Buving and selling on the Internet Mike Gore, the founder of Booksandstuff.com, began his career as a software each engineer. In the mid-1990s, he saw that Internet use was growing at a phenomenal rate a year. He saw this a great business opportunity. He relocated to where there was large pool of technical know-how and, since the company began in 1996, it has generated billions of dollars in profits. Booksandstuffs customer base has grown to well over 30 million. The company has changed the way we do business.