Authentic Holdings Inc (AHRO)

[Magnum7419]

wow that sounds just like Jeff Bezos when he was starting out :)[/b

Entertaining reading imho : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos

In spring 1994, Bezos read that web usage was growing at a rate of 2300% a year and eventually decided to establish an online bookstore.[41] He and his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, left their jobs at D. E. Shaw and founded Amazon in a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington on July 5, 1994, after writing its business plan on a cross-country drive from New York City to Seattle.[42][43] With Bezos at the helm and Scott taking an integral role in its operation—writing checks, keeping track of the books, and negotiating the company's first freight contracts—the foundation was laid for this garage-run operation to grow exponentially.[44] Prior to settling in Seattle, Bezos had investigated setting up his company at an Indian reservation near San Francisco in order to avoid paying taxes.[45] Bezos initially named his new company Cadabra but later changed the name to Amazon after the Amazon River in South America, in part because the name begins with the letter A, which is at the beginning of the alphabet.[46] At the time, website listings were alphabetized, so a name starting with "A" would appear sooner when customers conducted online searches.[47] In addition, he regarded "Amazon," the name of the world's largest river as fitting for what he hoped would become the world's largest online bookstore.[47] He accepted an estimated $300,000 from his parents as an investment in Amazon.[43][48][49] He warned many early investors that there was a 70% chance that Amazon would fail or go bankrupt.[50] Although Amazon was originally an online bookstore, Bezos had always planned to expand to other products.[40][46] Three years after Bezos founded Amazon, he took it public with an initial public offering (IPO).[51] In response to critical reports from Fortune and Barron's, Bezos maintained that the growth of the Internet would overtake competition from larger book retailers such as Borders and Barnes & Noble.[46]

"In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video, and by the end of the year he had expanded the company's products to include a variety of other consumer goods.[46] Bezos used the $54 million raised during the company's 1997 equity offering to finance the aggressive acquisition of smaller competitors.[46] In 2000, Bezos borrowed $2 billion from banks, as its cash balances dipped to only $350 million.[52] In 2002, Bezos led Amazon to launch Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic.[46] In late 2002, rapid spending from Amazon caused it financial distress when revenues stagnated.[53] After the company nearly went bankrupt, he closed distribution centers and laid off 14% of the Amazon workforce.[52] In 2003, Amazon rebounded from financial instability and turned a profit of $35 million.[54][55] In November 2007, Bezos launched the Amazon Kindle.[56] According to a 2008 Time profile, Bezos wished to create a device that allowed a "flow state" in reading similar to the experience of video games.[57] In 2013, Bezos secured a $600-million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on behalf of Amazon Web Services.[58] In October of that year, Amazon was recognized as the largest online shopping retailer in the world.[59]"