BezosEverything you need to know about Jeff Bezos — from bookstore to space.

Glossary

The vocabulary of the Bezos companies — defined once, plainly, with sources where the term is his.

Day 1

The founding posture: curiosity, speed, willingness to reinvent. From the 1997 shareholder letter; elaborated in the 2016 letter.

Day 2

The opposite: stasis, irrelevance, decline, death. The fate Day 1 thinking exists to avoid (2016 shareholder letter).

Working backwards

Starting from the customer’s need and reasoning back to the product — rather than starting from existing capabilities. Operationalized through the PR/FAQ.

PR / FAQ

The “press release / frequently asked questions” document written before building a product: the launch announcement plus answers to hard questions. If the press release is boring, the product dies on paper (Working Backwards).

Two-pizza team

A team small enough to be fed with two pizzas — Bezos’s unit of autonomous organization, meant to keep communication overhead low.

Single-threaded owner

One leader with undivided ownership of an initiative — no split attention, no diffusion of accountability.

Six-page narrative

The memo format for senior meetings: six pages, read in silence at the start (“study hall”), then debated. PowerPoint is banned from these reviews.

Disagree and commit

Debate hard, then commit fully once decided — even if the decision went against you. Speed of execution over unanimity.

Customer obsession

Leadership Principle #1: start with the customer and work backwards; be afraid of customers, not competitors.

Leadership Principles

Amazon’s published set of operating principles (customer obsession, ownership, invent and simplify, are right a lot, learn and be curious, hire and develop the best, insist on highest standards, think big, bias for action, frugality, earn trust, dive deep, have backbone; disagree and commit, deliver results, …) — used in hiring, reviews, and daily decisions.

Regret minimization framework

The 1994 decision tool: at age 80, which choice will you regret more — trying or not trying? Optimizes for a narratable life, not expected value.

Two-way / one-way doors

Most decisions are reversible (two-way doors): make them fast. A few are nearly irreversible (one-way doors): make them carefully. From the 2016 shareholder letter.

The everything store

Bezos’s early ambition for Amazon — from the 1994 founding vision; also the title of Brad Stone’s 2013 history.

Flywheel

The self-reinforcing loop: lower prices → more customers → more sellers → better selection → lower costs → lower prices. The Prime-era growth engine.

Prime

Amazon’s membership program (launched 2005, $79/year at launch): free fast shipping plus media perks; the loyalty flywheel’s hub.

Marketplace

Amazon’s third-party seller platform (roots in 2000): outside merchants sell on amazon.com; today the majority of units sold.

FBA — Fulfillment by Amazon

Sellers store inventory in Amazon’s warehouses; Amazon handles packing, shipping, and service.

AWS — Amazon Web Services

Amazon’s cloud-computing division (S3/EC2, 2006): rents computing, storage, and services by the hour; the company’s profit engine.

EC2 / S3

Elastic Compute Cloud (virtual servers) and Simple Storage Service (object storage) — the two 2006 launches that defined cloud computing.

Kindle

Amazon’s e-reader line (first launched November 2007), built by Lab126; digitized Amazon’s original category.

Lab126

Amazon’s secretive hardware R&D lab (founded 2004): Kindle, Echo, Fire devices.

Alexa / Echo

Amazon’s voice assistant and smart-speaker line (2014–15) — the hit that redeemed the hardware division after the Fire Phone.

Kiva / Amazon Robotics

Warehouse-robotics company acquired 2012 ($775M); its shelf-carrying robots became the backbone of fulfillment-center automation.

Whole Foods acquisition

The $13.7B purchase of the grocery chain (closed 28 August 2017) — Amazon’s brick-and-mortar beachhead.

HQ2

The 2017–18 contest for Amazon’s second headquarters; won by Arlington, Virginia (the Long Island City, Queens plan was withdrawn February 2019 after local opposition).

Nash Holdings

Bezos’s private holding company — the vehicle for the 2013 Washington Post purchase.

Bezos Earth Fund

The $10B climate philanthropy announced February 2020.

Day One Fund

The $2B philanthropy launched 2018: homelessness services and Montessori-inspired preschools.

Blue Origin

Bezos’s space company, founded 2000; motto Gradatim Ferociter.

Gradatim Ferociter

“Step by step, ferociously” — Blue Origin’s Latin motto.

New Shepard

Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket (booster + crew capsule), named for Alan Shepard; first crewed flight 20 July 2021.

New Glenn

Blue Origin’s reusable heavy-lift orbital rocket, named for John Glenn; first successful launch 16 January 2025.

Blue Moon

Blue Origin’s lunar lander design, unveiled May 2019; later won NASA’s Sustaining Lunar Development contract (May 2023).

Kármán line

The 100-km altitude conventionally marking the edge of space; New Shepard’s tourist flights cross it.

O’Neill cylinders

Gerard O’Neill’s proposed giant rotating space habitats — Bezos’s stated long-term vision for humanity in space (as distinct from Mars colonization).

Relentless.com

A domain Bezos registered in 1994 that still redirects to amazon.com — the runner-up company name.

Cadabra

Amazon’s original incorporation name (5 July 1994), changed within months — reportedly because lawyers misheard it as “cadaver.”

Source notes

Limitations