Bezos' Parents Risked It All with $245,573 Amazon Investment in 1995

In 1995, Jeff Bezos's parents, Mike and Jackie, invested $245,573 of their retirement savings into Amazon, which was still in its early stages. At that time, Bezos had warned them there was a 70% chance they'd lose it all. This figure comes from a 1997 Amazon prospectus, which revealed the investment went mostly unnoticed until Bloomberg dug it up in July 2018.

According to the prospectus, if Mike and Jackie never sold their stake, it would have been worth around $30 billion by then, representing a return of up to 12,000,000%. This could potentially top anything in venture capital history. In an interview with the Academy of Achievement, Bezos recalled that his father asked him, 'What's the Internet?' when he first pitched Amazon, while his mother advised him not to quit his job.

Bezos had previously made pitches to 60 people in 1994, seeking $1 million from family and friends at around $50,000 each. Most of them passed on the opportunity. However, Bezos's parents decided to invest despite the risks, with Mike later stating that they were 'making a bet on his son' rather than Amazon itself.