“Alums of the Seattle-based giant, which employs 750,000 people, head companies including Tableau Software, Zulily Inc., Groupon Inc. and Simple, an online banking unit of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.”

“Many meetings start with 30 minutes of silence as everyone reads the same 6-page document. Employees pitching new products create fictional press releases to focus on the benefits to customers.”

Dana Matiolli, Wall Street Journal

Convoy, a digital freight network, has a “flywheel” business model similar to Amazon’s.

Of course, given the size of the alums network at such a large company as Amazon, it is quite perceptive to have a large incoming entrepreneurial class after incubating for 25 years.

Useful tip of the day: Chorus.ai a portfolio company of Redpoint Ventures, released today the State of Conversational Intelligence 2010 bench-marking report of sales team performance.

From it:

” the typical win rate of a sales qualified lead is 19%. “

” the average Sales Rep. dials 106 people to schedule one meeting. And the typical sales manager reviews only 8% of calls, but the best managers spend much more. “

You may wish to read that one.