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5 Lessons Millennial Startups Can Learn from Jeff Bezos

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what you can learn from jeff bezos

Of all the entrepreneurs dominating tech today, Jeff Bezos has emerged as one of the few that are still breathing after the .com bubble burst in 2000.

Bezos joined the world of the internet in 1995 and despite the huge crash, Amazon continued to breathe because of his resilience, vision and refusal to give up despite facing humongous odds. Many call him America’s foremost CEO, after Steve Jobs.

Here are 5 takeaways from Bezos’ philosophy:

1. The empty chair philosophy

During Amazon’s early days, Bezos insisted on placing an empty chair in each executive meeting. To all attendees, this was Amazon’s customer and the empty chair was to act as a reminder that no decision they made should displease the most important attendee of their meeting.

From the get-go, Bezos has been pretty clear about his desire to make Amazon a customer-obsessed firm. This customer-centric philosophy is what has made Amazon the world’s foremost e-commerce firm. Millennials will do well to remember that no matter how old, the “customer is king” belief still holds true.

“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.” – Jeff Bezos

2. Apologizing shouldn’t hurt your ego

Back in 2009, Amazon angered users by deleting legally bought copies of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984”, because they were being sold illegally by an unnamed seller. For any firm, this would probably be deemed as a mid-level crisis.

For Bezos, however, anything that hurt his customers, hurt him. Therefore, he personally penned an informal apology letter to all users. He said, “Our ‘solution’ to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles…we will make better decisions going forward[.]

As a startup, you may feel that admitting a mistake may lose customers but refusing to do so will push them further away. In the example stated above, most firms would have simply released a press statement to apologize for the error. The worst ones would adamantly deny they were at fault. When the mistake first occurred, customers were furious. Bezos’ heartfelt plea for forgiveness won them over.

 

3. The two-pizza philosophy

Jeff Bezos is a firm believer in small, sovereign units. In his own words, if a team cannot be fed by two pizzas, it’s too large. In statistical terms, a team must comprise of 5 – 7 people. The Amazon Gold Box, for example, was an idea that originated during one of these two-pizza team discussions.

This attitude correlates with Bezos’ other active belief – the constant removal of waste. According to him, large teams become inefficient and usually find it hard to come to a decisive result, wasting resources along the way.

Unsurprisingly, this idea has been catching on as small businesses continue to sprout online. Firms, like AMZInsight, prefer assigning tasks to a small group of people. It gets the job done quickly and allows ideas to flow freely.

 

4. It’s the long-term that matters

When Amazon makes a gigantic investment, they’re almost always criticized. Ten years down the line, when the investment pays off, the same critics sing Bezos’ praises.

If a strategy or plan seems revolutionary to him, Bezos shrugs off the disapproval. He can wait half a decade to get a return on his investment but if something feels right to him, he’s got to do it now. For example, when eBooks were first introduced, Amazon was the only store to offer them at prices lower than their print editions, generating short-term losses.

Today, all eBook editions are cheaper but because of an early start, Amazon has already captured most of the market. Therefore, if you believe something will work, go for it and don’t worry about short-term returns.

“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos

5. Failure is a prerequisite to innovation

As mentioned above, Amazon began when the internet was still a baby and online commerce was growing on uncertain soil. Bezos went in fully aware of the failures waiting for him. He told his first investors that: “…there’s a 70 percent chance you’re going to lose all your money, so don’t invest unless you can afford to lose it.”

However, instead of feeling limited by imminent failure, Bezos felt powerful. He knew he was going to fail but he also knew that nothing would stop him from pushing Amazon off the ground. He felt liberated since he knew what the future held for him. Ironically, it was this mentality that set shop for his success. Expect failure but don’t let it hinder your plans. Instead, prepare to face it head on.

What have you personally learned from Jeff Bezos? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Matt Mikaelson is a Marketing Executive at AMZ Insight who trusts in the power of research. He specializes in data services, tech trends, marketing analysis and industry insight. It is his belief that data always tells a story, so he enjoys collecting marketing numbers, studying their impact on businesses and how they can be manipulated to market leadership visions. Matt is an expert in, and an enthusiastic student of, digital marketing, consumer behavior, content marketing, ecommerce, online marketplaces and market research.

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Scale Your Business

Tired of Wasting Money on the Wrong Marketers? Here’s How Smart Entrepreneurs Are Finally Hiring Right

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If you’ve ever Googled how to hire a Facebook marketer or best TikTok marketing agency only to spend thousands on someone who couldn’t deliver…congrats, you’ve joined a very expensive club! For many entrepreneurs, hiring a digital marketer feels like more like visiting a casino and gambling with your runway, than it feels like securing a partner who’ll help build your business. Often,  it feels like you’re betting on a stranger to grow the dream you’ve poured your savings into.

And way too often, you lose that bet.

You don’t need another list of the “Top 10 Agencies” with five-star testimonials and polished logos. You need to know which marketer can actually drive results for your business. Not in theory. In practice.

This is where entrepreneurs are learning to pivot. And it’s why a new platform called TruthMetric.com is turning heads across the startup world.

Why Most Startups Burn Through 3–6 Marketers Before Finding the Right One

Here’s the hard truth: most startups don’t fail because of their product, they fail because they can’t get sales or sell it fast enough. And in trying to fix that, founders usually go through five or six marketers, burning tens of thousands before finding someone who truly knows how to convert.

You build your product, get your website live, maybe even launch an ad campaign. But when you search for help and look up how to “hire a YouTube ads agency” or “top Facebook ad expert for Shopify”, you get hit with a sea of shiny portfolios, “ninja” titles, and endless promises.

