What made it interesting was that it was an on-line shoe retailer. We invested in about 20 or so different internet companies and Zappos just happened to be one of them.

“I was running an investment fund with Alfred, our COO/CFO now. He soon became CEO and the rest is history… He became an investor and one of his interests was in a small on-line retailer called Zappos. In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. The interview we conducted with Tony is as fresh today as it was when we recorded it and so we thought we would share it with you. As he said as though it were a simple truth, “Our view is that a company’s culture and a company’s brand are really just two sides of the same coin”. The company that he made famous, Zappos, became a household name for delivering a branded customer experience whilst at the same time delivering a branded employee experience.

He epitomised the principles behind our book and lived by the mantra ‘Delivering happiness’. We were privileged to interview Tony in 2010 for our book, ‘Bold-how to be brave in business and win’. He was an inspirational thinker who will be sadly missed. Tony Hsieh, 46, the former CEO of Zappos, died on Friday from head injuries sustained during a house fire whilst he was visiting friends in Connecticut.

Tony hsieh happiness