The first thing everyone notices about Jeff Bezos is the loud, infectious laugh that punctuates virtually his every sentence. The chief executive officer of Amazon.com, the world's largest e-tailer laughs at my jokes, laughs at his own jokes and even breaks into a hearty guffaw when his coffee turns up.
But he has good reason to have a smile on his face. He might not yet have made any profit - which e-tailer has? - yet his internet business, started with a $300,000 loan from his parents, is now worth over $1bn. He literally is laughing all the way to the bank.
He even manages to find a chuckle when I remind him that Amazon's shares were trading for twice as much at the end of 1999 as they are now.
Bezos is on a short trip to London to speak at the Digital World conference and, in many respects, his visit couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
The unbounded optimism surrounding the e-commerce industry that was so prevalent at the start of the year has now evaporated. And in some quarters Bezos' trip is seen as not just a short stopover for a leading businessman, but the arrival of the US Cavalry.
Although it's clear that he has no truck with any notions of being perceived as the elder spokesperson of the e-commerce industry, he's quite happy to rally the troops. "I am very confident about the future of e-commerce and especially Amazon," he exclaims. "E-commerce is going to be a much bigger deal than people expected, even at the peak of the optimism in 1999."
Quizzed about the current pessimism of the markets, and although he doesn't name names, Bezos has sharp words for some of his rival e-commerce ventures.
"It's clear now that there were certain companies that were over-hyped. They were focusing not on building a great business but on building stock, that never works.
"I think now US investors are more discriminating - they are looking more closely on how a business is likely to develop rather than how its stocks will fare."
I wondered what Bezos thought of the UK's own e-commerce industry and in particular its flagship, Lastminute.com, but he's keeping his opinions to himself. "If you say positive things about other websites they use it against you, while saying nasty things just isn't very nice."
Predictably Bezos moves the conversation back to his own British website Amazon.co.uk. "You know we have the biggest website in the UK don't you! Well do you know who our biggest competitor is?"
Before I have time to answer he's informed me that "Amazon.co.uk's biggest rival is none other than its US parent site Amazon.com" - cue the morning's heartiest chuckle so far.
Bezos has, in the past, been portrayed as a bit of a nerd with a passion for books and sleep. He certainly has a quirky side to his personality. Until the recent birth of his first child he lived in a small two-bedroom apartment in Seattle. He's also notorious in America for being the boss who encourages his employees to make their own desks. And yes he's famous for insisting that he gets eight hours sleep a night.
However, anyone expecting Amazon's CEO to be a hippiesque Ben and Jerry style businessman is way off the mark.
Strip away Bezos' comfortable shoes and casual shirt and you'll uncover a surprisingly old school entrepreneur clearly driven by a desire to make money.
Asked what advice he would give to college graduates keen to start their own e-business, he answers with a statement that seems completely at odds with the get-rich quick schemes that prevail in the UK's own Silicon Alley in Brick Lane, east London.
"I'd say to anyone who wants to run a successful e-commerce company - go out and get an education. Spend 5-10 years in a decent company and learn using someone else's dollars - only then will you be ready to go for it on you own."
And while he admits to being "completely passionate about books", Bezos argues that when setting up Amazon he chose his product category systematically.
"I had a list of around 10 products that I thought Amazon could sell. I chose books as there are so many different types of books available. I thought I would have an advantage over bookshops purely by the range of books I was able to offer. If it made sense to sell kayaks rather than books I would have sold kayaks."
Ironically, kayaks could soon be on the Amazon agenda. Although perceived largely as a book e-tailer in the UK, Amazon.co.uk mirrors its US counterpart in also offering CDs, DVDs and videos.
At the end of last year it added the Z stores to its portfolio offering Britons cheap cut-price deals on electronic hardware, toys and kitchen appliances. Bezos dreams of turning Amazon into the world's largest electronic shopping mall with a massive range of virtual shops selling everything from gadgets to dishwashers. In the US, the Amazon website regularly ships enormous TVs and massive tool kits - and, in spite of my cynicism, Bezos can't see any reason why he can't repeat that formula here.
"When people buy an enormous TV they don't just put it in the car at the shop and drive home, it has to be delivered. So I can't see why Britons won't buy large items from Amazon," he says. Very soon Amazon will move into same-day delivery of books and possibly other items in the UK. It has experiments up and running in London and hopes to expand the service to most major UK conurbations within a year. Bezos is a firm believer in the right of people in central locations to be able to order and receive smaller packages within two hours.
Of course, delivery costs will be a little more than a couple of his beloved Royal Mail stamps (he loves our postal service), but Bezos is confident that whether it be financial analysts requiring books for research, or simply forgetful businessmen ordering a last minute anniversary present for their wives, Britons will pay.
It's ironic that it's his consumers' insatiable demand for instant access to his products that could pose the biggest threat to Bezos's business.
In the future, online delivery of music via MP3 or video via broadband services could seriously eat into Amazon's future profit-margin. Then there's the growth of downloading books into personal organiser devices like the Palm.
Bezos doesn't seem overly concerned. His strategy involves embracing new technology - Amazon is one of the key players in the book download sector - while continuing with core businesses. Or as he puts it: "I'd like to see the day when they can email big power tools!" Another key element of Amazon's UK strategy centres around Wap phones. Bezos is no stranger to Wap phones and, while he fingers my model, admits to being a little jealous of the "fantastic phones you have in the UK which are far superior to the US ones".
Amazon was in on the Wap revolution from day one and is available on most internet phone services. Bezos believes that service will come into its own when phones are delivered with large screens.
He is also excited by the opportunities afforded by interactive TV.
"I see interactive TV as delivering to Amazon to the kind of customers who'd never buy a PC," he explains. "The key, though, is to offer the consumer what they want: full internet access. I have no time for these limited walled garden systems."
With Bezos about to tuck into his breakfast (he goes to work on an egg), I fired the two questions that I'd been itching to ask him from the start of the interview.
If you had to recommend one book to all Amazon's customers, what would it be?
Without hesitation Bezos names Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains Of The Day and seems genuinely disappointed when I reveal I haven't read it but have only seen the film. "Go back home and order a copy," he instructs. "You can get it from Amazon.co.uk!" Once again Bezos explodes into fits of laughter.
Finally I wondered if Bezos has any plans to do something special on the day Amazon finally makes a profit?
For a second the CEO of the world's biggest on-line retailer looks bemused. It's clearly something he's never really thought about, which does worry me slightly.
Just as I'm about to suggest that I think the big day should be celebrated by illuminating Seattle's famous Space Needle building, he gets called away. I'm gutted, because I reckon that line would have kept him chuckling all the way home.
