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The full index
Zero to Empire
- Ben & Jerry's Started With a $5 Course$12,000→$326MStarted with → Sold for
Two school friends learned to make ice cream from a $5 correspondence course and opened in an old gas station in Vermont. Twenty-two years later Unilever paid $326 million for the company.
- Dollar Shave Club: A $4,500 Video and a $1 Billion Sale$4,500→$1BLaunch video → Sold for, 2016
A founder spent his own savings on a short video selling cheap razors by mail. It brought 12,000 orders in two days. Four years later Unilever paid a reported $1 billion in cash.
- Domino's Began With $900 and a Used Beetle$900→$20.1BBorrowed → Retail sales, 2025
In 1960 two brothers took over a small pizza shop in Michigan with borrowed money. Eight months later one of them traded his half for the delivery car. The other built the largest pizza company in the world.
- HP Started in a Garage With $538$538→$55.3BStarted with → HP Inc. revenue, 2025
Two Stanford graduates, a rented one-car garage and $538 in cash and tools. Their first big order came from Walt Disney Studios, and the garage is now called the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
- Hotmail Sold to Microsoft for $400 Million 18 Months After Launch$300K→$400MRaised → Sold for
Two engineers raised $300,000 for a free email site, launched it on Independence Day 1996 and let every message sell the service. By the end of 1997 Microsoft owned it.
- IKEA Started With a Teenager's Reward for Good GradesAge 17→€44.6BFounder's age → Retail sales, FY2025
A farm boy who sold matches at five registered a mail-order company at 17 with money his father gave him for doing well at school. A table that would not fit in a car did the rest.
- Shopify Began as a Snowboard Shop That Needed Better Software$105M→$11.6BRevenue, 2014 → Revenue, 2025
In 2004 a German programmer in Ottawa wanted to sell snowboards online and could not find software he liked. So he wrote his own. The shop was a footnote; the software became the business.
- The $30,000 of Cereal That Kept Airbnb Alive$40→$86.5BOne cereal box → Value, IPO day
In 2008 Airbnb's founders were deep in credit card debt and nobody wanted to invest. So they sold cereal at $40 a box. Twelve years later the company was worth $86.5 billion on its first day of trading.
- How Asa Candler Bought Coca-Cola for About $2,300$2,300→$25MRights cost → Sold for, 1919
An Atlanta businessman pieced together the rights to a struggling soda for about $2,300. In 1919 his family sold the company for $25 million.
- Colonel Sanders at 65: A $105 Check, Then a $2 Million Sale$105→$2MMonthly check → Sold for, 1964
At 65 Harland Sanders lost the business he'd built when a new highway bypassed his town. He had savings and a $105 monthly Social Security check. Nine years later he sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million.
- Fred Smith's $27,000 Blackjack Win That Kept FedEx Flying$5,000→$94.7BLast cash → Revenue, FY2026
FedEx's founder spent his inheritance and tens of millions of investors' money on an overnight delivery airline. When a crucial loan was refused, he took the company's last $5,000 to Las Vegas. In fiscal 2026 FedEx had revenue of $94.7 billion.
- Sam Walton Lost His First Store. Then He Built Walmart.$25,000→$713BFirst store, 1945 → Revenue, FY2026
In 1945 Sam Walton borrowed $20,000 from his father-in-law to buy a variety store in a small Arkansas town. He made it a success, then lost it because of a missing clause in the lease. In fiscal 2026 Walmart had revenue of $713 billion.
- Chobani Began in a Yogurt Plant Kraft Threw Away$700K→$20BPlant price → Valuation, 2025
In 2005 Kraft was closing an old yogurt factory in upstate New York. A feta maker with no yogurt experience bought it with a government-backed loan. Twenty years later, Chobani was valued at $20 billion.
- Liquid Paper: From a Kitchen Bottle to a $47.5 Million Sale$300→$47.5MMonthly salary → Sold for
Bette Nesmith Graham was a single mother typing letters at a Dallas bank when she started hiding her typos with white paint. In 1979 Gillette paid $47.5 million for the company built on that bottle.
- Sriracha: The Hot Sauce That Never Bought an AdBaby food jars→$131MFirst bottles → Sales, 2020
David Tran built Sriracha into a business with an estimated $131 million a year in sales without spending a dollar on advertising. Then he fell out with the farmer who grew his peppers, and a jury handed the farmer $23.3 million.
Billionaires
- Patagonia's Founder Gave Away a $3 Billion Company$1.50→$3BPer piton → Given away
Yvon Chouinard started out forging climbing pitons and selling them for $1.50 from his car. Sixty-five years later he and his family handed the company they built to a trust and a nonprofit, and paid tax to do it.
