Jeff Bezos.. Investor in Google? Surprise, Surprise (2024)

In the late 1990s, in the middle of the whirlwind of digital revolution, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, embarked on a strategic journey that would quietly underscore the interconnected trajectory of the tech world's ascent. In 1998, Bezos made a pivotal decision to invest $250,000 in Google when there wasn’t even a product launched, Google at an early stage showed huge potential and resonated with Bezos’ ethos which he described as "What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you – what used to be a tailwind is now a headwind – you have to lean into that and figure out what to do because complaining isn't a strategy.”

"I just fell in love with Larry and Sergey" Bezos said in talking about Google's customer centricity in which played a core role in his pivotal decision to invest in Google and at that time, at this juncture, Amazon itself was charting its transformative journey, having gone public a year earlier in May 1997 at $18 a share. The e-commerce platform, initially just an online bookstore, was beginning to broaden its horizon, eyeing a future as the "everything store." By mid-1998, Amazon's stock price hovered around $50 per share, reflecting a market influenced by the dot-com bubble's optimism and a recognition of the internet's commercial potential.

The era was marked by rapid technological innovation and the allure of the internet economy, with Amazon at the forefront of redefining retail. Bezos's investment in Google was a strategic move that paralleled Amazon's own growth trajectory, and this isn’t easy to parallel. At a time when Amazon was aggressively expanding its product categories beyond books, music, and videos, the investment in a company that aimed to organize the world's information was emblematic of Bezos's broader vision for the internet's role in society.

The $250,000 Bezos invested into Google was to buy 3.3 million shares at $0.08. When Google went public in 2004, his shares were equivalent to $280 million - while it's unknown when he exited Google, but it's not likely he held onto them 20 years later. If he held onto these shares, the $250,000 would be worth $4.68 billion - a gain of 20,000% in 20 years with Google's market-cap hovering around $1.76 trillion (yes, trillion.. this isn't a typo). This early stake in Google also provided a financial cushion that could support Amazon's ambitious expansion plans and experimentation in new technologies.

Reflecting on the investment, Bezos's philosophy of leaning into the future becomes evident. He recognized that the internet's capability to transform industries was not confined to e-commerce but extended to information access and management. Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible aligned with Bezos's vision of leveraging the internet to offer unparalleled service and convenience. Furthermore, Bezos' venture into Google can be seen as a precursor to the establishment of Amazon Web Services (AWS), (the most profitable SBU under Amazon today) a cornerstone of Amazon's business model that underscores the importance of diversification and forward-thinking in tech entrepreneurship.

This narrative of visionary investment and strategic foresight underscores a period of dynamic change and optimism. Bezos's decision to invest in Google while steering Amazon through its critical phase of expansion serves as a compelling chapter in tech history. It illustrates the interplay of innovation, risk-taking, and the foresight that defines the ethos of tech entrepreneurship. The investment is a reminder of the serendipitous intersections that can shape the trajectory of the digital economy, highlighting how belief in technology's potential and the courage to invest in its early proponents can lead to transformative success and impact and most importantly, it highlights the power of founders funding other founders - an evolution I am most excited about in Saudi Arabia’s next funding cycles.