Gawker: valleywag, tony hsieh

Do You Trust These People to Save the Economy?

Gabriel Snyder — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:18:23 EST

That White House summit of young business leaders actually happened. We know because our new economic saviors are posting their cameraphone pics on Twitter. Here's noted thought leader Ivanka Trump and Twitter founder Ev Williams.

We're still waiting for a more thorough after action report, but for now, here's TOMS Chief Shoe Giver (yes, that's his actual title) Blake Mycoskie, who blogs this comforting thought, "The administration really does want our input, each gave their personal email addresses and encouraged dialogue."

According to CNET's Caroline McCarthy, other attendees included "Kluster founder Ben Kaufman, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, Threadless exec Jake Nickell, marketer Josh Spear, former Googler Chris Sacca, and the one everyone's making the jokes about—Twitter co-founder Evan Williams."

Below, some more visual evidence.

Mycoskie and Threadless founder and Chief Strategy Officer Jake Nickell.

Trump and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who, now that he's done saving the economy, will be appearing on Celebrity Apprentice this Sunday.

Zappos layoff turns into lovefest

Owen Thomas — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:20:00 EST

Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, has a promising career as a cult leader. In a blog post, the online shoes-and-clothes retailer's boss acknowledges the layoffs his employees were Twittering about this morning, writing that the company had laid off 8 percent of its workforce. He all but admits the cuts were forced on him by investor Sequoia Capital. The severance packages are generous in comparison to most startups; two months or more of pay, and six months of health insurance. Sweet enough, perhaps, that people won't ask a key question about the layoffs."Tony cares about his company and his employees more than anyone else around," says an entrepreneur who knows Hsieh. His employees, even the former ones, seem to be returning the favor on Twitter. But if he loved his employees so much, why didn't he resist the pressure from Sequoia to make the cuts? We hear Sequoia is insisting that all of its portfolio companies cut payrolls by around 10 percent, regardless of the particulars of their businesses. Zappos seems to be doing well in its e-commerce niche — well enough, at least, to afford a generous severance. Hsieh's company offers free returns if the shoes its customers buy don't fit. Why didn't he just mark Sequoia's orders "return to sender"?

Why Zappos pays new hires to leave

Jackson West — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Zappos, the Nevada-based online shoe and accessories retailer, has an interesting twist on new-hire bonuses. After applying and being chosen for a job, employees get a month of paid training. Then they're offered $1,000 to leave. It's a test of commitment, meant to see if money is what matters to workers. The amount offered has risen from an initial $100 and could grow even more. Only 1 in 10 take the offer, according to CEO Tony Hsieh, and the company now employs approximately 1,600 who passed the test. Our question is, would you take the money and run or stick around to sell shoes?

(Photo by Nate Ritter)

Jeff Bezos more interested in BlackBerry than Zappos.com

Scott Kidder — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:27:06 EST

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos didn't seem too attentive in the "Top Ten Lessons Learned in E-Commerce" panel earlier today at the South by Southwest conference in Austin. While Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh presented his ten lessons — "don't compete on price" and "don't worry about competitors" among them — Bezos spent most of the time on his BlackBerry. Captions in the comments, please.