the guy behind zappos

ABC News has a really interesting story on Tony Hsieh, the CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos: Shoe-ing Away Convention. The company, headquartered in Las Vegas, is basically doing for shoes what Amazon did for books. This year, nine years after going into business, Zappos is on track to sell $1 billion worth of shoes.

It also sounds like a really fun place to work, maintaining a cool company culture while avoiding the careless excess of pre-bubble burst startups. It helps that the CEO is setting an example by making a lower salary than some of the call center employees. $36,000 a year, apparently. Downright revolutionary.

But he can afford it. Just a few years out of college, Hsieh sold an internet company to Microsoft for $265 million. So I think he's doing okay. In the meantime, he'll continue running a kickass company and building his footwear empire. I wonder if friends and family bug him for free shoes. I would.