- Henry Ford Failed Twice Before Ford Motor Company$28,000→$187.3BCash raised, 1903 → Revenue, 2025
Henry Ford's first car company built 20 vehicles and was dissolved. His second became Cadillac after he walked out. His third was down to $223.65 in the bank when its first customer paid.
- James Dyson's 5,127 Vacuum Prototypes5,127→£12BPrototypes → Fortune, 2026
James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes of a bagless vacuum cleaner and went deep into debt. British manufacturers turned it down. Fifteen years after his first cardboard model, he put his own name on it.
- Steve Jobs Paid $10 Million for Pixar. Disney Paid $7.4 Billion.$10M→$7.4BJobs paid, 1986 → Disney paid, 2006
In 1986 Steve Jobs paid $10 million for a computer graphics group George Lucas wanted to sell. It lost money for nine years. In 2006 Disney bought it for $7.4 billion.
- Facebook Paid $19 Billion for WhatsApp$250K→$19BSeed money → Facebook's price
Two former Yahoo engineers started WhatsApp with $250,000 from old colleagues. Five years later Facebook agreed to pay $19 billion for it.
- Michael Bloomberg Was Fired With $10 Million. Then Came the Terminal.$10M→$22.5BHis payout → Implied value
In 1981 Salomon Brothers was sold and one of its partners was shown the door with $10 million for his stake. The next morning he started a company to sell Wall Street the data it didn't know it needed. Merrill Lynch later paid $4.43 billion just to get out.
- Sara Blakely Started Spanx With $5,000$5,000→$1.2BHer savings → Valuation
Sara Blakely sold fax machines door to door. She put $5,000 of her savings into an idea she had cutting the feet off her pantyhose, kept 100% of the company for 21 years, and sold a majority to Blackstone at a $1.2 billion valuation.
- Amancio Ortega: The Zara Founder Who Avoided the CameraAge 14→€3.2BLeft school at → One-year dividend
Amancio Ortega left school at 14 to deliver shirts in A Coruña. He built Zara into the heart of a €40 billion company, and for decades almost nobody outside Galicia knew his face.
- Tetra Pak: The Paper Pyramid That Built a Fortune100 ml→$7BFirst product → Price for half
In 1952 a dairy in southern Sweden began selling cream in odd little paper pyramids. The carton looked like a novelty. It became one of the largest private fortunes in Europe.
Companies
- Harley-Davidson Was Saved With an Hour to Spare on New Year's Eve 1985$80M→$4.47BBuyout, 1981 → Revenue, 2025
Thirteen executives used mostly borrowed money to buy Harley-Davidson from a conglomerate for about $80 million. Four years later their lender wanted out, and the bankruptcy papers were ready on the table.
- News Corp Paid $580 Million for MySpace and Sold It for $35 Million$580M→$35MBought for → Sold for
In 2005 Rupert Murdoch's company bought one of the fastest-growing sites on the internet. A year later Google promised $900 million in ad payments. Six years later the whole thing went for $35 million.
- Before Mario, Nintendo Made Playing Cards1889→¥2.3TFounded → Net sales, FY2026
For most of its first 80 years, Nintendo printed playing cards in Kyoto. When cards stopped growing, it tried taxis, hotels and instant rice. What saved it was a toy a maintenance worker built for fun.
- Nokia Sold Its Phone Business for €5.44 Billion and Kept Going€5.44B→$7.6BSold for → Microsoft's write-down
A Finnish pulp mill became a maker of boots, tires and cables, then the world's biggest phone company. In 2013 it sold the phones to Microsoft. In 2015 Microsoft wrote off more than it had paid.
- Post-it Notes Came From a Glue That Failed1968→1980Glue invented → National launch
A 3M chemist set out to make a super-strong adhesive and made a weak one instead. It took years to find a use for it, a failed launch, and a city full of free samples before it sold.
- Samsung Began by Selling Dried Fish and Noodles30,000 won→₩333.6TStarted with → Revenue, 2025
In 1938 a 28-year-old opened a trading company in Daegu with 30,000 won and forty employees. Forty-five years later, in a Tokyo hotel, he bet the group on memory chips.
- Toyota Grew Out of a Loom Maker and a £100,000 Patent Sale£100,000→¥50.7TPatent deal, 1929 → Revenue, FY2026
Before Toyota made cars it made looms. In 1929 an English rival agreed to pay £100,000 for the patent rights, and the founder's son set off to sign the deal and look at Ford's factories.