Three months later, you’re still waiting on your first profitable campaign, and you’re most likely out tens of thousands, feeling utterly defeated…and maybe grinning with an affinity for that upcoming boxing class with a picture of that marketer’s fac……nevermind.

If this sounds like you, it’s time for what one entrepreneur called a strategic shift to scale smarter, not harder.

Introducing TruthMetric.com: The Transparent Marketplace for Hiring Marketers Who Deliver

TruthMetric.com isn’t just another freelancer platform or agency directory. It’s the first hiring solution where you can see three years of real, verified marketing performance before spending a dime.

That includes:

  • Verified ad campaign performance
  • Actual return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Industry-specific experience
  • Platform specialties (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Google Ads, and more)

Whether you’re looking for a Facebook ads expert, a TikTok marketer, or a YouTube growth strategist, TruthMetric.com lets you filter and compare based on what actually matters, results.

This level of clarity is something you won’t find on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. And it solves what many founders know too well as the New York Pizza Problem: where every marketer claims they’re “the best,” just like every pizzeria in Manhattan says they’re #1. Often without showing you results, you get sucked into this dream of collaboration, until the nightmare commences the moment you fork that first invoice payment. Hence the deception that leads to many business owners losing their hard earned savings and budget to launch their grand idea.

With TruthMetric, you finally get the data to decide for yourself, BEFORE you hire. Now if only New York Pizza shops had the same transparency then maybe you’d finally find the best pizza in New York, perhaps the perfect post work out after a boxing sesh? I think so!

Why Founders Are Shifting to Results-First Hiring

Most entrepreneurs think they need to do it all themselves, until they burn out or burn through their budget. That’s exactly why this founder had to drop the Superman complex and hire a marketing genius.

What makes TruthMetric so powerful is that it turns hiring into a confident move, not a hopeful one. You’re no longer guessing. You’re choosing from proven performers. You know what vertical they dominate. You know their past client performance. You see the monthly results from the campaigns they ran, and the outcomes they achieved.

It’s not just efficient. It’s empowering.

Scaling Quickly Requires Automation and Eliminating the Noise

Founders who scale quickly understand one thing: growth isn’t just about hustle, it’s about systems. TruthMetric is the system for finding great marketers at speed. No more DM’ing ten freelancers or interviewing agencies feeling like you are asking the world of them to just see some prior results. Instead you get to see the information you need to make an informed decision and plug into verified talent, all ready to perform.

This difference allows for you to match perfectly with the right talent quickly. If you’re building your business to run lean and fast, this convenience plugged in with automation can help you scale your small business right alongside your new marketing hires.

Why TruthMetric Is Also a Boon for Marketers, Not Just Founders

This isn’t just a win for founders, it is a gift for great marketers, too.

If you’re a freelance marketer who’s been quietly pulling 10x ROAS for clients while being passed over for flashy agencies, you now have a stage where your results speak louder than your brand.

TruthMetric is a true meritocracy. No fluff. No sales tricks. Just data.

If you’re tired of being overlooked and ready to stand out based on what you actually deliver, this is your home.

The Secret Weapon for Investors and M&A Operators

There’s another angle here that some of our readers might miss.

Investors, private equity firms, and M&A advisors should be drooling at the thought of having a proven talent pool they can plug and play and the ability to use TruthMetric to revive underperforming companies. Imagine acquiring a business or becoming an active investor, then dropping in a verified operator with a history of explosive growth in that niche.

It’s plug-and-play. Scale on demand.

That kind of insight has never been available before. You couldn’t do this on Upwork. You certainly can’t do it through a friend-of-a-friend referral. 

And when it comes to attracting high-performing talent, here’s how to hire top talent and keep them around.

Let’s Really Drive This Home…

If you’ve wasted money on agencies or freelancers who couldn’t deliver, it’s not because you’re bad at hiring, it’s because the game was stacked against you. Trusting dreamy charismatic sales pitches over data was a doomed approach from the start. 

TruthMetric levels the playing field by showing you what no other talent marketplace does and that’s proof.

Real marketers. Real results. Real growth.

It’s time to stop guessing and start hiring based on data.
Visit TruthMetric.com and make your next marketing hire the one that actually works.

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Shift Your Mindset

10 Powerful Traits Every True Thought Leader Possesses

In a world saturated with noise, thought leadership is the quiet power that shifts paradigms.

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Image Credit: Midjourney

Thought leadership is more than just having strong opinions. It’s the ability to influence, inspire, and guide others by sharing original insights, innovative ideas, and deep domain expertise. It’s about sparking change, not just talking about it. (more…)

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Startups

The Young Man’s Guide to Creativity: 10 Daily Habits to Improve Your Creative Mind

10 daily habits you can put into practice right now to improve your creativity

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How to boost creativity
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When I was 22 years old, I became a Top Writer on Medium.

It’s not an easy path. I lived in the Philippines and had never received a penny after writing over 100 digital articles. But I treated it like practice. If I couldn’t get other people to read my work for free, why would they trust me? (more…)

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Startups

If You’re Not Reinventing Yourself, You’re Falling Behind! Here’s What To Do

Reinvention is the secret weapon of high performers.

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Reinventing yourself
Image Credit: Midjourney

Reinvention is the secret weapon of high performers.

Most careers follow a predictable script. You start at the bottom, climb the ranks, and eventually settle into something resembling stability. But the people who make the biggest impact, the ones who don’t just play the game but change it, break that script. They evolve. They shift. They reinvent. (more…)

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