Entrepreneurship involves a lot of hard work. There is no easy way out to be successful. One just has to start somewhere because ideas and opportunities don’t just materialize out of thin air.
Here are eight stories you’ve probably never heard about these famous companies.
The Pierre Omidyar way. In 1995, a computer programmer started auctioning off stuff on his personal website. AuctionWeb, as it was then known, was really just a personal project, but, when the amount of web traffic made it necessary to upgrade to a business Internet account, Omidyar had to start charging people fees. He actually hired his first employee to handle all the payment checks. The site is now known as eBay.
The John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio way. Back in the 70s, a couple of Brooklyn friends started a beer distributor out of the back of an old VW bus. Two decades later, after seeing how well Snapple was doing they decided to try their hand at soft drinks and launched AriZona Green Tea. Today, AriZona teas are #1 in America and distributed worldwide. The friends still own the company.
The Matt Maloney and Mike Evans way. When a couple of Chicago software developers working on lookup searches for Apartments.com got tired of calling restaurants in search of takeout food for dinner, they hit upon a plan to make a one-stop food delivery app. That’s when the pair decided to start GrubHub, which went public last April and is now valued at more than $3 billion.
ALSO READ: Here Are Some Inspiring Rags To Riches Stories Of Indian Entrepreneurs
The Joe Coulombe way. After operating a small chain of convenience stores in southern California, Joe Coulombe had an idea: that upwardly mobile college grads might want something better than 7-11.
So he opened a tropical-themed market in Pasadena, stocked it with good wine and booze, hired good people, and paid them well. He added more locations near universities, then healthy foods, and that’s how Trader Joe’s got started.
