AVC17: Working Backwards with Colin Bryar

04/07/21 • 40 min

For episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon’s leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and “Shadow”) for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba.

In this episode, Colin discusses the importance of always having a customer-first mindset, the benefits of Amazon’s unique narrative meeting culture, his key lessons for early-stage founders, and lots more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Trailer for AVC17: Working Backwards with Colin Bryar

For the next episode, episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon’s leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and “Shadow”) for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba.

"Just always be curious. I love learning new things. I made a lot of mistakes but I’ve also learnt a lot. So just be curious. It's what makes life fun." - Colin Bryar

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Trailer for AVC18: Understanding Consumer Behaviour in a Hybrid World with Nicole Quinn

In Episode 18, we speak to Nicole Quinn, General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Lightspeed Ventures is an iconic Silicon Valley fund that has 10 billion dollars in assets under management. Nicole’s focus is on early-stage consumer internet and fintech companies, with a portfolio that includes mental wellness app Calm, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, Lady Gaga's Haus Laboratories, cult shoe brand Rothy's, Zola and Girl Boss.

"It's important to think big, know where your North Star is. And while you're in execution mode, make sure that you are driving towards the bigger goals." - Nicole Quinn

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.