His LinkedIn account says that the occupation is "Philanthropy". That probably means he has more than enough to retire. :D

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelkaphan

You could just look him up in the S-1 to answer the question.

I have talked to him a couple of times and although I have no idea what the sum is yes, he made enough over the years to retire.

Thats cool.

His agreement stipulated that he had ISOs for 709,568 shares at a strike price of $.001471.

http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/filing.ashx?filingid=3847...

"This Amended and Restated Incentive Stock Option Letter Agreement (this "Agreement") amends and supersedes paragraph 2(c) of the Employment Agreement between you and the Company dated October 24, 1994, regarding the grant to you of a stock option (the "Option") for the purchase of 709,568 shares (the "Option Shares") of the Common Stock of Amazon.com, Inc., a Delaware corporation (the "Company") at an exercise price of $.001471 per share (reflects stock split effected on November 23, 1996)."

And each of those shares has split into 12 today, so I think he's probably doing alright for himself.

Unquestionably! Lets say he had a typical 5%, no conservatively lets guess 1%. So 1% of 366 billion! Let you do the math. On the other hand if he had 10% which would not be unreasonable, he would be very rich.

A quote from a 2011 Geekwire article. " Jeff was working on it full-time already, and his wife, Mackenzie, was writing checks every once in a while. But that was it. I didn’t get founder’s stock."

0. http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-empl...

Nope.

http://www.secinfo.com/dr6nd.818y.s.htm#1stPage

http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-empl...

"So, after five years were up — and my stock was all vested — I probably would have left a little earlier if that had not been the issue.

So, did you hang on to all of the shares because Amazon hit a rough patch just after you left?

“I don’t know what the effect on morale inside the company was since I wasn’t there. But I did do a lot of selling during those times, because from the outside, without knowing what was going on inside the company anymore, I didn’t know if it was going to be a casualty of that era or not, so I cashed out quite a bit of my position. But I did hold on to some of it, and I continue to.”"

Probably between 1 and 2%, I would guess. Some of which he cashed out when the stock was at a low. So between what his current shares are worth now and what he cashed out, probably at least $100 million.

EDIT: His foundation has $53 million in assets, so that should give an idea...

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/651/65121...

Looks like you are right. I didn't see that part as I didn't notice it was a 4 page article.

A lot of money to be sure, but he'd have an order of magnitude or two more if he were the last cofounder instead of the first employee.

Well, he was given the option to put up some money with Jeff at the beginning and declined. I'm guessing that would have doubled his eventual stake...

It was all done on a threadbare budget. At first Bezos backed the company himself with $10,000 in cash, and over the next sixteen months, he would finance the startup with an additional $84,000 in interest-free loans, according to public documents. Kaphan’s contract required him to commit to buying $5,000 of stock upon joining the company. He passed on the option to buy an additional $20,000 in shares, since he was already taking a 50 percent pay cut to work at the startup and would, like Bezos, earn only $64,000 a year. “The whole thing seemed pretty iffy at that stage,” says Kaphan, who some consider an Amazon cofounder. “There wasn’t really anything except for a guy with a barking laugh building desks out of doors in his converted garage, just like he’d seen in my Santa Cruz home office. I was taking a big risk by moving and accepting a low salary and so even though I had some savings, I didn’t feel comfortable committing more than I did.”

(From "The Everything Store")

No founders stock doesn't imply no stock of any type.

So I got down voted on this for WHAT reason?

Maybe because you are just guessing. Anyone can do that.

I find there is a huge difference between the guess of people with knowledge, and people who are pulling things out of their ass. Considering I have held a number of CTO jobs, my guess'es are much better then most peoples.