start a business?
Figure out what are you are so passionate about doing that you’d be happy doing it for 10 years even if you didn’t make much money from it. Then go do that.
And we have to ask, what is your favorite shoe?
My favorite slippers are made by Ugg: http://www.zappos.com/uggs
My favorite running shoes are made by Asics: http://www.zappos.com/asics
My favorite dress shoes are made by Donald Pliner: http://www.zappos.com/donald-pliner
Any last words, comments, insight?
A lot of people know us for shoes because that’s how we started. But we are making a big push into clothing this year: http://www.zappos.com/clothing 10 years from now, we’re hoping that people don’t even realize we started out selling shoes online. We just want the Zappos brand to be about the best service, which includes free shipping both ways and our 365-day return policy. A lot of people order multiple pairs of shoes from us, try them all on in the comfort of their living room, and then just send back the ones that they don’t like (and we pay for the shipping back to us). We’ve had customers tell us that it’s the easiest and most convenient way for them to buy shoes from us, and we want them to feel that way when buying apparel from us as well.
Also, your readers may be interested in a presentation that I gave at SXSW Interactive on March 14: http://www.slideshare.net/zappos/zappos-sxsw-31409
An audio version of my talk is available at: http://bit.ly/zsxswaudio
Thank you for doing this interview Tony!
Be sure to check out Zappos.com and come back next Monday for our next interview!
Another Monday Interview brought to you from GetYourBizSavvy.
