The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

by Scott Galloway

Jet.com shows that the difference between a dot-bomb and a unicorn is a huckster vs. a visionary, respectively.82 How can you tell the difference? One has had an exit/liquidity event. Marc Lore, Jet’s founder, is that visionary/huckster. Mr. Lore is Jeff Bezos’s brother by another mother. Or, if you’re a retail worker, they are the spawn of Ayn Rand and Darwin, raised by Darth Maul. Lore is also a banker who turned to e-commerce and chose a low-consideration category that, even better than books, had replenishment built in: diapers. In 2005, Lore started diapers.com and launched several other categories for parents under the corporate umbrella Quidsi.83 When Bezos toured the firm, he must have felt at home, recognizing the warehouses close to urban centers staffed by Kiva Robots standing behind a site run by algorithms. Bezos fell hard and in 2011 paid $545 million for Quidsi.84 For half a billion dollars Amazon bought momentum in key categories, got some great human capital, and took a competitor off the market. But Lore didn’t want to work for Jeff Bezos. He wanted to be Jeff Bezos. Twenty-four months later he bolted and, with his new wealth, started Jet.com. This must have felt like a half-a-billion-dollar divorce settlement to your husband, who then moves into the house next door and starts fucking your friends.

Check out this quote.