[3] In 1975, Kaphan began his career as a progammer at Information International, Inc., where he worked until he decided to finish his education at UC Santa Cruz in 1978.
[2]: 29 In a 2011 interview, Kaphan said that Bezos made a good first impression and came across as a "really intelligent and focused person [...] who was going to be able to make whatever he got involved with into a success."
[3] He was initially skeptical about Amazon's ability to succeed[2]: 32 and reluctant to leave his long-time residence of Santa Cruz, but Bezos convinced him to move to Seattle and hired him as Vice President of Research and Development.
As a celebration of Kaphan's four-year anniversary with the company, Bezos surprised him by planning a weekend vacation in Hawaii for him and his family.
[3][5] However, he changed his mind in 2019 upon reading Roger McNamee's exposé Zucked, and decided he had a responsibility to speak up and publicly air his grievances.
[7] In February 2020, Kaphan was interviewed as part of an episode of the PBS program Frontline, in which he stated, "I am proud of what [Amazon] became, but it also scares me."
[1][7][8][9] He also expressed concerns that Amazon is not interested in adding necessary oversight to its services, specifically criticizing their Ring doorbell cameras for sharing video with police.