If you’ve got a company and you want a big acquisition in a year or two, you may want to consider hiring Alfred Lin, currently the COO/CFO of just-acquired Zappos. Every company he’s worked for has been acquired, and the smallest deal was $265 million.
Lin dropped out of a PhD program at Stanford to join LinkExchange in 1996 as acting CFO. Two years later the company was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million in stock. He then cofounded Venture Frogs, a $27 million venture fund, with college buddy Tony Hsieh. Investments included Zappos, TellMe, OpenTable, MyAble, Mongo Music and Ask Jeeves, all of which have been acquired or went public.
Lin then joined TellMe in 2001 as VP Finance and Business Development. At the time he joined the company was losing $60 million per year, he tells me. Microsoft bought the company for $800 million in 2007.
Then he really outdid himself. He joined Zappos, reuniting with his old friend Hsieh, in 2006 as COO and CFO. How’d they do? Yeah, they were acquired last week by Amazon for close to $1 billion.
I don’t know if Lin is the master operator (his former colleagues and venture capitalists all say glowing things) or if he’s just really, really good at picking winners. But one thing is clear – this guy has the Midas Touch. I highly recommend interviewing at whatever company he ends up at next. It’s likely to be a big winner.
Hopefully he will write a book one day.
That would be a great start, wish I knew the guy. Makes you wonder if luck is really necessary or is it just hardwork and intelligence.
Once you are lucky. Twice, maybe you are really lucky. Nething more, you are really good!
Yes, Harvard CS class of ‘94-’95 were good ones. Also includes Craig Silverstein, employee #1 at google and Jonathan Katzman, of Vermeer (acquired by microsoft), Tellme (also acquired by microsoft, and most recently loopt.
nice catch!
Note, you didn’t mention Jonathan Katzman’s 3rd startup, Xoopit, which was just acquired by Yahoo (same day as Zappos/Amazon announcement!).
He takes advantage of the opportunities of the market thats all.
Thumbs up to him
I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with Tony, Alfred and Fred (Mossler) of Zappos a few years ago. Besides being brilliant, they are all gentlemen and richly deserve their big payday. It’s always nice to see the good guys win.
Here’s the interview I did with Alfred in December. Yeah, he’s a stud.
http://meetinno...airman-and-coo/
wow. no hate comments yet. techcrunch readers are in a much better mood today.
Well it’s nice reading about solid, talented professionals who know how to spot a business with potential and grow it- better yet, a company with a business model.
It’s because these guys are all classy individuals. No hype, no smoke and mirror, no IP stealing business, no “dumb lucky to be in the right place”. Good solid guys who deserve their success.
I guess they don’t want to get yelled at by Paul Carr.
I think your link is broken Mike
http://www.crun...rson/alfred-lin
Shows a 500 error. Good post either way.
@ Mike
Of course not. Even the hate trolls can see that Zappos isn’t a the run of the mill Web2.0 YCombinator funded copycat no-revenue wannabe company that hopes to be the next startup acquired by Yahoo! or Google.
Zappos wasn’t “bottom line” profitable at the time of it’s acquisition. I don’t think it ever was, truly. I think it was “facebook profitable” for the later part of it’s pre-acquisition life, but thats it. I know people that worked there until several months ago and they’ve told me it wasn’t making bottom line money.
It could have been made profitable right before acquisition or after the last time that I’ve known it was not profitable (early to mid 2008). Who knows the exact dates for sure.
However, the point is, that you talk about these other start ups from y.comb as if they’re in another world but aren’t so far away as you think. Zappos wasn’t profitable for a very very long time, if ever.
it’s because you are not starting any netbook rant that is full of mistakes
As a Techcrunch reader I like to see success much more than failure. I wish success on anyone, except that pay-per-post guy. LOL
@Arrington – because this is straight good tech information versus a post of secret Twitter docs someone acquired by hacking
This is a quality post. Seems like this guy works on things of substance. Other posts sometime review things that seem trivial or not substantial, so they’re hated on.
http://www.traderbots.com
its always good to read anything other than twitter…. twitter
Money is good.
Congratulations to Zappos and Lin….this past week has been generally good with all the M&A activity
Good luck charm!!!!!!!!!
Alfred Lin is a smart, modest guy. That’s why there are no hate comments.
Much-deserved recognition for an amazingly talented guy. Congratulations, Alfred
I concur, Alfred is much deserving of this recognition. He is a wickedly smart guy who works hard behind the scenes to build successful businesses. Congratulations!
Wow.. great achievement !
Quite an impressive resume! Congrats Alfred!
damn very lucky guy
Alfred, if you’re listening, we’d love to have you on board at http://www.samepoint.com. We could use your touch!
