I used to go down to his pizzeria and buy lots of pies, take them upstairs and sell them by the slice. He was running a pizza business in our dormitory. I first met our CEO, Tony Hsieh in college. Over time, I got sucked into a bunch of Internet companies. I was raised mostly in New York City, went to college in the Boston area and then came out to the Bay Area for graduate school.

I was old enough to remember that I was not born in this country but not old enough to really get a good sense of where I lived. I was born in Taiwan and lived there until I was about six or seven. We really think of ourselves first and foremost as a service company, and then a service company that just happens to sell these products. We are one of the largest, if not the largest, retailer of shoes, handbags and apparel on the Internet. You want to tell us a little bit about who you are, your background and where you've come from?Īlfred: Sure. Who do you think was the most profitable?Īdrian: I am talking with Alfred Lin, who is the COO of Zappos. On a side note, Alfred talks about how he and Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos started working together. In his mind they're successful because of the entire team, not just the two guys in the spotlight. I didn't expect Alfred to focus so strongly on the importance of the entire team being strong, not just the Tony/Alfred relationship. Most successful technology companies were built by two guys working together (Google, HP, Microsoft, etc) and I thought this would be a good opportunity to understand this kind of relationship better.

I wanted to understand how they met and how they're building Zappos. I wanted to interview Alfred to get his perspective as being the key guy working with Tony. We've previously published an interview with Tony. Alfred is the Zappos Chairman and COO - he's Tony Hsieh, the CEO's right hand man when it comes to handling finance and operations for Zappos.

Alfred Lin from Zappos is with us for this interview.

Alfred lin