- Twitter Began as a Side Project at a Failing Podcast Startup$44B→$33BBought for, 2022 → Valued at, 2025
In 2006 a podcasting company that was going nowhere let a few employees build a status-update tool. Its founder bought the company back from investors. Sixteen years later Elon Musk paid $44 billion for what it became.
- WD-40 Is Named After the 40th Try3 staff→$620MStarted as → Net sales, FY2025
In 1953 a three-person company in San Diego was trying to stop missiles from rusting. Its 40th formula worked, workers started taking cans home, and the company eventually dropped everything else.
- Apple in 1997: About 90 Days From Running Out of Cash-$1.04B→$416BLoss, 1997 → Revenue, 2025
In 1997 Apple lost $1.04 billion and, by Steve Jobs's account, was about 90 days from running out of money. Its rescue included $150 million from its oldest rival.
- Instagram Sold for $1 Billion With Almost No Revenue$500K→$1BSeed money → Facebook's price
Instagram started as a check-in app with $500,000 of seed money. Eighteen months after its launch, Facebook agreed to pay $1 billion for it.
- How Lego Nearly Went Bankrupt, and Came Back-DKK 1.9B→DKK 83.5BLoss, 2004 → Revenue, 2025
In 2004 Lego lost nearly 2 billion Danish kroner and its owner put his own money in to keep it going. In 2025 it sold DKK 83.5 billion of toys.
- Marvel Went Bankrupt in 1996. Disney Paid $4 Billion in 2009.Ch. 11→$4BBankrupt, 1996 → Disney paid, 2009
In December 1996 the company that owned Spider-Man and the X-Men filed for bankruptcy. Thirteen years later Disney paid $4 billion for it.
- Milton Hershey Failed Twice, Then Sold Caramel for $1 Million2→$1MFailed businesses → Sold for, 1900
Milton Hershey's first two candy businesses failed. His third, a caramel company, sold for $1 million in 1900. He spent it on a chocolate factory, a town, and a school that still controls the company.
- YouTube's $1.65 Billion Sale to Google$1.65B→$60B+Google paid, 2006 → Revenue, 2025
In October 2006 Google paid $1.65 billion in stock for a video site that was less than two years old and facing copyright fights. In 2025 YouTube brought in more than $60 billion.
- How Crocs Nearly Went Broke in 2008-$185M→$4.04BNet loss, 2008 → Revenue, 2025
Crocs went from 200 pairs at a boat show to the biggest footwear IPO of its time. Then, in 2008, it lost $185 million and its shares fell below a dollar. In 2025 it sold more than $4 billion of shoes.
- Nike Was Always Broke: The Blue Ribbon Sports Years$1,000→$46.4BFounders put in → Revenue, FY2026
Phil Knight and his old track coach started with $500 each. For more than a decade, the faster their company grew, the closer it came to running out of cash. In 1975 its own bank called the FBI. Last year Nike sold $46.4 billion of goods.
- Play-Doh Started as a Wallpaper CleanerA dying cleaner→3B+ cansStarted as → Cans sold
For twenty years a Cincinnati soap company lived on a putty that wiped coal soot off wallpaper. Then the soot went away, the company nearly went with it, and a nursery school teacher saw what the putty was really for.
- Howard Schultz Bought Starbucks for $3.8 Million$3.8M→$37.2BPurchase price → Revenue, FY2025
Howard Schultz was turned down by 217 of the 242 investors he asked to back his first coffee bar. Then Starbucks' founders offered him their six stores for $3.8 million, and a rival investor tried to take the deal. In fiscal 2025 Starbucks had revenue of $37.2 billion.
- How Acorn and Apple Created Arm in a Turkey Barn$1.5M→$54.5BApple's stake cost → Value at 2023 IPO
Arm built a chip empire without making chips. It started in 1990 with twelve engineers from a struggling computer maker and a converted barn near Cambridge. Its designs are now inside most of the world's phones.
- Gorilla Glass Waited 40 Years for the iPhone1971→$2.5BShelved in → Apple commitment
In the 1960s Corning invented a glass so tough it could survive a car crash, then shelved it because nobody would buy it. In 2007 Steve Jobs needed a screen that wouldn't scratch, and the old formula came back out of the drawer.
- Bubble Wrap Was Supposed to Be WallpaperTwo shower curtains→$10.3BFirst prototype → Enterprise value
Two engineers in New Jersey sealed a pair of shower curtains together in 1957 and tried to sell the result as wallpaper. Then as greenhouse insulation. It took an IBM computer to find out what it was for.
