American History 1988
Chapter 386 - 375: Do It at Will

Chapter 386: Chapter 375: Do It at Will

"Amazon wants to establish its own warehouse and logistics center, right?"

Faced with the puzzled looks from Bezos and the others, Dean spread his hands innocently.

"That’s true, but..." Bezos looked puzzled. He had not heard that Dean was involved in this industry.

Ignoring the strange looks from everyone, Dean explained on his own.

"In Ohio, there’s a company called White Eagle Logistics, which has distribution sites all over the state.

Just the experienced drivers alone number in the hundreds. And the various types of trucks and freight vehicles are too numerous to count.

I think this logistics company is very suitable to become one of Amazon’s warehouse nodes.

You won’t need to recruit personnel or train employees or set up a logistics platform, etc.

This can save Amazon a great deal of time. Look, you currently have millions of dollars in orders waiting to be shipped.

The most important thing is the excellent geographical location of Ohio; it can radiate east to reach New York, Washington.

To the west, it can reach Chicago, St. Louis—the entire Great Lakes including the East Coast are within its business scope."

After listening to Dean’s introduction, the crowd exchanged looks. They had not expected Dean to have such resources on hand.

Okay, it seems the business interests of the richest man involve much more than they had imagined.

"When did you get into the logistics business?" Durell couldn’t help but lean in and ask in a low voice.

"We’ll discuss that matter later," Dean glanced at him, then shifted his gaze back to Bezos.

At that moment, the latter’s face showed hesitancy. To be honest, for a penniless Amazon, a ready-made logistics company would be a tremendous boost.

The reason why Amazon had millions of dollars in orders but could not yet convert them to revenue

Wasn’t it because they didn’t have their own warehouses and couldn’t control the logistics?

But Dean’s shrewdness also made Bezos very wary. None who became the richest man were easy to deal with.

"I need to think about it. Ohio is too far from Seattle," Bezos decided to put the matter on hold for now.

"OK, of course, that’s not a problem," Dean seemed not to notice the evasion in Bezos’s words, still appearing very enthusiastic.

"Right, I forgot to mention. This logistics company isn’t my business; I don’t own a single share in it.

My father and uncle founded it, and I just think a logistics company could help Amazon."

Bezos looked up, surprised. He hadn’t expected Dean to be so candid.

"I will consider it carefully," Bezos finally became serious.

Dean was right; a mature logistics company is important for Amazon right now.

With this platform, he was confident that he could double Amazon’s order volume in a short period.

And since Amazon planned to run its own logistics, it wouldn’t be limited to just Ohio.

Bezos wasn’t worried about being outmaneuvered; White Eagle would at most be one of Amazon’s many warehouse centers.

"We all hope Amazon grows quickly," Dean and he shook hands, and then Dean and Durell said goodbye to everyone.

Today was only about finalizing the funding; the KeyPoint Ventures team would follow up with the specific arrangements.

Even following venture capital tradition, Durell was likely to bring a management team to Amazon.

After all, Amazon needed not just money, but also a lot of talent.

"I didn’t know you were in the logistics business, that’s not what we agreed on," Durell complained as soon as he got into the car.

"It’s just an idea I had on the spot, Bezos’s explanation made me think of it.

And like I said, the logistics company has nothing to do with me; my uncle and others are managing it."

Durell snorted at Dean’s explanation. You may not run it, but you can influence it.

"You think highly of Amazon?" Durell set aside the logistics company issue and began discussing today’s investment with him.

"It has great potential," Dean nodded.

"An order volume of five million dollars is indeed promising." Amazon’s growth pace also garnered Durell’s acknowledgement.

"No, it’s not the orders I’m talking about, but Amazon’s business model," Dean corrected his view.

"Bezos has big ambitions, and the important thing is, he has a plan to implement them.

Amazon, with its core competitiveness, just needs to expand horizontally across all categories, then its scale will exceed our imaginations."

Durell’s eyebrows raised, "Suddenly, I regret giving you a third of the investment stake."

"That’s what we agreed on a long time ago," Dean said, laughing as he reclined in his seat, finding himself a comfortable position on the backrest.

The reason he had come all this way to Seattle with Durell wasn’t for nothing.

Even before they had set off, they had reached an agreement—if Amazon looked promising, Dean could have a third of this round of financing.

Why did Dean negotiate with Durell on the spot during the talk with Bezos?

It wasn’t to close the deal quickly, but for one to play the bad cop and the other the good cop.

As long as the valuation met expectations, a little manipulation could make them reach a cooperative relationship more efficiently.

