After 40 investors rejected Jeff Bezos’ Amazon pitch, his parents offered $245,573 of their retirement savings

Sometimes the best investments are more about a gut feeling than hard numbers. At least that holds true for Jeff Bezos’ parents, who bet on their son when few others would.

In 1995, a mere two years before Amazon would go public, and more than 30 years  before it would surpass Walmart to become the biggest company in the world (and clinchingMike Bezos recalled his son saying in a 2015 interview the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500 as a result), Bezos received a lifeline from his parents. 

According to a 1997 prospectus, his mother Jacklyn Gise Bezos, who died in 2025, and stepfather Miguel “Mike” Bezos, gave their son $245,573 from their savings so he could get his business off the ground. The six-figure sum represented a “large fraction” of their life savings at the time, according to Bezos, but it would eventually make them both billionaires. 

Yet, before he accepted his parents’ money, Bezos made it abundantly clear to them that they might never get it back.

“I want you to know how risky this is,” Mike Bezos recalled his son saying in a 2015 interview. “Because I want to come home at........

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