That is actually pretty neat.. I like it.. name is kind of boring but site is pretty cool and useful for checking brand mentions in the social world..
Yeah cool website. It considers “study” a negative word. lol
What is to hate? We all want him to click through our links, invest in us and sell our stuff for lots of money… so I think we are begging to be loved by him… show me the money…
“Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wished for. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.”
I prefer the Dionysus touch (being granted a wish) as Midas wouldn’t be able to have human contact.
There’s no reason to hate him. He’s proven himself time and time again with actual businesses that make money. Unlike Facebook.
Haha I like that strategy of following him around from company to company. Hopefully they have fast vesting schedules, then you would be golden.
Be employee #1 at the next company he founds, and then boom…find yourself richer by a few million in a couple of years.
Great retirement plan!
Having worked with Alfred closely at LinkExchange, I can attest to his raw intelligence, incredible work ethic, and principled way he conducts himself. There was more than one morning I walked into the conference room to see Alfred curled up in a sleeping bag after pulling an all nighter. His dedication is really unmatched.
There hasn’t been a lot of luck to it. Alfred deserves all the success he has achieved.
Goes to show that hard work does pay off.
As the co-founder of Tellme (the other big acquisition on your list there) I can say with a lot of confidence Alfred’s a fantastic guy who I would do anything to work with again.
I miss ya Alfred, I am coming out there to LV to hit your blender soon
Certainly he is a pioneerSmack
Awesome credentials.
Alfred is an awesome dude
lady luck smiling . Must be a talented guy as well
Some people are just brains…
This my friends is America. Smarts, talent, right place at the right time and hard work. The ingredients for a successful ice cream shop or the leading retailer of shoes online.
This is why I read Techcrunch daily- inspiration on the American spirit.
Here’s to me cheering some unknown who has a dream being profiled in the same way.
Cheers to all!
amazing story, can’t all be luck:)
All companies he backed have been solid businesses. No “let’s build it and they’ll come” BS.
I know Alfred Lin. He only moonlights for those companies, such as Zappos. His real job is he runs and owns a Chinee takeout place in Alhambra, and his wife runs and owns a dry cleaner. That how they really make they money. In his spare time, he enjoys kung fu movies and kareoke. His favorite past-time is rims– yes, he loves shopping and changing the rims out on his 1999 super-charged Honda Accord.
How do you know my last name?
Is this the first hate comment on this thread? Or is this for real? I know most Asians run small businesses like nail salons but it is hard to imagine how a guy like Alfred can have time to run a Chinese takeout on the side.
I hope you are not allowed to drive.
Or step out of your house.
Funny thing is….I do know Alfred and his wife…neither own “Chinee (You spelt it wrong) takeout place in Alhambra, and his wife runs and owns a dry cleaner. ” That’s pretty stereo-typical. He’s an amazing and brilliant man who worked very hard for what he has accomplished.
Very cool. I hope he got a sweet bonus.
Sounds like Alfred is certainly the guy to know. He certainly deserves all the pay he gets. Congrats.
“He takes advantage of the opportunities of the market thats all.” My favorite coment so far. So easy, just take advantage of the opportunities of the market!
LOL. Good point.
That’s right. Very easy. You too, can take advantage of opportunities Devak. For example, all you have to do is score a 99th percentile on the MCAT and you too, can get admitted to Harvard Med School and become a world renown surgeon. Easy as that. All you have to do is run the 100 meters faster than Usian Bolt and you too, can be rich and famous. It is so easy- just turn your short little stumpy legs a little faster than Usian and you will end up at the finish line before him. Yes, you too, can do ANY thing, so long as you ….
He definitely know what he’s doing. All these acquisitions didn’t come just because he happened to be they. They all happened after he arrived so obviously his arrival spurred the success. It’s good to see guys like Alfred make an impact the way he has. http://ziggytek.com/
this guy is either really, really lucky or really, really talented. I go for option number two. Congratulations Alfred!.
Wow. Impressive resume. Maybe he should do an article on TC on future trends.
The sweet smell of success after success. I must say he is one sharp executive.
I agree, once, your lucky,twice, your really smart…
Nat
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Amazing track record and a lucky guy.
It’s rare to see somebody who is working for startups actually get rich instead of the founders/investors running off with all equity and leaving everybody else for table scraps. Even more so when he’s done it several times over.
Yeah, fine, prior successes and all that…but what has he done LATELY!
I worked closely with Alfred at Tellme for five years. He was the hardest working guy in the company bar none. Hell of a nice guy, great to work with. No surprise success follows him. I’ve closely followed what he’s done at Zappos. I now hand out copies of the Zappos Culture Book to my team.
I learned a lot from Alfred at Tellme and was always impressed by the level of product he created. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.