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.