Sam Parr describes meeting Jeff Bezos and watching him instantly grasp their product Campfire in seconds. Bezos holds units in their company and receives annual cash distributions that have already returned his investment many times over, generating steady real cash without needing a sale.
Jeff is probably the most optimistic person I've ever met, and that was very clear from the start. I'd never been around someone who had that much optimism. Very intelligent, but that with optimism is really powerful. Optimism about what? About you, about the world, about his company? It's an aura of positivity. He smiles a lot. He laughs big. He has an enthusiasm about him that is formed into an optimism that is unshakable and unbreakable. If you post something really unusual to Jeff, he would just start laughing in a way like, wow, that is interesting. It's all interesting to him. And I remember we were showing him Campfire, which is It was our first group chat tool. There wasn't really something out there like this. And we put up on the screen and I started talking to him about it because it wasn't out yet. And like 15 seconds in, he just got the whole damn thing. He got it more than we got it. People are always curious, well, you're not going to sell the business. How does he make any money? We're an LLC, so he's a member, he has units, and every year he gets distributions and he's made his money back many times over and he still owns his shares and we haven't had to sell the business. It's been a great investment for him. Not a massive exit, but it pays for a lot of things. I'm sure it's real cash.
