What began as a single entrepreneur listing and shipping books from his garage is today a global technology company that serves three sets of customers—online shoppers, retailers of all shapes and sizes, and software developers. Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos began listing books and fulfilling orders from his home in suburban Seattle in 1995. Bezos started with books because he believed that only the Internet could offer customers the convenience of browsing a selection of millions of book titles in a single sitting. History affirmed his hypothesis—during the first 30 days of business, Amazon.com fulfilled orders for customers in 50 states and 45 countries—all shipped from Bezos’ Seattle-area garage.

Over the next 12 years Amazon.com would grow its selection from a single books store to more than 42 different categories of products. In a single sitting on amazon.com, today you can browse and buy everything from CDs to live lobster to hockey sticks to DRM-free MP3 music downloads. All this is backed by a global network of customer service centers, over 12 million square feet of fulfillment centers, and datacenters that must provide dial-tone reliability.