Category: Start Up Stories
GoDaddy (godaddy.com) was founded in 1997 as a web services company by Bob Parsons under the name Jomax Technologies. Three years earlier Parsons sold his financial software company to Intuit for $64 million. In 1999 Jomax changed its name to GoDaddy. The company started in Scottsdale, Arizona, and grew to several facilities operating in Washington DC, California, Colorado, Iowa, and India. Gaining Momentum Parsons created GoDaddy with an emphasis on security and customer support. He invested in high-tech systems to ensure the satisfaction of customers and prevent any abuses of the system. He also added various other services such as...
The ‘ship your enemies glitter’ is one of those crazy business ideas that many people are wondering what an idiot one should be to do something like this. This is one of those ideas that are not only weird and idiotic, but they are also working! And are working so coolly and smoothly, that nobody can believe their success. When I first read about Mathew Carpenter and his site’s story, I just said to myself WTF?!?! It was built around a simple dummy idea that was turned into a successful business in a matter of days… Ok, so here is...
Samuel Walton, born in 1918, opened his first discount stores in the 1940s and 1950s in Arkansas. In 1962 Samuel and his brother Bud Walton opened their first Walmart store based in Rogers, Arkansas. A dash was added to the logo in 1964, becoming Walmart. Within seven years they were running eighteen stores in locations including Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. In 1969 the chain officially became Walmart Stores, Inc. The following year the company issued stock to the public and entered the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. The business model was built on warehouses, where merchandise could be stored....
One day I was at the playground near our home with my little boy. So we headed towards there and when the toys appeared on the horizon I saw the flames in my son’s eyes. He couldn’t even wait till we got there. He rushed towards the playground and started jumping, climbing, sliding, and running all around the place. He was like a little toy with a pair of brand-new and fresh batteries installed. I said to myself ‘Wow..! This kid is running like crazy…’ And obviously, most of the kids there had the same attitude and behavior. We all...
Have you thought about utilizing the energy you burn while running and using it for producing an electricity for example? Well, the guys from Tremont Electric, a small startup in Cleveland, not only have thought about this, they have made it real. Their innovative product is called nPower PEG (PEG – personal electric generator) and it is a simple and highly effective generator. It captures some of the kinetic energy your body produces and transforms it into electricity. So, if your mobile phone is low on battery, you can have a walk in the park to recharge it. Or you...
When a young man with a childhood habit of collecting things like insects and stamps combined his passion for design with engineering skills, Pinterest was born. Ben Silberman along with his friends and colleagues Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp started the development of Pinterest in December 2009, and launched the site in March 2010, as a closed beta. This is not after Ben graduated from Yale in 2003, worked with Google in the sales organization department, and designed many iPhone apps which were never launched. Ben and his friends wanted to create a social platform that will allow people to...
The Confession App Everyone has sins… some have bigger, others have smaller. What else would be a greater business idea than taking advantage of this?!? Just brilliant, isn’t it? Your market would be simply all people from all around the world. Especially those that want to make a confession for their sins. This is what a small innovative company is making great business out of. It was founded by Patrick Leinen and it’s called Little i Apps . It is a small software business, they make mobile apps and one of their products provides a service helping you with the rite...
Back in 2005, Catherine Cook and her 2 years older brother Dave were spending a good time looking through their school yearbook. This was when technology was booming and this is how the idea of creating an online yearbook was born in their heads. They were just high school students, they had no business experience or knowledge. This is why they shared the idea with their older brother Geoff, who was already a successful Internet entrepreneur, and the founder of EssayEdge.com. The kids managed to convince him not only to help them, but also to invest a quarter of a...
Facebook and Twitter and a few other big social sharks have been dominating the social world for many, many years now. Big sites have become a part of the everyday life of so many people, that many think it’s impossible for a new player to come to the hood. Big players have established a solid oligopoly that’s nearly unbreakable. I thought so, too, but actually, this turned out to be an illusion. Innovation has always been the greatest fear of titans in business and this is what Ello.co, a brand new social network, employs to rush to the top. Ello...
Today you can see ads everywhere – on the TV, on this site, and on your way back home… Ads are literally everywhere, but I have never thought about this way of advertising – with drones. It’s simply genius. It’s definitely the type of ads that make a good impression and that are well remembered. Imagine that you are doing your work at the office and you see a strange flying thing inviting you to have a tasty lunch in the restaurant across the street. The drone comes exactly at lunchtime and inevitably grasps the attention even of the most...
