Call it a coincidence, but over the past few days I have spent a lot of time with folks who used to work for Amazon but are now out doing new things. It all started with Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, who was a keynote speaker at our NewTeeVee Live conference. Then last night I met with Dave Schapell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet, an e-marketplace for teachers. And this morning I had coffee with Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilo.

My buddy Dave McClure was the one who pointed out that they are all part of the Ex-Amazon club. Just like the rising number of ex-Google entrepreneurs I wrote about last year, these guys are leaving top jobs at one of the best technology companies in the U.S. Here is a list of just some of those names, their current companies and their previous positions at the e-tailer:

• -Jeff Holden, CEO and co-founder, Pelago (Amazon consumer web sites)
• -Michael Sha, co-founder, WikInvest (Amazon Payments)
• -Dave Schappell, CEO and founder, TeachStreet (Misc.)
• -Vikas Gupta, co-founder, Jambool (Amazon Flexible Payment Systems)
• -Reza Hussein, co-founder, Jambool (Mechanical Turk)
• -Jeff Lawson, co-founder, Twilio (Amazon Web Services)
• -Keith Schorsch, CEO and founder, Trusera (Misc.)

Plus Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu (Amazon Marketplace)

Now this isn’t even a comprehensive list, and slowly and surely, it is expanding. The easy availability of capital in Seattle certainly helps, but more importantly it speaks to the amount of top-quality talent that Amazon has been able to attract over the years. Lawson, who stopped by for a cup of tea this morning to pitch his company, Twilio, said that one of Amazon’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to recruit and hire great minds.

It is because of this hiring policy that the company has not only stayed ahead of the technology curve, but established itself as the leader in Web 2.0 innovation. That’s in stark contrast to other tech giants such as Yahoo and Google, which have instead taken their cues from small startups. For talented people, the allure of working with Jeff Bezos can be what clinches the deal, according to Schappell of TeachStreet, which counts Bezos Expeditions as one of its investors. His company has essentially developed a place where you can go to find things like a French teacher, or someone to give you trombone lessons. I like to call it the Yellow Pages with brains, and it’s the kind of service a company like eBay should have launched instead of mucking around with things like Skype.

Those who know Bezos well say that he isn’t afraid of losing and wants to win big — and that means making big bets. This “nothing-in-the-middle” attitude is particularly attractive to folks with an entrepreneurial gene.

Of course, it also has its downside. Bezos’ big-play approach frustrates those who want to unleash small ideas, and nurture them over a period of time. Eventually some great people couldn’t live within the corporate structure of Amazon and went on to do their own thing. Like Lawson, who until recently was the CTO of Stubhub before starting Twilio, a company that has developed an easy way for web application developers to add voice capabilities to their offerings using standard web-programming techniques.

Should Amazon be worried about this brain drain? Absolutely not, for the company continues to attract talent the way lights attracts moths. I’ve often wondered what Amazon would do next, and I have a few ideas as to where I think they’re going. Someday I’ll blog about that, too.

Check out my video interview with Jeff Bezos.

Call it a coincidence, but over the past few days I have spent a lot of time with folks who used to work for Amazon but are now out doing new things. It all started with Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, who was a keynote speaker at our NewTeeVee Live conference. Then last night I met with Dave Schapell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet, an e-marketplace for teachers. And this morning I had coffee with Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilo.

My buddy Dave McClure was the one who pointed out that they are all part of the Ex-Amazon club. Just like the rising number of ex-Google entrepreneurs I wrote about last year, these guys are leaving top jobs at one of the best technology companies in the U.S. Here is a list of just some of those names, their current companies and their previous positions at the e-tailer:

• -Jeff Holden, CEO and co-founder, Pelago (Amazon consumer web sites)
• -Michael Sha, co-founder, WikInvest (Amazon Payments)
• -Dave Schappell, CEO and founder, TeachStreet (Misc.)
• -Vikas Gupta, co-founder, Jambool (Amazon Flexible Payment Systems)
• -Reza Hussein, co-founder, Jambool (Mechanical Turk)
• -Jeff Lawson, co-founder, Twilio (Amazon Web Services)
• -Keith Schorsch, CEO and founder, Trusera (Misc.)

Plus Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu (Amazon Marketplace)

Now this isn’t even a comprehensive list, and slowly and surely, it is expanding. The easy availability of capital in Seattle certainly helps, but more importantly it speaks to the amount of top-quality talent that Amazon has been able to attract over the years. Lawson, who stopped by for a cup of tea this morning to pitch his company, Twilio, said that one of Amazon’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to recruit and hire great minds.

It is because of this hiring policy that the company has not only stayed ahead of the technology curve, but established itself as the leader in Web 2.0 innovation. That’s in stark contrast to other tech giants such as Yahoo and Google, which have instead taken their cues from small startups. For talented people, the allure of working with Jeff Bezos can be what clinches the deal, according to Schappell of TeachStreet, which counts Bezos Expeditions as one of its investors. His company has essentially developed a place where you can go to find things like a French teacher, or someone to give you trombone lessons. I like to call it the Yellow Pages with brains, and it’s the kind of service a company like eBay should have launched instead of mucking around with things like Skype.

Those who know Bezos well say that he isn’t afraid of losing and wants to win big — and that means making big bets. This “nothing-in-the-middle” attitude is particularly attractive to folks with an entrepreneurial gene.

