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Tony Hsieh, the 46-year-old tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist who turned Zappos into a billion-dollar internet shoe and clothing powerhouse, died on Friday. He was 46 years old.
The cause was injuries sustained in a Nov. 18 house fire in New London, Connecticut, according to Megan Fazio, spokesperson for the Downtown Project in Las Vegas, a revitalization effort Mr. Hsieh oversaw.
Mr. Hsieh (pronounced shay) was visiting his family at the time. His death was confirmed by Zappos in a statement from the company’s CEO, Kedar Deshpande. Further details were not immediately available.
Mr. Hsieh resigned as managing director in August after 21 years with the company, which started selling shoes online in 1999.
After selling his first company, LinkExchange, an online advertising network, to Microsoft in 1998 for $ 265 million, Mr. Hsieh became a venture capitalist and invested in the retail-based shoe startup. in San Francisco. He quickly took over as CEO and focused his efforts on transforming the company into an internet giant.
In the burgeoning era of internet commerce, Mr. Hsieh was a visionary who realized that making customers feel comfortable and secure in buying online was the key to success and growth.
To do this, call center employees had to engage customers as if they were talking to an old friend, with genuine and welcoming jokes.
Mr. Hsieh surprised the Silicon Valley world by moving the company from San Francisco to a suburb of Las Vegas, where he built a culture of “fun and a little weirdness” that resulted in skyrocketing growth.
From $ 1.6 million in revenue in 2000, Zappos topped $ 1 billion in revenue in 2009. In July 2009, Mr. Hsieh sold the business to Amazon.
Mr. Hsieh, a soft-spoken and introspective executive, developed a business philosophy built around the idea that happy employees are the vectors of satisfied customers who will come back again and again.
An avid reader, he wrote a bestselling book, “Delivering Happiness”, in 2010, describing his philosophy of customer service.
During his tenure at Zappos, Mr. Hsieh started Project Downtown, aimed at revitalizing the once neglected area of downtown Las Vegas and turning it into a vibrant area where Zappos employees would live. The effort went beyond Mr. Hsieh’s original concept and the area has attracted thousands of workers and tech entrepreneurs.
“Tony Hsieh has played a pivotal role in transforming downtown Las Vegas,” Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak wrote on Twitter.
Christina Morales contributed reporting.
A full obituary will follow.
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