When we think of the world’s most famous companies, we tend to picture them with huge, great offices and lots of employees from the start. In fact, a lot of businesses begin in the bedroom or shed of the person who starts them. That’s crazy, but it’s also interesting to think about.
That some of the world’s most famous and valuable companies got their start in garages. The room is small and not very important, but most of us can get to something similar. Look at the list below to see how many of them you got right!
1. Microsoft
Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975. They worked out of a small garage and didn’t have many tools to help them.
The first operating system they made, they were able to sell for around $80,000. After a few years, they moved on to more complicated software projects. That’s when Windows was born.
Microsoft is always getting better and making cool new goods.It is now thought that Bill Gates is worth almost $100 billion, making him the second richest person in the world.
2. Dell
Another well-known businessman who dropped out of school is Michael Dell. Since 1984, he has been making computers in his shed for people who have specific needs.
After only one year, he chose to stop going to college and move to North Austin to grow the business from his own office. Which he was able to get with the money he made in the first year.
Dell is now one of the biggest and strongest rivals in the market. It also makes a lot of money, which shows that Michael’s hard work and willingness to take risks were worth it.
3. Google
To make Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked in a California shed that Susan Wojcicki let them use in 1998. They worked on Google for five months before they said it was taking up too much of their time. They even tried to sell the company to Excite for a measly $1 million.
The amazing thing is that Google is now thought to be worth $350 billion. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are two of the richest people in the world right now. Each has a net worth of more than $30 billion.
4. Amazon
Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in 1994. At first, it was just a small online shop.He ran his business out of the shed of his Bellevue, Washington, home when he started Amazon.
He didn’t figure out how to sell his first book until a year later. But the company quickly grew, and it is now the biggest online store in the world. Bezos used to sell books, but now he sells anything. He was the richest person in the world in 2018 with a net worth of $135.5 billion.
5. Apple
In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold 50 of Wozniak’s Apple I computers to a neighborhood store. This was the start of Apple computers. Jobs bought all the computer parts, and with the help of their small team, they put together all 50 in just 30 days.
Today, Apple is the biggest and most important tech company in the world. They got better over time and added new systems/technologies. Steve Jobs no longer lives, but he changed the world, and his legacy goes on in the success of Apple.
6. Hewlett-Packard(HP)
In its early years, HP was a small tech club called “Silicon Valley.” It was started by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1939. It was worth a lot more back then than it is now, but the two started out with only $538 to spend. They sold a lot of different things.
Hewlett-Packard then started to focus more on the tech market, which helped it grow into one of the biggest computer companies in the world.
7. Yankee Candles
Michael Kittredge began making his own candles in his garage when he was only sixteen years old. At first, he only planned to give his mother the candles he made by melting pencils as a Mother’s Day gift.
While he was selling them, though, his neighbors became interested, and two of his friends joined him to help. The business began in 1969 and grew very big very quickly. In 1999, Michael chose to sell it. The Yankee Candle Company makes some of the biggest and best-known candles in the world.
8. Disney
Disney is another company that you may not know was started in a garage. In 1923, Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and his uncle Robert began making Alice’s Wonderland comedies in Robert’s shed.
You wouldn’t believe how far they’ve come since then—they’re now the world’s biggest television company.
9. Harley Davidson
Do you want a Harley? In 1901, William S. Harley made ideas for a small engine that could power a bicycle. Williams built these motorcycles with the help of his friend Arthur Davidson in a small shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Since its official start in 1903, Harley-Davidson has become a brand that every motorcycle fan wants.
10. Maglite
Anthony Maglica began using a lathe in 1950, but he only had $125 saved up. It became a corporation in 1974 and was named Mag Instrument. Anthony would send the flashlight makers the individual parts they needed.
Even though it had only been a few years, he thought he could make flashlights that would last longer than the ones his customers were making with his parts.
He set out on his own to make them, and in 1976 he began selling flashlights under the brand name MagLite. It’s now the most popular flashlight name.
11. Mattel
Mattel began in 1969 in a garage in southern California. The owners, Harold Matson and Elliot Handler, built dollhouses out of scraps from picture frames.
They moved on to the toy business because the dollhouses were so popular and sold more than their picture frames originally planned. Mattel, Inc. has made more money than any other toy company to date.
12. Lotus
According to history, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman started Lotus Cars in 1948. He built his first Lotus car in a barn next to “The Railway Hotel” in Hornsey, London.
When Chapman started making Lotus cars, he was only 20 years old. Today, they are very famous sports cars and race cars.