How did Amazon Prime start, according to former Amazon VP Ethan Evans?

Ethan Evans said Prime began as a pure fast-delivery program, with perks added later. Bezos saw a weak quarter coming after the dot-com crash and wanted good news, so the project was named Project 100 for its 100-day launch deadline. Engineer Charlie Ward claims he filed the idea in Amazon's internal Idea Tool, while Bezos also claims it. Earlier free-shipping tests had already found the order size where shipping paid for itself.

• Free shipping first required about a $100 order and settled for years at $25, the level that put two books, CDs or DVDs in one box.
• Bezos called it two-day delivery, not shipping, so Amazon could later deliver in one day without changing the promise.
• Evans said Jeff Wilke pushed back that shipping costs money, and Bezos replied that customers hate paying for it.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on My First Million (2026-10-28). Read the whole episode summary →

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