Venture Frogs Īfter LinkExchange sold to Microsoft, Hsieh co-founded and owned Venture Frogs, an incubator and investment firm, with his business partner, Alfred Lin. In November 1998, LinkExchange was sold to Microsoft for $265 million Hsieh personally netted $40 million from the sale. By 1998, the site had over 400,000 members and 5 million ads rotated daily. The site grew, and within 90 days LinkExchange had over 20,000 participating web pages and had its banner ads displayed over 10 million times. They launched in March 1996, with Hsieh as CEO, and found their first 30 clients by direct emailing webmasters. LinkExchange allowed members to advertise on other members' sites in exchange for placing LinkExchange banner advertisements on their own sites. In 1996, Hsieh started developing the idea for an advertising network called LinkExchange with his college classmates Sanjay Mandan and Ali Partovi. After five months, he left to co-found the LinkExchange advertising network. After college, Hsieh worked for Oracle Corporation. While at Harvard, he managed the Quincy House Grille selling pizza to the students in his dorm his best customer, Alfred Lin, would later become Zappos's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. In 1995, Hsieh graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science.

He had two younger brothers, Andy and Dave. His mother was a social worker, and his father a chemical engineer at Chevron Corp. Hsieh's family moved to Lucas Valley area of Marin County, California when he was five.

Hsieh was born in Urbana, Illinois, to Richard and Judy Hsieh, immigrants from Taiwan who met in graduate school at the University of Illinois.

Prior to joining Zappos, Hsieh co-founded the Internet advertising network LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million. He retired as the CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos in August 2020 after 21 years. Anthony Hsieh ( / ʃ eɪ/ SHAY December 12, 1973 – November 27, 2020) was an American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist.

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