The Perfect Store
Inside eBay
by Adam Cohen · first published 2002
7mentions
2recommended by
7HN commenters
2007–2023first – last mentioned
29% recommend71% neutral
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Most of the books I read are usually business profiles/bios of founders/companies. 1) iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business 2) The Google Story 3) The Perfect Store: Inside eBay 4) Paypal Wars 5) Barbarians at the Gate (not tech-related but one of the best business books of all time)
on “Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?” ↗Read "The Perfect Store" (2003), which is about eBay. No inventory. No shipping. No credit risk. Just a cut of each sale.
on “The Perfect Business [pdf]” ↗So when I was reading Book "The Perfect Store" by Adam Cohen, I found out that similar was the Situation for Ebay. John Stokes joined later than Pierre Omidyar, so they decided with different equity levels. I guess it was 28/72. Not sure..
on “Is having cofounder at early stage really that important? ” ↗…that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay."
on “Ask HN: How do I choose my startup's name?” ↗The original of this story was in Adam Cohen's book The Perfect Store.
on “Ask HN: How do big web sites roll out new versions?” ↗"The Perfect Store" is a book about the early days of eBay. The primary takeaway for me was how they deliberately went to swap meets, flea markets and garage sales all over America — especially the rural flyover states…
on “Do Things that Don't Scale” ↗…Another thing I did come to realize was just how sweet a business B2B SaaS and Enterprise SaaS really is. Wow. It's a money printing machine, makes marketplaces look like a joke even though eBay was "The Perfect Store" like the book @Animats cited. Oh well, at the end of the day the business has to satisfy your intellectual and emotional needs for you (i.e. me) to give it that 150%.
on “The Perfect Business [pdf]” ↗