Bezos' Octopus Strategy
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A story about why Jeff Bezos decided to acquire the company Woot, as told by Sam Parr.
"Matt Rutledge, the founder of Woot, flies up to Seattle to meet with Bezos right when the deal closes. They're having Sunday breakfast, and Rutledge finally just says, 'So Jeff, why did you buy Woot?'
Jeff had just ordered breakfast, and he looks down at his meal, then looks at Matt. Fifteen seconds pass, and Matt's thinking maybe they should just move on. Jeff looks down at his meal again, then looks back up at Rutledge and says:
'You see, you're the octopus that I'm having for breakfast right now. When I look at the menu, you're the thing that I just don't understand. The thing I've never had. I must have breakfast octopus.'
And there was like a 20-second pause for him to say that. Rutledge was just sitting there thinking this guy is like this weird Star Trek type of guy. And as you would expect, Amazon ended up ruining the company."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.