Interviews with tech leaders on Tony Hsieh's legacy, his student life at Harvard, his unconventional business approach, and the culture he built at Zappos
I heard the news about Tony Hsieh last night by text message. Tweets: Governor Sisolak / @govsisolak : Tony Hsieh played a pivotal role in helping transform Downtown Las Vegas. Kathy and I send our love and condolences to Tony's family and friends during this difficult time https://twitter.com/... Delyn Simons / @delynator : A genuine commerce original thinker. My favorite anecdote is how the shuttle driver who picked candidates up from Vegas airport were often part of the unofficial interview loop. How you treat people in positions that pay less than your own is part of the equation. So true. https://twitter.com/... Nick Matthews / @nickpowpow : Our group was planning a Vegas work off-site and the awesome @ThomasPJones2 said, “Why not reach out to Tony Hsieh and see if he'll just us?” Apparently, he believed strongly in random connections. A late night thread about llamas, microservices, and velcro. https://twitter.com/... @tinch : Such a heartbreaking yet heartwarming remembrance of Tony Hsieh by the inimitable @paulbradleycarr. The last line hit me like a ton of bricks. https://paulbradleycarr.com/ ... Dave Pell / @davepell : .@om gets my feeling exactly here: “With Tony's passing, I feel something special has ended. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe a certain innocent aspect of the early possibilities of the Internet.” All of 2020 feels this way too. https://om.co/... Tefo Mohapi / @tefomohapi : I would say not only in tech industry, but life. https://twitter.com/... Betty Liu / @bettywliu : So sad to hear of Tony's passing. He was a true visionary, unconventional leader and all around great guy who made an impact on the world. #RIP https://twitter.com/... Tiffani Ashley Bell / @tiffani : Needs to be more people in tech like this. Yeah, I said it. https://twitter.com/... Ivanka Trump / @ivankatrump : Celebrating the life while mourning the loss of my dear friend Tony Hsieh. Tony was a deeply original thinker always challenging me to reject conformity & follow my heart. Tony was driven by the mission of delivering happiness & brought joy to all who knew him. Rest In Peace Tony https://twitter.com/... Kara Nortman / @karanortman : Beautiful article with so many heartwarming anecdotes and pearls of wisdom “Oh, that's easy. I only hire people who smile.” -Tony Hsieh reminding those of us who didn't know him how to live, laugh and build https://twitter.com/... Ian Kennedy / @iankennedy : Remembering an old LinkExchange sticker in the window of the old GigaOM offices at 217 2nd Street, respect to Tony Hseih @om pulls on that thread https://om.co/... https://twitter.com/... David Hornik / @davidhornik : Remember when entrepreneurship was about invention, not about wealth creation? That was Tony. Perhaps that is the loss we are all mourning this weekend. https://twitter.com/... James Hong / @jhong : This was Tony. And this one hit home because Tony always respected my decision to not “do another one” or to try and generate more money or fame, and that helped me. Friendships are all that matter, and by that measure he is probably the most successful person I've ever known. https://twitter.com/... @sacca : Tony Hsieh might be the most original thinker I've ever been friends with. He questioned every assumption and shared everything he learned along the way. He genuinely delighted in making anyone and everyone happy. The earth has lost a beautifully weird and helpful person. RIP Maria Jose Norero / @majonorero : Huge loss for Las Vegas community especially the downtown community. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this sudden loss. I hope that he continues to inspire us all. https://twitter.com/... Jeff Wilke / @jeffawilke : I believe Tony Hsieh would want us all to keep pushing each other to invent, to dream big, and to be kind to each other. Along with so many others, I will treasure the memories he worked so purposefully to create. Carolyn G. Goodman / @mayoroflasvegas : What a tragic loss. Tony Hsieh meant so much to Las Vegas. He was always dreaming, working to inspire and leading others to create a new vision for tomorrow. Our prayers and sympathies to his family. https://twitter.com/... Ray Kwong / @raykwong : Rest In Peace, Tony. ‘Delivering Happiness’ is the best book on company culture and customer service ever. https://twitter.com/... Forbes Asia / @forbesasia : Tony Hsieh, bestselling author and former CEO of Zappos, died on Friday. His tragic loss set off an outpouring of messages of gratitude from leading entrepreneurs and investors. https://on.forbes.com/... @brianhoh1 : So sad to hear this horrible news. We learned in business school about Tony Hsieh's philosophy of customer service: to WOW customers. My thoughts and prayers with his family and friends. https://twitter.com/... Ellen Chang / @ellenychang : “Mr. Hsieh refused to embrace the trappings of a conventional chief executive. He lived in a 240-square-foot Airstream trailer in a small trailer park that he built in downtown Las Vegas. He insisted on a $36,000 annual salary and he sat in a