Famous Companies Started With Little Money
Nike began with $1,000, Spanx with $5,000, and Coca-Cola’s rights cost $2,300. The real starting numbers.
Last updated November 6, 2026
Most famous companies did not start with a big check. Some started with savings, some with a family loan, and some with a few hundred dollars and a great deal of work. The amounts below come from the record, and each story lists its sources.
One caution: a small start rarely meant a small need for money later. Several of these companies nearly ran out of cash as they grew. Each entry links to the full story, where the sources are listed.
1. KFC: a $105 Social Security check
$105A month, from 1956
Harland Sanders was 65 and had just sold his restaurant at a loss when he began franchising his chicken recipe full time, living on his savings and a $105 monthly Social Security check. In 1964 he sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million.
Read the full story: Colonel Sanders at 65: A $105 Check, Then a $2 Million Sale
2. HP: $538 and a drill press
$538Working capital, 1938
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started in a rented garage in Palo Alto in 1938 with $538 in cash and a used Sears-Roebuck drill press, according to HP. Their first major order was eight audio oscillators for Walt Disney Studios. HP Inc., one of the two companies Hewlett-Packard later split into, had revenue of $55.3 billion in fiscal 2025.
3. Domino’s: $900, borrowed
$900Borrowed in 1960
In 1960 Tom Monaghan and his brother took over a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with money they borrowed: $900 in most accounts. His brother soon traded his half for the shop’s Volkswagen Beetle. In 1998 Monaghan sold 93% of Domino’s to Bain Capital for about $1 billion.
Read the full story: Domino's Began With $900 and a Used Beetle
4. Nike: $1,000
$1,000$500 from each founder
Phil Knight and his former track coach, Bill Bowerman, each put in $500 in 1964 to form Blue Ribbon Sports and import Japanese running shoes. Their first order was 300 pairs. The company became Nike, which reported revenue of $46.4 billion in fiscal 2026.
Read the full story: Nike Was Always Broke: The Blue Ribbon Sports Years
5. Coca-Cola: $2,300 for the rights
$2,300Total cost, 1888 to 1891
Asa Candler pieced together the rights to Coca-Cola between 1888 and 1891 for a total of about $2,300, by the company’s own account. In 1919 his family sold The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million.
Read the full story: How Asa Candler Bought Coca-Cola for About $2,300
6. Spanx: $5,000 of savings
$5,000Savings from selling fax machines
Sara Blakely started Spanx in 2000 with $5,000 she had saved selling fax machines. She wrote her own patent and took no outside investment for 21 years. In 2021 Blackstone bought a majority stake at a $1.2 billion valuation.
7. Ben & Jerry’s: $12,000 and a $5 course
$12,000$4,000 of it borrowed
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield learned ice cream making from a $5 correspondence course and opened in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978 with $12,000. In 2000 Unilever bought the company for $326 million.
8. Airbnb: credit cards and $20,000
$20,000First outside money, 2009
Airbnb’s founders ran up credit card debt in 2008 and sold cereal at $40 a box to keep going. Their first outside money was $20,000 from Y Combinator in January 2009. At the end of its first day as a public company in 2020, Airbnb was worth about $86.5 billion.
Read the full story: The $30,000 of Cereal That Kept Airbnb Alive
9. Walmart: a $25,000 variety store
$25,000Savings plus a family loan
In 1945 Sam Walton bought a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas, with $5,000 of Army savings and a $20,000 loan from his father-in-law. He lost that store five years later, started again in Bentonville and opened the first Walmart in 1962.
Read the full story: Sam Walton Lost His First Store. Then He Built Walmart.
10. Ford Motor Company: $28,000
$28,000Cash from twelve investors
Twelve investors put $28,000 in cash into the Ford Motor Company in June 1903. By July 10 the bank balance was down to $223.65, days before the first car was sold for $850.
Read the full story: Henry Ford Failed Twice Before Ford Motor Company
11. Amazon: the parents’ $245,573
$245,573Invested by his parents, 1995
In 1995 Jeff Bezos’s parents invested $245,573 in his online bookstore, after he told them there was about a 70% chance they would lose it all. In 2018 Bloomberg estimated that, had they kept every share, the stake could be worth up to $30 billion.
Read the full story: Jeff Bezos's Parents Put $245,573 Into Amazon
12. Chobani: a $700,000 factory bought with a loan
$700,000The plant, by his account
In 2005 Hamdi Ulukaya bought a closed Kraft yogurt plant in upstate New York for about $700,000, by his own account, with a loan backed by the US Small Business Administration. Two years later the first Chobani went on sale. In 2025 the company raised money at a reported $20 billion valuation.
Read the full story: Chobani Began in a Yogurt Plant Kraft Threw Away
What a small start does, and does not, do
Starting small did not make these companies easy to build. Ford nearly ran out of money in its first month, and Airbnb’s founders were living on credit. What a small start did give the founders was control: with few investors to answer to, they could keep the company and change course quickly.
For the companies that nearly ran out of cash later, see the famous companies that almost went bankrupt.
Every figure on this page comes from the 12 stories linked above, where the sources are listed. Read how we check them in our editorial standards.