All the famous companies that we are all very proud of today and those that every unemployed person wants to work for were once start-ups.Today in the stock markets some of them are considered as blue chip companies while others are rated among Fortune 500 companies.
Some of the companies that have now grown to become global brands had to start somewhere. A number of them some of which are now worth billions are said to have been launched from makeshift headquarters, coffee shops, and relatives’ garages as well university living rooms.
Some of the incredible examples of companies that start-ups should look at include;
Apple
Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak were good friends in high school. They both happened to have a strong interest in electronics. Jobs and Wozniak had this desire to come up with personal computers that they would sell to their friends and close relatives.
It all started in the year 1976 when Woz designed what would come to be referred to as Apple 1. Jobs was excited by the idea and being the marketing genius that he was he took Apple 1 to the marketplace. The reception was incredible.
The story of Apple is an interesting one especially the fact that it had to deal with already established names in the industry like BIG Blue.
The age of Jobs and Wozniak too should offer motivation to start-ups and show them that they should not wait until it’s too late to try and make an idea a reality.
Google is the leading search engine globally. It was founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergei Brin in the year 1998.
It was while they were at Stanford in 1996 that Page and Brin began the process of developing a search engine called BackRub. In the year 1998, they set up their first data center in Page’s room.
Page and Brin were motivated by the fact that their fellow Stanford alum David Filo had founded Yahoo years earlier, they made a decision to start a company as well as looking for investors.
Today Google is used by almost every internet user globally and is rated as one of the most successful companies globally.
Starbucks
It started small in Seattle in the early 70’s. Howard Schultz while on a trip to Milan Italy visited the espresso bars and was greatly impressed. He decided to implement the model in Seattle, and immediately everybody become coffee crazy.
Starbucks has since expanded from a single coffee shop and has now opened thousands of its retails all over the world.
Nokia
It was founded in the year 1865. Gradually is has grown to become one of the biggest communication and information technology companies in the globe.
However, Nokia started small producing leather footwear called Galoshes. It’s in the year 1987 that they introduced Mobira Cityman 900 their first handheld phone.
There are other compelling stories of companies like Facebook that was started by Mark Zuckerberg while he was still in the university. Some of the other companies that startups should look at include; Alibaba, Yahoo, and even Toyota.
In general, the challenges that faced entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, who was a co-founder having to leave Apple and go and try out other start-ups like Next and Pixar, demonstrates to start-ups the need to forge forward even when they experience failure.
The prosperity of such companies has been associated with the fact that they make products that are well thought, superior quality, and designed to be simple to use, which should be the guiding principles for any start-up out there.
Photo: Marco Pakoeningrat / CC 2.0