cubicle among the other employees.” https://twitter.com/... Motoko Rich / @motokorich : Sorry to see this news. Tony Hsieh was way too young. I remember well meeting him in 2011 for a profile and seeing how much he always wanted to draw people together. RIP https://www.nytimes.com/... Caroline McCarthy / @caro : Apparently Tony was a huge supporter of @venture4america — and helped get fellows set up in Las Vegas — when not a whole lot of people believed in Andrew Yang. I only met him a few times in the context of reporting on his work but he's touched the lives of *so many* people I know https://twitter.com/... Tory Shulman / @toryshulman : What a loss. Tony Hsieh was an out of the box CEO who created a new landscape for customer service/ employee satisfaction. The Zappos work application was famous with questions like: “Do you often feel lucky in life?” to find employees that inherently felt grateful in life. RIP https://twitter.com/... Andrew Colbert / @acolbert_24 : One year while I was visiting my sister in Las Vegas, Tony brought his personal tour bus to her house and drove us all around the city just because he heard we were in town. He truly cared about everyone. The world needs more people and leaders like Tony Hsieh. Rest In Peace. https://twitter.com/... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Updated this piece remembering Tony Hsieh with a great story from his former chief of staff at Downtown Project, @meigga. https://www.forbes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Michael Sippey / @sippey : Paul Carr on Tony Hsieh. “The true test of friendship in the tech industry, I think, is if someone still acts like a friend when they don't need anything from you. When, in fact, there's nothing you *can* give them.” https://paulbradleycarr.com/ ... David Hornik / @davidhornik : As I read Paul's musings on Tony, I found myself practically holding my breath. Paul nailed it. https://twitter.com/... Ben Werdmuller / @benwerd : This is a beautiful memorial for Tony Hsieh. I didn't know him, but pieces like this make me wish I had. We need more real humans in tech. https://paulbradleycarr.com/ ... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's life was outsized — and so was his impact on a generation of startup founders, investors and online business owners. Here, I did my best to explain what made Hsieh special, in the words of tech leaders who knew him best. https://www.forbes.com/... Sarah Lacy / @sarahcuda : “I tried to re-process it - Tony Hsieh is dead - in a way that made sense.Because there is no way those words can be true. No way that someone as brilliant, and bold, and ridiculous as Tony Hsieh could ever not be extremely, frustratingly, joyfully, eternally alive” https://twitter.com/... Sarah Lacy / @sarahcuda : “He said he had recently spent a lot of time thinking about success, and money, and friendship. He had come to the conclusion, he said, that the latter was the only thing that mattered a damn.” https://twitter.com/... Sarah Lacy / @sarahcuda : For those who read my piece, Paul's delves even more into the complexity of Tony. it's beautiful. and made me miss Tony more. We wrote our pieces separately not reading them before publishing our own. Interesting how intertwined the themes are https://twitter.com/... Zig Serafin / @zserafin : Perfectly summarized @alexrkonrad Tony was a pioneer of the modern day experience movement, knowing that the secret to delight is in the little details, making everyone know they matter and feel important. RIP Tony https://www.forbes.com/... Anand Sanwal / @asanwal : Some great stories about one of the OGs of the startup scene https://www.forbes.com/... Hope King / @lisahopeking : Cyan Banister: “Tony made a dent in the world. Not a lot of people have an impact on people the way he did. I hope that when Covid is over we can have a big parade in his honor and spread joy and love wherever it is needed, because that's what he would have wanted.” https://twitter.com/... @forbes : Tony Hsieh, longtime former CEO of https://on.forbes.com/..., died at age 46 on Friday. His tragic loss — and unusual impact on the tech and startup landscapes — set off an outpouring of messages of gratitude from leading entrepreneurs and investors: https://on.forbes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad : Thanks to @Alfred_Lin, @cyantist, @apartovi and @sacca for sharing some stories and reflections on Tony Hsieh's legacy with me 🙏. I know he affected countless others, so I welcome anyone to add your stories below. https://www.forbes.com/... Nick Mehta / @nrmehta : .@alexrkonrad captures well the massive impact Tony Hsieh had on so many https://twitter.com/... Cyan / @cyantist : This beautifully captures Tony's heart. https://www.forbes.com/... Chris Sacca / @sacca : “If you look at the testimonials you'll see a common thread: Tony made everyone, regardless of their station in life, realize they were important and that they mattered.” Search on his name and you'll see this again and again. Countless people moved by their time with Tony. https://twitter.com/... @om : Good piece with thoughts from Alfred Lin, @sacca Ali and more about their memories of Tony https://twitter.com/...