Before Amazon became the giant it is today, before AWS powered half the internet, and before Jeff Bezos was one of the richest people in the world — he was just a guy on a roadshow, pitching investors on a big idea.

And in April 1997, Boston-based Nepali tech entrepreneur Sanjay Manandhar sat across from Bezos for about a 45-minute conversation — and what he heard changed how he thought about technology forever.

“My Friend’s Uncle Has a Bookstore...”

At the time, Bezos was preparing Amazon to go public and was meeting with potential investors.

Sanjay, who was working in investment and tech, booked a 45-minute time slot to meet with him.

Right before the meeting, a fund manager joked:

“My uncle has a bookstore too. How is this guy any different?”

Gif by hallmarkmystery on Giphy

So Sanjay asked that very question.

And Bezos smiled and replied:

“We’re not an online bookstore. We’re a technology company.”

That answer caught Sanjay’s attention.

A Visionary Before the World Knew His Name

In that meeting, Bezos laid out his vision clearly:

  • 80% of Amazon’s employees were engineers, building software — because that was Amazon’s intellectual property (IP).

  • They would license their tech to other companies, like Target — even though Target barely saw Amazon as a real competitor back then.

  • They didn’t need warehouses or inventory. Books were just a database.

  • And most importantly: “Why stop at books?” If they could sell books online, they could sell anything.

Bezos also said something bold that stuck with Sanjay:

“We’ll make some big bets. Some will fail. But some will be amazing successes.”

One of those bets? AWS (Amazon Web Services) — which today powers massive parts of the internet.

“He Was Thinking in Decades”

Sanjay left the meeting deeply inspired. Bezos didn’t sound like a startup founder just trying to sell books — he was already thinking years ahead, about technology, infrastructure, and scale.

Later, Sanjay even wrote a full Medium article about this meeting( CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VIEW.)

Why It Still Matters

This wasn’t just a meeting — it was a moment where a visionary explained the future before most people could see it.

For Sanjay, who had already brought the internet to Nepal using a satellite and a laptop, it was another reminder that big change starts with bold ideas — and the courage to think differently.

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