Zappos: A Service Company That Just Happens to Sell Shoes

Zappos became this huge deal. And then like at your peak, I guess in 2009, you sell to Amazon. Why? Amazon had actually approached us several years before 2009. They just wanted to acquire us and then basically the company being acquired ends up joining the mothership and kind of loses its original identity.And so we said no very quickly. Then they launched a competitor called Endless. And it was basically launched from our perspective to compete with us. We are open to anything where service can be a differentiator. So for us, that's, we're hoping 10, 20 years from now, people won't even realize we started selling shoes online.