- Trader Joe's Began With a Store That Lost to 7-Eleven6 stores→661 storesStores at start → Stores today
Joe Coulombe was running a small chain of Los Angeles convenience stores in the 1960s when he realized 7-Eleven was going to crush him. His answer was a shop for people with degrees and not much money.
- Brownie Wise: The Woman Tupperware Tried to Erase$30,000→$16MHer settlement → Company sold for
Brownie Wise invented the Tupperware party, built a sales force of thousands and became the first woman on the cover of BusinessWeek. When the founder fired her, she found she owned no shares, not even the house she lived in.
- Stewart Butterfield's Two Failed Games Became Flickr and Slack~40 people→$27.7BTeam size → Sale price
Stewart Butterfield set out twice to build an online game. Both failed. The first left behind Flickr, which sold to Yahoo. The second left behind Slack, which Salesforce bought for $27.7 billion.
Money Lessons
- Groupon Said No to $6 Billion From Google, Then Fell 77%$6B→~$0.6BOffer refused → Market value, 2026
In December 2010 a two-year-old coupon site walked away from what would have been Google's biggest acquisition. The IPO looked like vindication. Fifteen months later the founder was fired.
- Monopoly's Real Inventor Was Paid $500$500→80M setsInventor's payment → Sold by 1974
A Washington stenographer patented a board game in 1904 to show how landlords get rich from rent. About 30 years later a Pennsylvania man sold a version of it as his own and became a millionaire. She got $500.
- Snapchat Turned Down $3 Billion in Cash From Facebook$3B→$24BOffer refused → IPO value, 2017
In 2013 a two-year-old app with no revenue said no to Facebook's all-cash offer. Its 23-year-old CEO wanted more. Four years later the stock market valued the company at about $24 billion.
- Blockbuster Could Have Bought Netflix for $50 Million$50M→$45.2BNetflix's asking price → Netflix revenue, 2025
In early 2000 Netflix's founders flew to Dallas and offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbuster said no. Ten years later Blockbuster was bankrupt.
- Kodak Invented the Digital Camera, Then Went Bankrupt$16B→$1.07BRevenue, 1996 → Revenue, 2025
In 1975 a Kodak engineer built the first digital camera and was told to keep quiet about it. Kodak made about $16 billion a year, mostly from film. In 2012 it filed for bankruptcy.
- How Microsoft Bought DOS for $75,000$75,000→$331.8BPaid for DOS → Revenue, FY2026
In 1980 IBM needed an operating system for its first PC. Microsoft didn't have one, so it bought one from a small Seattle company for a total of $75,000. In fiscal 2026 Microsoft had revenue of $331.8 billion.
- The Apple Cofounder Who Sold His 10% for $800$800→$416BPaid for 10% → Apple revenue, 2025
On April 1, 1976, Ronald Wayne owned 10% of a new partnership called Apple Computer. Eleven days later he signed out of it for $800. In fiscal 2025 Apple had revenue of $416 billion.
- Yahoo Could Have Bought Google for $1 Million$1M→$402.8BAsking price, 1998 → Alphabet revenue, 2025
In 1998 Google's founders reportedly offered their search technology to Yahoo for $1 million. Yahoo declined. In 2017 Yahoo's core business sold for $4.48 billion. In 2025 Google's parent took in $402.8 billion.
- Jeff Bezos's Parents Put $245,573 Into Amazon$245,573→$30BParents invested → Stake value, 2018 est.
In 1995 Jackie and Mike Bezos put $245,573 into their son's online bookstore. He told them there was a 70% chance they would lose every cent. Bloomberg later called it what may be the most successful venture investment of all time.
- 10,000 Bitcoin for Two Pizzas$41→$778MPizza price, 2010 → Same bitcoin, 2026
In May 2010 a Florida programmer offered 10,000 bitcoin to anyone who would get him two pizzas. A 19-year-old took the deal for about $41 worth of coins. At Bitcoin's 2025 peak, those coins were worth $1.26 billion.
- McDonald's: The Burger Chain That Is Really a Landlord0.5%→$10.4BBrothers' cut → Franchise rent
In 1956 Ray Kroc was franchising McDonald's and barely making money. A finance man named Harry Sonneborn showed him a different business hiding underneath: own the land, rent it to the franchisees. In 2025 McDonald's collected $10.4 billion in rent.
- Warren Buffett's $200 Billion Berkshire Hathaway Mistake$11.375→$200BPrice per share → Cost, by his estimate
In 1964 a textile boss tried to pay Warren Buffett 12.5 cents a share less than they had agreed. Buffett was so annoyed he bought the whole company. He later called it the dumbest stock he ever bought, and put the cost at $200 billion.
