The True eBay Story

How many versions can you count on two hands of how eBay got started? One of the most popular is the one where the auction site was created to help eBay founder's trade Pez candy dispensers. As it turns out, that story was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997, to help generate interest from the media.

The real eBay story is even better. Our story's hero, was a young boy named Pierre Omidyar, who immigrated to America with his parents at the age of 6. He was born in France to Iranian parents who were able to get away from oppression in Iran, and ultimately arrived in America. Pierre grew up and graduated from Tufts University with a degree in computer science. He went to work for Claris, an Apple computer subsidiary, and he co-founded an e-commerce company called e-shop which was not very successful at all.

Undaunted, Pierre was 28 years old when he sat down over a holiday weekend to write the original code for what eventually became the internet super brand known as eBay. He launched the site on Labor Day, 1995, under the original name of "Auction Web." Working with what he had available, Pierre hosted his new enterprise on a borrowed Web site he created for posting information on the Ebola virus.

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Pierre was astonished that someone actually bid for it, so he contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers."

This was the first of many, many stories which fit the bill of how "one man's trash is another man's treasure!"

In early 1996, Chris Agarpao was hired as eBay's first employee and Jeffrey Skoll was hired as the first president of the company. Later that year, eBay entered into its first third-party licensing deal, with a company called Electronic Travel Auction to sell plane tickets and other travel products. Growth was phenomenal, and by early 1997 the site hosted 2,000,000 auctions, compared with 250,000 during the whole of 1996.

In 1998, Meg Whitman was hired as eBay President and CEO. At the time, the company had 30 employees, more than half a million users and revenues of $4.7 million. eBay went public on September 21, 1998, and Pierre and a few of his first employees became instant Billionaires! eBay's target share price of $18 was all but ignored as the price went to $53.50 on the first day of trading.

I've heard of instant millionaires from the stock market, but instant billionaires? Wow! According to Forbes, as of March 2011, Pierre Omidyar is the 145th richest person in the world and the richest person of Iranian descent.

Wouldn't you like to have a part of that American dream? Guess what? You can if you work hard at your business, persist, persevere and grab yourself a piece of that American dream pie!

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"People ask me, how is managing in the New Economy different from managing in the Old Economy? Actually, it's a lot the same. It's about the financial discipline of the bottom line, understanding your customers, segmenting your customers by their needs, and building a world-class management team." ~ Meg Whitman