Foundation — Season 1, Episode 25: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com

Episode synopsis

Kevin rose sits down with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about entrepreneurship, fostering corporate culture, and his latest project to fuel a thriving tech community in Las Vegas. Tony opens up about starting his first company, LinkExchange, an early take on Web advertising which was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million. He tells why his first startup taught him to pay close attention to company culture, outlines how founders can map company culture to their personal values, and explains why Zappos actually pays people to quit. Tony also discusses his latest efforts to accelerate the tech ecosystem in Las Vegas and his goal to fund at least 100 local tech startups. Tony Hsieh's advice on how to hire the right people to build a great company culture: "From the beginning, company culture was always important. Is this someone I would choose to hang out with or grab a drink with, if we weren't in business? If the answer was no, we wouldn't hire them."

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Jack Dorsey
• E2Jeff Smith of Smule, Inc.
• E3Philip Rosedale of SecondLife
• E4Tony Conrad of About.me
• E5Brian Wong of Kiip.me
• E6Jesse Jacobs of Samovar Tea Lounge
• E7Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital
• E8Philip Rosedale of SecondLife
• E9Jason Goldberg of Fab.com
• E10Dennis Crowley of Foursquare
• E11John Borthwick of Betaworks
• E12Leah Busque of TaskRabbit