Of course, it also has its downside. Bezos’ big-play approach frustrates those who want to unleash small ideas, and nurture them over a period of time. Eventually some great people couldn’t live within the corporate structure of Amazon and went on to do their own thing. Like Lawson, who until recently was the CTO of Stubhub before starting Twilio, a company that has developed an easy way for web application developers to add voice capabilities to their offerings using standard web-programming techniques.

Should Amazon be worried about this brain drain? Absolutely not, for the company continues to attract talent the way lights attracts moths. I’ve often wondered what Amazon would do next, and I have a few ideas as to where I think they’re going. Someday I’ll blog about that, too.

Check out my video interview with Jeff Bezos.

centerimg src="http://www.saidthegramophone.com/images/erin_190.jpg" alt="Erin, by 'Ghost Daughter'"/center a href="http://www.gramotunes.com/Mayo_Thompson_Dear_Betty_Baby.mp3"Mayo Thompson - "Dear Betty Baby"/a. Mayo Thompson grabbed his stetson, his ratty tweed jacket, and he headed to the library. "Hey kitty," he said to the first librarian he found. "Happy Tuesday." "Can I help you?" she said. "You know what it is: show me to the phonebooks." It was 1970 and the librarian showed Mayo Thompson to the phonebooks. He hung up his stetson on the corner of a bookcase and draped his jacket over the back of a chair. He unfastened the top button of his shirt. "Ma'am," he said to the librarian, "I am thanking you." Then Mayo Thompson started hefting telephone directories from the shelves, stacking them on one of the broad tables. He chose the phonebooks for Glasgow, Istanbul, Cannes, Lisbon, Reykjavik, Alexandria, Sydney, Heraklion, Cape Town, Brasilia, Halifax. Set in a pillar on the table they reached to the ceiling. Then Mayo Thompson scratched his knee and sat down. He started going through the phonebooks, one after another, looking for something. He was looking for the mailing address of the dawn. A little while later the librarian came back. She had fallen in love with Mayo Thompson during their brief encounter. "Hello," she said shyly. "Yo bluefin," he said, not looking up. He closed one phonebook and extruded another from the stack. The librarian waited for a while. She was wearing a serious felt dress, blue with faint polka-dots. Mayo Thompson finally lifted his eyes. "Oh, hey," he said. "What are you looking for?" she asked. "A long lost family member?" "Need an address for the dawn," Mayo Thompson said. "Want 'em to play horns on my new album." "Sorry?" said the librarian. "It's a solo record," he explained. "Songs by me. Love songs and work songs and not-love songs. Poetry set swinging." "No," said the librarian, "what do you mean 'the dawn'?" "Mornings, roosters, light," Mayo Thompson said. "Is Dawn your sweetheart?" "Wish she was." He squinted at the librarian. "Oh," he said at last, seeing the lustre in her eyes. "No, not a bird called Dawn, some blondie. No. IThe/i dawn. Daybreak. Aurora. Sunrise. Sunup." "Like, the sun?" she said. "Yeah. Like the sun." "I think it lives in California," she said. "It's for a song called 'Dear Betty Baby,'" he explained. They found dawn listed at a San Diego address. "Honey!" Mayo Thompson explained. He tore the page from the phonebook. The librarian didn't say anything, just squeezed her fists at her sides. "I gotta go write a letter," he said. "I'm about to go on break," she replied. Mayo Thompson grabbed his hat and jacket and made his way from the reference section, phonebook-page held in his teeth. The librarian scampered after him, grabbing her clutch from behind the Returns desk. She had to run to keep up with his long jeaned legs. He crossed 4th and dashed across 9th and stopped traffic on 1st. She was at his heels. Finally Mayo Thompson headed into a typewriter store. He gave the librarian his hat and jacket to hold. He peered at the Smith Corona "Electra" demonstration typewriter and smoothed out the dawn's address. Then he started typing a letter, pecking each key with his right middle finger. "What are you doing?" asked the librarian, her arms full of ratty tweed and stetson. "Writing a letter to the dawn. Asking 'em if they want to play horns on my new album." "Trumpet?" "That kind of thing. Trumpet, French horn, trombone." "Why?" "'s what the song needs," he said. "Shush a second." He stood staring at the keys. "What's another word for 'sweet'?" "Sugared." "Sugared. Dig." He continued typing. "Couldn't you just get some musicians to play the part?" "Sure. Session musicians flockin'. But this is different. This needs sunrise on horns. Needs it." He typed a row of Ix/i's at the end, just to hear the typewriter go Iding/i. "Sugared," he said. Mayo Thompson unscrolled the letter from the "Electra". He took his hat back from the librarian and tipped it to the typewriter salespeople. Then he winked at the librarian. "C'mon," he said. "What next?" she asked as they crossed 15th. "I need stamps." "I got stamps." He stopped in the middle of the street. "You do?" "Yes," she said. "At my flat." She took him back to her apartment. They rode the tiny elevator in silence. Mayo Thompson smelled of straw and tangerines. Her keys glinted when she lifted them to the lock. Inside the apartment she pointed at a small armoire. "They're in there, at the top." Mayo Thompson opened the armoire, ran his hand along the smooth of the wood. Behind him the librarian slipped out of her dress. [a href="http://www.dragcity.com/catalog/records/dc49.html"buy/a] --- Elsewhere: A a href="http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39145"long interview/a with Spike Jonze about his forthcoming iWhere the Wild Things Are/i film, scripted by Dave Eggers. small[a href="http://ghostdaughter.com/190.html"photo source/a]/smallimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/saidthegramophone/stg/~4/459719408" height="1" width="1"/