Jeff Bezos Still Uses Homemade Door Desk From Early Amazon

In a world where successful CEOs are known for their extravagant offices and luxurious workspaces, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, still chooses to work at a homemade door desk. Despite his immense wealth, he has remained humble and down-to-earth, and his choice of office furniture exemplifies this. Bezos famously started Amazon in his garage, and he has carried the spirit of his humble beginnings with him throughout his career. But why does the world’s richest man continue to use such a simple and unconventional setup?

Jeff Bezos Still Uses His Homemade Door Desk From Early Amazon Days

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos continues to use one of the original makeshift desks crafted from a door. This was a cost-saving measure implemented during the early days of the company. A recent Instagram post by his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, featured a picture of Bezos working at one of these desks. It highlights their humble origins from the startup phase of the e-commerce giant.

Lauren Sanchez shared a photo of Jeff Bezos working at one of the original makeshift desks, expressing admiration for his dedication. She emphasized the sentimental value, noting the desk’s presence since the beginning of Amazon and celebrating the enduring spirit of hard work from day one. Sanchez concluded with a toast to the continuous pursuit of possibilities.

The Founding of Amazon and the Door Desk

Jeff Bezos established Amazon in July 1994, initially focusing on selling books through an online marketplace. The company’s origins trace back to Bezos’s garage in Bellevue, Washington.

Amazon’s door desks have their roots in the summer of 1995 when Jeff Bezos and a small group of employees needed desks. Nico Lovejoy, Bezos’ friend and Amazon’s fifth employee revealed that they were near a Home Depot at the time. Bezos, comparing the prices of desks and doors, found doors to be more affordable. Consequently, he opted to purchase a door and added legs to create a cost-effective desk solution.

Nico Lovejoy explained that door desks were constructed as the most economical way to have desks, reflecting Amazon’s scrappy and cost-effective approach. During that period, Amazon’s entire e-commerce platform operated on servers named Bert and Ernie, situated on somewhat unstable door desks created by Bezos. Lovejoy, tasked with hardware replacement, humorously remarked that Bezos might not make a great carpenter, suggesting his talents lie elsewhere.

Modernized Versions of the Door Desks Are Still Used

Thousands of Amazon employees globally still utilize contemporary adaptations of the original door desks. Amazon highlights this practice on its website and provides a guide on how to build an Amazon door desk, authored by Nico Lovejoy. To create an Amazon door desk, the required supplies include a solid-core door for the desktop, four 4x4s to function as legs, braces to connect the legs to the desktop, and screws.

What do you think of Jeff Bezos still using his first homemade door desk to this date?

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