Amazon founder and world’s third-richest man Jeff Bezos has had some of his early dating tactics unveiled which drew inspiration from Wall Street workflows and the coming dot-com boom.
As Jeff Bezos settles in for married life with recently-engaged partner Lauren Sanchez — investing in ‘billionaire bunker’ retirement properties and enjoying couples getaways in the Mediterranean — we stumbled across an interesting detail about Jeff Bezos’ historic dating tactics, as revealed in an old Insider article, that we thought deserved further investigation…
The article reveals a number of interesting facets of Bezos’ early life, including his obsession with Star Trek, his summers spent castrating bulls, and how he made the leap from hedge-fund IT guy to startup superhero, many of which are drawn from Brad Stone’s fascinating book The Everything Store.
But the one story that really caught our eye, especially given Bezos’ recent engagement and generally love-up aura, were his carefully considered dating tactics: Bezos, taking inspiration from the way Wall Street bankers aim to systematically increase their “deal flow”, looked to systematically increase his “women flow”.
WATCH: Is Bezos’ $700m superyacht that he shares with fiance Sanchez a testament to his success?
Why Bezos Hit The Dancefloor
Bezos approached meeting women in a wholly analytic fashion, which makes some sense given his status as a recently graduated Computer Science major, who not only had the analytic brain and framework already in place but likely found himself in a male-dominated environment for much of his studies.
So, after much consideration, what did the young Bezos decide would on as his sex-life silver bullet? In a move that seemed to pre-empt the success of Dancing With The Stars, he decided on ballroom dancing as the key skill to master if he wanted to meet women and boost his dating confidence.
While Bezos may not have met his first wife Mackenzie Tuttle as a result of his dancing classes — instead meeting her through his work at D.E. Shaw — the fact he found love in the months and years following his dance lessons proves he may have been onto something.
A Romantic Life Of Two Parts
However, the fact that this marriage to Tuttle eventually fell apart more than two decades later suggests that ballroom dancing may only be able to take you so far. While we’re yet to find out whether Bezos’ dancing skills played any part in his ability to woo new boo Lauren Sanchez, we’ve got a sneaking-if-cynical suspicion that once you have a net worth of $150 billion USD, finding love may get a little easier.
In saying that, we don’t mean to undermine the very real connection that Sanchez and Bezos seem to share. Not only has Bezos invested in a $700 million USD superyacht for the pair to enjoy — complete with a bust that looks suspiciously like Sanchez — but their recent star-studded engagement party suggests they’re feeling more loved-up than ever.
Whether you think that Bezos’ analytic approach to dating represents a legend of the game cutting his teeth or a proto-incel approach to romance that puts playing the marketplace at the centre of dating strategies is very much a matter of debate. Regardless, Bezos seems to have found his happiness and, for now, that’s good enough for us.