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A collapsing stock price can make it look like a company is falling apart. Amazon AMZN founder Jeff Bezos says that’s exactly when founders need to pay the least attention to the market—and the most attention to the business they’re building.
Speaking at Italian Tech Week 2025, Bezos reflected on the dot-com crash, when Amazon’s stock plunged from $113 per share to $6 per share in just a few months.
"Shareholders were upset, employees were nervous…this was the environment of great nervousness," Bezos said.
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The Market Was Falling, the Business Wasn’t
While investors focused on Amazon’s declining stock price, Bezos said the company’s underlying business kept moving in the opposite direction.
"I looked at the numbers in the business," Bezos said. "Every month the number of customers went up, every month. Our gross profits went up every month…every single business metric…kept getting better."
That experience shaped one of the biggest lessons of his career. Short-term market swings don’t always reflect what’s happening inside a business.
Build a ‘Heavy Company’
For founders, Bezos said the priority should never be trying to manage a company’s stock price.
"The fundamentals of the business, as entrepreneurs, you’re focused on the fundamentals of the business," Bezos said. "The stock price is an output, an ultimate output that you actually have very little control over."
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He pointed to legendary investor Benjamin Graham’s well-known observation that markets eventually reward businesses with real value.
"Benjamin Graham is famous for saying in the short term the stock market is a voting machine; in the long term it’s a weighing machine," Bezos continued. "Our job is to build a heavy company. We do not want to focus on the stock price."
For Bezos, lasting businesses are built by serving customers and improving operations—not by reacting to daily moves on Wall Street.
Why Optimism Still Wins
Bezos also addressed comparisons between today’s artificial intelligence boom and the dot-com era.
He said speculative periods often finance both successful and unsuccessful companies, but they can also leave behind infrastructure that continues benefiting society long after the excitement fades. He pointed to the fiber-optic networks built during the internet boom as one example.
Even with that perspective, Bezos said founders can’t lose their optimism.
"Entrepreneurs need to be optimistic almost to the point of delusion."
He added that advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and space exploration have created extraordinary opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to think long term and continue building through uncertainty.
See Also: Apple Thinks Spatial Computing Is The Future. This Private Company Is Building The Workplace To Match.
Looking for Builders
Bezos’ advice also offers a framework for investors. Rather than chasing companies after they’ve become market leaders, some investors prefer backing founders who are still focused on building businesses with lasting value.
One example is Miso Robotics, a startup developing AI-powered kitchen automation technology for the restaurant industry. The company is currently raising capital, giving everyday investors an opportunity to invest before a potential public offering.
Amazon survived one of the biggest stock collapses of the dot-com era and went on to become one of the world’s most valuable companies. Bezos’ message to today’s founders is that the same principle still applies: build a company with strong fundamentals, stay optimistic and let the market catch up over time.
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Building Wealth Across More Than Just the Market
Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That’s why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn’t tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry.
Arrived
Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors can buy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly.
Realberry
Institutional-quality real estate has traditionally been difficult for individual investors to access. Realberry gives accredited investors direct access to private real estate opportunities backed by a team with 35 years of experience, $3.4 billion in assets under management, and $481 million in cumulative distributions paid to investors as of Q4 2025, according to the company. With a portfolio spanning 13 million square feet across seven U.S. states, Realberry focuses on acquiring, developing, and managing real estate with an emphasis on long-term value creation while its principals often invest alongside clients to help align interests.
FarmTogether
Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors, FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000 — fully managed, with no landlord headaches.
Immersed
Immersed is building technology for the future of work through spatial computing. Known for its AR/VR productivity platform that enables users to work across multiple virtual screens, the company has grown to more than 1.5 million users worldwide. Immersed is also developing Visor, a lightweight headset designed specifically for professional productivity, positioning the company at the intersection of remote work, extended reality (XR), and next-generation computing.
Fundrise
Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio. Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth.
Mode Mobile
Mode Mobile is changing the way people interact with their phones by letting users earn money from the same apps and activities they already use every day. Instead of platforms keeping all the advertising revenue, Mode Mobile shares a portion back with users who engage with content, play games, and scroll on their devices. Named one of Deloitte’s fastest-growing software companies in North America, the company has built a large beta user base and is scaling a model that turns everyday smartphone usage into a potential income stream.
EquityMultiple
For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000, with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process.
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This article Jeff Bezos Says Amazon Stock Plunged From $113 to $6 — Founders Should Build a ‘Heavy Company’ and Stay Optimistic ‘Almost to the Point of Delusion’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com.
