Jay S. Walker
Jay S. Walker is a prominent entrepreneur best known for founding Priceline.com, an innovative e-commerce platform that transformed the travel industry by allowing consumers to set their own prices for goods and services. Born on November 5, 1955, in Yonkers, New York, he grew up in a family influenced by his mother's entrepreneurial spirit and his father’s real estate background. Walker's early ventures included a failed newspaper business while studying at Cornell University, but he persisted in the entrepreneurial arena throughout the 1980s and 1990s, founding various companies.
His most significant success came with Priceline.com, which opened in 1998 and quickly became a major player in online travel bookings, leveraging a unique buyer-driven commerce model. Despite initial triumphs, the company faced challenges during the dot-com bust, leading to a significant drop in stock value and personal losses for Walker. Nevertheless, he continued to innovate through his company, Walker Digital, and later co-founded ApiJect Systems Corporation, focusing on medical technology.
Walker is also known for his personal interests, including a collection of rare books and artifacts, and his private library, which hosts various scholars and leaders. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship and remains an influential figure in business and motivational speaking.
Subject Terms
Jay S. Walker
Entrepreneur and inventor
- Born: November 5, 1955
- Place of Birth: Yonkers, New York
Primary Company/Organization: Priceline
Introduction
Jay S. Walker built a sizable fortune as the founder of numerous internet-based start-up companies. His most recognized accomplishment was the founding of the e-commerce site Priceline.com, for which he served as vice chair until 2001. The site revolutionized both the travel industry and digital commerce in general through its introduction and popularization of buyer-driven commerce, a marketing tool that allows consumers to set their own price for goods and services and be matched with suitable companies.
Early Life
Jay Scott Walker was born to Arthur and Jeanette Walker on November 5, 1955, in Yonkers, New York, where he was also raised. His father was a real estate developer. Walker cited his mother, who had escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe as a child, as the role model for his entrepreneurial drive. He also cited inventor Thomas Edison as an early hero. Walker began developing his business skills as a teenager, working as a door-to-door salesman and newspaper deliveryman. In high school, he participated in student government, learning leadership skills as a representative during meetings between the city and local teacher's union. He graduated from high school in 1973 and began attending Cornell University.
During his course of study, Walker briefly left Cornell to begin his first entrepreneurial enterprise, launching a weekly Ithaca, New York, newspaper known as the Midweek Observer. However, the Gannett Company, which owned the local daily paper, soon put Walker out of business. This first failed enterprise left him with a debt reported to be between $150,000 and $250,000. He returned to Cornell, receiving a bachelor's degree in industrial relations in 1977.
Walker and Jeffrey Lehman coauthored a book about winning strategies for the Parker Brothers board game Monopoly in 1975, bringing about a lawsuit from Parker Brothers that the company later dropped. Walker's first job after graduation was as research director of the Connecticut-based Folio Publishing Corporation, which produced the publishing industry trade journal Folio. He settled in Connecticut and held the job until 1984. After leaving Folio, Walker decided to reenter the entrepreneurial ranks.
Life's Work
Walker founded a series of companies in the 1980s and 1990s. The first, Visual Technologies Corporation, based in Glenbrook, Connecticut, lost more than $5 million and went bankrupt selling mail-order interactive glass sculptures through the Sharper Image company. Walker served as its president in 1984 and 1985. The Catalog Media Corporation, founded in Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1985, sold advertising space in catalogs and promoted bookstore sales of catalogs. These ultimately unsuccessful ideas, coupled with a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by Trans World Airlines, led to the company's end in 1988. Walker cofounded NewSub Services with Michael Loeb in 1991. The company, which later changed its name to Synapse Group, successfully pioneered the use of credit card companies as a base through which to sell magazine subscriptions. Walker also cofounded the publishing company Target Communications. Media conglomerate Time Warner purchased Synapse, and another media company, Primedia, purchased Target Communications.
Walker next founded Walker Digital LLC, his longest-running company, in 1994. A business research and development company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, the company specialized in the development of new business models and systems that utilize digital technology, such as the internet. Walker served as the company's chair and CEO beginning in 2000, establishing its corporate vision as well as taking a lead role in business systems development. The company noted that under Walker's leadership it created and patented hundreds of business systems spanning a wide range of industries.
Walker Digital patented many of its innovative business models, ensuring its profitability from the granting of exclusive licenses to other companies. (Some industry observers criticized this practice as a form of patent trolling.) Walker Digital launched numerous affiliated operating companies, including Walker Digital Management, Walker Digital Gaming, Walker Digital Table Systems, Walker Digital Lottery, and Walker Digital Vending. The company also licensed its models to other, nonaffiliated companies of all sizes in order to maintain its core commitment to research and development as opposed to operations. The company maintained close relationships with many of its licensees.