Although he had secured only 5% of Amazon’s shares, Dean was not dissatisfied.

The astute Bezos, a Wall Street veteran, was far from the average young founder who could be easily hoodwinked.

He was very clear about the value his shares could hold in the future.

If not for the internal and external crises Amazon was facing, one would not even dream of acquiring a 15% stake, let alone Bezos being stingy with a mere 1%.

Over $2.6 million for a 5% stake in Amazon was definitely not a bad deal.

Dean saw it as a casual investment and did not intend to interfere with Amazon’s decision-making.

Like most entrepreneurs, Bezos was very assertive and disliked others meddling in the development of Amazon.

With only a 5% shareholding, it was unnecessary for him to be overly concerned.

He had his own matters to attend to and certainly did not have the time to deal with Amazon in Seattle.

However, Dean needed to have a few words of consideration with his old man Peter.

If his guess was right, Bezos would surely look into White Eagle Logistics soon.

This was an irresistible temptation for Amazon at the moment; they were in desperate need of their logistics center, even if it was just temporary.

...

Dean and Durell did not stay in Seattle for long; with a private jet at their disposal, they returned to Silicon Valley that same afternoon.

But on the same day, and also in Seattle, another important meeting was taking place.

"Navigator 2.0 has been out for almost a quarter; how is our market share looking now?" Gates asked, his face a mask of seriousness as he looked toward the executives in the meeting room.

Although everyone had just enjoyed the Christmas holidays, the atmosphere was not relaxed but rather more tense.

The room was filled with uneasy glances, as no one wanted to broach this weighty topic, until Silverge, who was in charge of browser development, took the initiative to speak.

"According to the statistics from the backend, our market share of Navigator hovers between 6% to 9%, with almost no fluctuation in the past week."

As expected, hearing this news made Gates’s already dark expression turn a few shades grimmer.

Microsoft had begun to invest heavily in the internet, especially in the browser, which was a top priority.

The internal development costs alone were enormous, and the promotions also promised many benefits to companies partnering with Microsoft.

But three months in, the share of Navigator 2.0 had only grown from an initial pitiful 3% to a still palpably insignificant 6% to 9%.

To say it had made no significant achievements was not an overstatement; tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars invested had only resulted in such a small market share, and it was no wonder Gates looked displeased.

"What about the developer programs? Netscape has already taken the lead. If we do not catch up in time, the situation will only get worse."

This was another key focus for Gates and was considered by him to be the root of Netscape’s threat.

The voice of platform developers needed to be under Microsoft’s control!

Yet facing Gates’s inquiring look, even Silverge did not know how to respond.

He certainly couldn’t tell Gates that despite Microsoft offering generous conditions, there was nearly no response from the developers in Seattle.

The few developers that were there seemed only interested in scamming subsidies by submitting a few plug-ins and then paying no further attention.

Dean’s public criticism of Microsoft before the New Year had a far-reaching impact indeed.

Yes, what Seattle had not expected was that Dean’s accusations of Microsoft as a plagiarist would have such a profound influence among developers.

In fact, Microsoft’s reputation had already been poor in the geek community even before this.

While people recognized Gates’s accomplishments, they didn’t necessarily admire him in their hearts.

Many believed that Gates had many faults, such as being wealthy yet stingy, self-centered, intolerant toward the less intelligent among his employees and business partners, and they despised him for it.

At the same time, he was always accused of stealing other companies’ good ideas without acknowledging and respecting their achievements.

Many also viewed Gates as lacking in social etiquette, being highly competitive, and unwilling to accept any reasonable advice from others.

This targeted speech against Netscape was a perfect demonstration of these traits.

Microsoft was in fact the plagiarist but cunningly accused Netscape of underhanded tactics.

Ordinary people might be baffled, but developers understood the situation all too clearly.

Dean’s forthright criticism on camera was a source of great satisfaction to many developers.

It was rare for someone to stand up to the "world’s richest man," and for this reason alone, he was worth admiring.

Moreover, with Netscape’s platform boasting over twenty million users and a well-established app store model, many tech enthusiasts had made their first fortune.

Between the allure of reputation and money, who would care about Seattle?

One could say that Dean’s outspoken stance had almost completely stripped Microsoft of the last vestiges of appeal amongst the developer community.

Although Silverge faltered and did not answer, Gates already knew the answer to the question.

He took a deep breath, "Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps it’s time we considered other measures."

In the browser market, Microsoft was determined to not rest until they had claimed it for themselves.

The lack of expected results from Navigator in early ’96 had made Gates resolve to risk crossing moral boundaries in pursuit of victory.