With tough interpretation of taxi and zoning regulations, neither Uber nor Airbnb would have gotten started. By the time many cities recognized their existence, both were fairly large and had the political support of their customers. Brad Stone Read Quote
For decades, technology entrepreneurship has been revered, and people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were heroes. Brad Stone Read Quote
Amazon is famously run by studying and responding to its own data; yet when it comes to promotions, decisions are often subjective and guided by human emotions and petty political dynamics. Brad Stone Read Quote
Life inside successful Web startups – especially the really successful ones – can be nasty, brutish, and short. As companies grow exponentially, egos clash, investors jockey for control, and business complexities rapidly exceed the managerial abilities of the founders. Brad Stone Read Quote
As we have seen again and again, when Amazon doesn’t get the economic conditions from suppliers that it seeks, it simply goes its own way. In the book business, that has meant publishing its own titles under the various Kindle imprints. Now it’s making diapers. Brad Stone Read Quote
I don’t think we yet know – because it’s probably not big enough – what exactly Amazon does to our cities, but whatever it is, I don’t anticipate retail wastelands. If anything, it’s maybe a wake-up call to retailers that they just have to offer something meaningful to customers. Brad Stone Read Quote
Amazon may be the most beguiling company that ever existed, and it is just getting started. It is both missionary and mercenary… That has always been a potent combination. Brad Stone Read Quote
We see Google experimenting in so many places outside of its core search and advertising business, whether that’s bringing broadband Internet to the world or funding an entirely separate company to pursue solutions to disease and mortality. Amazon’s one of the few other companies that thinks as big as Google does. Brad Stone Read Quote
I think for Amazon’s customers, it offers a kind of addictive service – the ability to shop without leaving your house, the ability to read without going to a bookstore or a library. Brad Stone Read Quote
