Jeff Bezos Still Uses One of the Famous Amazon 'Door Desks' From the '90s — Here's Why Lauren Sánchez posted then-and-now photos of her fiancé hard at work.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos is reminded of his roots every day.
On Sunday, Bezos' fiancé, Lauren Sánchez, shared a photo on Instagram of the Amazon founder working at his desk, coupled with a second photo that shows him at the same desk years ago.
It turns out, Bezos still uses one of the same desks from the early days at Amazon.
"When I walked in on him working this morning, I took this picture. I just love that he is still working from one of the first desks that have been around since the beginning," Sanchez penned. "This is where countless hours of hard work meet the heart of Day one. Here's to the endless pursuit of what's possible."
Related: Jeff Bezos' Meeting Agenda: No Slideshows, 'Two Pizza Rule'
Bezos famously founded Amazon as an online book retailer from his garage in 1994. When he started hiring employees for the company, he went across the street to Home Depot and made "door desks" for employees to use — a.k.a. desks with surfaces that were just constructed door panels.
Amazon says thousands of employees around the world still use modern-day versions of Bezos' original ingenious design.
"We built door desks because it was the cheapest way we could support a desk," Amazon's fifth-ever employee, Nico Lovejoy, said in a company blog post five years ago. "A lot of the things that we do are scrappy by nature. So long as the scrappy solution works."
The door desk has become such a staple in Amazon culture that the company even gives out a Door Desk Award, meant to represent the company's core values of frugality and creativity.
However, Lovejoy maintained that though the idea was brilliant, Bezos might want to stick to business.
"You would never want to hire Jeff Bezos as a carpenter," Lovejoy wrote. "He's much better at other things. I think he'd tell you the same thing."
Amazon was up over 60% year over year as of Monday afternoon.
