Category: Start Up Stories
Today you will hardly find a young person, who hasn’t heard about ‘Angry Birds‘, especially if she has a smartphone. This engaging mobile game has become one of the most popular on the market and has made millions of dollars for its creators – three young entrepreneurs who love games. But how has that happened? Here is how: Rovio Mobile LTD. Back in 2003, three young and crazy about computer games students attended the University of Technology in Helsinki. Their names were Kim Dikert, Niked Hed, and Jarno Vakevainen and one day their passion for games made them found a company under...
You probably have heard about 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, especially if you live in Canada or in the United States. The company is a multinational junk removal franchise founded back in 1989, in the city of Vancouver (Canada), by a guy named Brian Scudamore. The business started with just a $700 investment and is an established multi-million franchise today with more than 160 branches. Their startup story is pretty interesting, so here we decided to share it with you. The Story Of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Brian Scudamore was only 18 when one day he saw a junk truck in a drive-through at McDonald’s. This was...
A Short History Of MySpace and Founders Tom Anderson And Chris DeWolfe Oh, how the mighty have fallen. What was once the proving ground for social media has since become the punch line of many jokes. The history of MySpace.com is a tale of energetic innovation, risk, and ultimately, failure to capitalize. While some people believe that MySpace was the original social networking site, it is actually based on an existing model that was functionally successful for its time. In August of 2003, several employees of eUniverse, now called Intermix Media Inc, recognized the growing potential of a social networking...
Richard Branson‘s story is one of the must-reads for any starting entrepreneur. His life has been an amazing and profitable adventure that anyone can learn from. But first, let me drop a few words about him. Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is one of the richest people in the world, 4th by wealth in the UK. Currently, he is 64 and his net worth is estimated at around $4.6 billion. Branson is the founder and the manager of “Virgin Group Ltd.” – a venture capital conglomerate company located in Great Britain, consisting of more than 400 different businesses from around...
The world of finance completely shut its doors to Daniel Kan. During his senior year in college, Dan wanted nothing more than to become a financier. They all did some decent money, right? Everybody goes to finance… But of the 35 jobs he applied for, mainly in the lucrative finance world, he got 33 rejections. The two offers that he was left with were both not related to finance at all. One of the opportunities he received was for teaching English in Korea and the other – working for a startup. He opted for the opportunity to work with a...
A History of eBay.com eBay‘s origins lie in San Jose, California. On September 5th, 1995, the American computer programmer named Pierre Omidyar founded a personal auction website called – AuctionWeb. One of the first items that were sold on the site was a not working laser pointer, at the price of $14.83. Astonished, Pierre contacted the buyer and asked him if he really understood that the pointer he bought was actually broken. In the email in which the buyer responded, he wrote: “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.” Actually, eBay was just a side work for Pierre. One day...
In the beginning, a tiny garage in Palo Alto, California, where two young and determined men created unique and visionary products while instituting a style of business management that revolutionized business strategies forever. David Packard and William Hewlett graduated from Stanford in 1938, in the midst of the Great Depression era of unemployment. As Packard later reflected, “Bill and I were brought up in the Depression. We weren’t interested in the idea of making money. Our idea was if you couldn’t find a job, you’d make one for yourself.” And, so they did. Starting Up In 1938, Starting in a...
Did you know that many of the biggest Internet companies today were started in a garage? These multi-billion businesses had barely anything at the beginning, the most important thing for their success turned out to be simply a great business idea. Here are the stories of some of the most popular ‘garage start ups‘: Google The founders of one of the greatest Internet companies – Sergey Brin and Larry Page started the business in a small garage in California. They paid $1 700 monthly for the rent and spent there around 5 months. During that time, they actually created the...
Tencent (www.tencent.com) is one of China’s largest and most popular internet companies. It had its humble beginnings in November 1998 and since then has reached the zenith through years of hard work and client-friendly operating strategies. It was a big day for the company when it went public, as Tencent Holdings Limited was on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Tencent is bounded by its mission to improve the quality of human life through its different Internet services. The company is a one-stop center for mobile, telecom services, online advertising, and value-added Internet. The popular Internet platforms...
Baidu (www.baidu.com) is a company that provides public web services. It was established in January of 2000 and its headquarters are currently housed in the Haidian District of Bejing in China, on the Baidu Campus. The company offers a huge range of internet-related services, including a search engine that uses Chinese as its main language, for images, videos, and websites. It also provides a discussion forum for keywords, and an extensive online encyclopedia, like Wikipedia for the Chinese-speaking world. Baidu Inc. was created by two guys, named Eric Xu and Robin Li. Robin is the current chief executive and chairman...
