Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently revealed the advice he once received from a student of Harvard Business School. Jeff Bezos once revealed that a Harvard student advised him to sell Amazon to Barnes & Noble and exit the business just as the company was preparing to go public in 1997.The anecdote, recounted in Brad Stone’s 2013 book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, captures the early skepticism surrounding Amazon’s business model. During a classroom visit, Bezos was told bluntly, “You seem like a really nice guy, so don’t take this the wrong way, but you really need to sell to Barnes & Noble and get out now.”At the time, Amazon was just an online bookstore and was facing a lot of competition from other well-established retailers.Barnes & Noble had just launched its own website, BN.com, in May 1997, and many believed traditional retail giants would crush digital newcomers.

Amazon’s meteoric rise

Bezos revealed that instead of following the advice from the Harvard student, Bezos went ahead and doubled down his vision. Amazon went public in May 1997 and then started expanding aggressively. Over the next two decades, the company launched the Amazon Prime service in order to build customer loyalty.After this, in 2006 Amazon introduced Amazon Web Services (AWS). Then, in 2017, Amazon went ahead and acquired Whole Foods and in 2022, the company bought MGM Studios.Amazon also scaled its third-party marketplace, built a vast logistics network, and grew into a dominant player in advertising and payments.Amazon then, went ahead and became a global tech giant and on the other hand Barnes & Noble remained focused on physical retail.After years of declining sales, the chain has recently staged a modest revival and is reportedly exploring a potential IPO in London or New York, according to the Financial Times.

Bezos’ Vision: A bet on the internet

Bezos, a Princeton-trained computer scientist, left his role as VP at hedge fund D.E. Shaw in 1994 after reading a report that said web usage was growing at 2,300% per year. “I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast,” he said in a 2010 Princeton speech. That insight led him to launch Amazon as an online bookstore with millions of titles. The Harvard student may have seen a risky startup. Bezos saw a once-in-a-generation opportunity—and built one of the most transformative companies in history.