Jeff Bezos spent a lot of 1994 soliciting anybody who would hearken to put money into his fledgling e-commerce internet enterprise, “Amazon.com.” His purpose was to boost $1 million from household, mates, and just about anybody prepared to chop a examine. He even requested his mother and father to speculate. They agreed. Over two transactions in 1995 and 1996, they gave their son $245,573. Amazon went public in Might 1997, and at the moment Jeff’s mother and father are nearly definitely secret billionaires.
Let’s again up a minute.
Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jorgensen met as youngsters in highschool in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jacklyn, who glided by “Jackie, found she was pregnant when she was a 16-year-old junior. 18-year-old Ted was extra captivated with unicycles than being a father. He spent summers working for the Ringling Bros. circus and apparently based the world’s first unicycle hockey membership.
As if having a unicycle-obsessed baby-daddy wasn’t unhealthy sufficient, Jackie was shunned by her highschool for getting pregnant. The college briefly tried to dam her from attending lessons and graduating. The college solely relented after she agreed to some draconian phrases. Listed here are the phrases Jackie agreed to, as she recalled in a 2019 graduation:
“Situation one: I needed to arrive and depart faculty inside 5 minutes of the beginning and ending bells. Situation two: I couldn’t discuss to different college students. Situation three: I could not eat lunch within the cafeteria. Situation 4: I used to be informed I might not be allowed to stroll throughout the stage with my classmates to get my diploma.“
Earlier than the infant got here, Jackie and Ted eloped to Mexico. On January 12, 1964, they welcomed a child boy into the world. They named him Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. Jackie turned 17 simply 14 days previous to his start.
Maybe not surprisingly, Jackie and Ted didn’t final as a pair. She filed for divorce in June 1965 and commenced supporting herself with a secretarial job that paid $190 a month.
Extremely, even with all of her challenges, Jackie nonetheless needed to be a school graduate and enrolled in evening lessons on the College of New Mexico. She particularly chosen programs that had been taught by professors who did not thoughts that she introduced a child to class.
As destiny would have it, one in every of her classmates was a Cuban immigrant named Miguel. Miguel additionally skilled vital challenges up thus far in his life. For many years, again in Cuba, Miguel’s mother and father owned a thriving lumber enterprise. Within the late Nineteen Fifties, their enterprise was seized by Fidel Castro’s troops. In 1962, Miguel’s household used all of their remaining cash to safe a visa JUST FOR HIM to hunt refuge in America. He was 16. Instantly upon arriving within the US, Miguel lived in a refugee camp for unaccompanied minors earlier than being taken in by a Catholic faculty in Delaware. Miguel discovered himself on the College of New Mexico after incomes a scholarship. He initially meant to review physics and math, however switched to laptop science. Miguel’s final identify is…
Bezos
Miguel Bezos and Jackie Gise started relationship. After Miguel graduated, he landed a job working for Exxon in Houston, Texas. As soon as once more, Jackie needed to put her dream of graduating from faculty on maintain. In 1968, Miguel and Jackie married. 4 months later, Miguel requested Ted for his permission to undertake 4-year-old Jeff. Ted did not resist. Ted additionally agreed to discontinue all contact. Ted wouldn’t be taught of his kid’s identification till 2012, when a biographer tracked him down. Ted admitted he misplaced observe of Jackie and Jeff and forgot Miguel’s final identify, so he did not know how you can attain out even when he had needed to. Ted died in 2015. He by no means reconnected with Jeff, however he did publicly apologize for being a foul father in a 2014 tv interview.
Miguel went on to work for Exxon for 32 years. Sooner or later, he was transferred to Miami, the place the now-teenage “Jeff Bezos” attended Palmetto Excessive Faculty. Miguel and Jackie additionally had two extra youngsters, Mark and Christina.
Leaping forward to 1994…
After leaving his job at a hedge fund in New York Metropolis, Jeff Bezos based Amazon.com, initially as “Cadabra,” on July 5, 1994. When he wasn’t working the enterprise, Jeff was elevating cash. He spent that first 12 months attempting to boost $1 million. He did persuade round 20 buyers to chop checks of various sizes, however his greatest examine got here from his mother and father.
Earlier than they agreed to speculate, Jeff warned his mother and father:
“I would like you to know the way dangerous it’s because I need to come house for Thanksgiving, and I do not need you to be mad at me.“
Spoiler: Jeff by no means skilled a foul Thanksgiving.
Jackie, Jeff and Miguel Bezos (Photograph by MOLLY RILEY/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
In keeping with Amazon’s pre-IPO prospectus, Miguel purchased 582,528 shares in February 1995. In July 1996, Jackie purchased 874,716 shares. In whole, they spent $245,573 to amass a mixed 6% stake in Amazon.
In the event that they by no means bought a single share, at the moment, a 6% stake in Amazon could be price $145 billion.
By the tip of 1999, Jackie and Miguel not immediately owned greater than 5% of Amazon, the magic share that may have required an annual SEC disclosure. Maybe not coincidentally, proper round this time, Jackie and Miguel co-founded the Bezos Household Basis.
The precise measurement of their basis at the moment just isn’t recognized. This is what is understood:
- Between 2001 and 2016, Miguel and Jackie transferred 600,000 shares to their basis.
- After Amazon’s 20:1 inventory cut up in June 2022, these shares turned 12 million shares.
- Immediately, 12 million shares of Amazon are price $2.7 billion.
- It is also recognized that in 2022 alone, the muse gave $710 million to a Seattle-based most cancers analysis institute and $100 million to Dolly Parton’s basis.
By any affordable measure, Miguel and Jackie are nearly definitely billionaires at the moment. In 2018, it was estimated that they had been secretly price as a lot as $30 BILLION.
Think about this: For instance they diminished their 6% stake by 99%, leaving them with a 0.06% stake. At Amazon’s present market cap, that stake would nonetheless be price $1.5 billion at the moment.
Jackie and Miguel’s actual property purchases give a little bit of perception into their present wealth. Over two transactions in a single week in July 2022, they paid $80 million to buy two side-by-side waterfront estates in Coral Gables, Florida 🙂
Sadly, Jackie Bezos died on August 14, 2025, on the age of 78. A life very properly lived.
Oh, and one final thing – Jackie did finally understand her dream of graduating from faculty. After watching her youngsters go off to varsity, in 1984, Jackie went again to highschool once more. In 1986, she graduated. She was 40.