Walker and his company achieved their biggest success with the 1997 founding of Priceline.com in Norwalk, Connecticut. Priceline was one of the most successful of the hundreds of e-commerce companies that were founded during the so-called dot-com boom of the 1990s. Its business model was representative of Walker's concern with the development of innovative selling methods rather than innovative products. The site applied the public use of buyer-driven internet commerce (e-commerce), which allowed customers to name the price they were willing to pay for certain goods and services, to the travel industry. Those customers were then matched to companies willing to accept the offered price. Bill Perell of the San Francisco-based company Marketel had introduced the model but had quickly gone out of business. Walker was able to acquire the model and apply it to internet commerce. The company received a US patent for its buyer-driven commerce model in 1998, making it the first US-patented business model.
Priceline opened for business in 1998 and its stock went public in 1999. Walker partnered with airlines to offer the site's first product, unsold airline tickets. The idea was successful for both parties, as airlines were able to sell open seats while customers received discounted fares. The site soon branched out to include hotel rooms and car rentals. Walker also proved his marketing talent as the creative force behind the hiring of popular former Star Trek actor William Shatner as the site's spokesman. The company's stock was soon trading at a high of more than $160 per share, while the company was valued at close to $12 billion. It was also one of the fastest-growing start-up businesses in US history in terms of annual sales. Walker himself also made billions, helping to finance a lavish lifestyle and winning him national recognition as one of the world's leading internet entrepreneurs.
Priceline's initial profitability did not last, as most customers found their offered prices rejected and the company was forced to subsidize losses on those discounted products, such as airline tickets, that were sold. Customers also had to be willing to accept company terms, such as flights at inconvenient times. Walker had also launched the affiliate Priceline WebHouse Club, Inc., selling his stock in Priceline to raise the necessary capital. Priceline WebHouse Club sought to apply the buyer-driven commerce business model to the gasoline and grocery industries, but ultimately it failed because it was unable to meet technological challenges and overwhelming public demand. The affiliate lost billions of dollars. Both companies were also victims of the dot-com bust of the early 2000s. Priceline's stock price dropped from a high of more than $160 per share to just a few dollars per share. Walker and the company lost billions.
Former Citicorp president Richard Braddock was hired as Priceline chairman and CEO, and the company later regained its profitability. Walker resigned his vice chairmanship of Priceline and sold his stocks in 2001, returning to Walker Digital. This company continued to develop new business models and oversee its various affiliated operating companies, listing more than 100 million customers and billions in revenue. Walker also continued to have business setbacks. In 2003, he unsuccessfully sought federal funding for US Home Guard, a proposed national security system based on paying citizens an hourly wage to conduct internet surveillance.
In 2018, with Marc Koska, Walker cofounded ApiJect Systems Corporation, a medical technology company that creates single-use plastic injections. As of 2024, Walker was the exective chair of the company and its chief executive officer (CEO).
Personal Life
Walker married Eileen McManus on April 18, 1982. The couple had two children, Evan and Lindsey, and settled in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Walker's hobbies included collecting books, artifacts, space memorabilia, and fine wines, as well as photography. Walker's extensive personal collection of rare books and historical artifacts formed the basis for the Walker Library of the History of Human Imagination, built in Ridgefield in 2002. The private library hosts global leaders and scholars from a variety of fields. Walker also became a licensed pilot, a skill he acquired in college.
Walker became a popular public speaker in the fields of business, technology, and motivational speaking. His awards and recognitions have included Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year (1998), Target Marketing magazine's Direct Marketer of the Year (1998), and the Yonkers Legend Award (2002). He has been cited as a leading internet pioneer by Time, Businessweek, and Newsweek magazines. He was a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity and served as the chairman of its board of directors from 1988 to 1990. Walker served as a member of numerous organizations, including the World Information Transfer, an organization associated with the United Nations. He is a member of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference series and the chairman of TEDMED, which facilitates discussions on health and medicine.
Bibliography
Elkind, Peter. "The Hype Is Really, Really Big at Priceline." Fortune 6 Sept. 1999: 193. Print.
Ericksen, Gregory K. Net Entrepreneurs Only: Ten Entrepreneurs Tell the Stories of Their Success. New York: Wiley, 2000. Print.
Price, Christopher. The Internet Entrepreneurs: Business Rules Are Good; Break Them. London: FT.com, 2000. Print.
Raju, Jagmohan Singh, and Z. John Zhang. Smart Pricing: How Google, Priceline, and Leading Businesses Use Pricing Innovation for Profitability. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2010. Print.
Rust, Roland T., Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Katherine N. Lemon. Driving Customer Equity: How Customer Lifetime Value Is Reshaping Corporate Strategy. New York: Free, 2000. Print.