From Garage to Global: 10 Inspiring Stories of World Famous Companies

Amazon, Apple, Disney and Google are the names that only a cave man will not be familiar with. These are among world biggest business entities which every entrepreneur dreams about. Most of us have an idea that to set up business, venture capitalists, big-money consultants and a beautiful office are must. Here we sum up 10 companies which started in a small garage and today are among top companies in the world listed by getentrepreneurial.com.

1. Apple

Nearly all remember the sight in Forest Gump when he explains that he never has to be troubled about money again because of his investment in the fruit company called “Apple.” This is the scenario with all most all the investors of Apple Inc. Apple commenced in the garage of a young man called Steve Wozniack. Wozniack and his long time friend Steve Jobs were very mush interested to build a computer on their own.

In 1976; both approached a local electronics store to see if they would be interested in buying a personal computer that Wozniack had built. The next very moment they got an order of 50 computers. Though both Wozniack and Steve were out of cash, but then managed to convince few electronic dealers to deal on a credit basis. Apple has established to be the company that creates the industry standard time and time again. The journey from the garage of Steve Wozniack to being ranked 103 on the Fortune 500, Apple persists to grow more and more.

2. Google

On September 7, 1998, a company opened its door in Menlo Park, CA. The door came with a remote control, as it was connected to the garage of a friend who sublet space to the new corporation's staff of three, which is how Google Inc. was commenced. Today Google is a colloquial term also often used as a common verb in our daily life. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved out of the dorm, officially included the Google name, and ended raising $1 million from a few investors.

For the five months Google worked out of Wojcicki's garage, Page and Brin exchanged between trifling with their search engine's now famous algorithm, soaking in the hot tub, and raiding the refrigerator for midnight snacks, a custom that may have stimulated Google's free-food policy for all its employees.

3. Mattel

After World War II, newly-married Ruth and Elliot Handler resolute to start a business out of the garage in their home at Southern California. Though Mattel is famous as a toy maker, the brand originally produced and sold picture frames. Soon after opening for business, Handler began building dollhouse furniture with the oddments left over from the picture frames.

They soon find out that the toy business was much more money-spinning than picture framing. The Handlers had little business understanding and even less capital, but the demographics of a baby boom, moreover a virtual toy less marketplace gave the couple an exclusive opportunity to carve out a position. The “Uke-A-Doodle,” a miniature plastic ukulele, was Mattel’s first hit toy in 1947. It proved to be an instant victory that fetched large orders.

4. HP

In 1939, two electrical engineering Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, graduates from Stanford, established an electronics manufacturing company in a one-car garage in Palo Alto,
With a total investment of $538, the duo founded the Hewlett-Packard Company, famously called HP. They commenced with developing a few electronic devices and later come into the PC market in 1966. Till date, Hewlett Packard is best known not only for its first-rated electronics and distinctive company culture -“The HP Way”, but also for its corporate social accountability in retrieving billions of pounds of electronics, toner and ink cartridges.

5. Amazon

Amazon.com is at present the largest online book selling company. Jeff Bezos initially commenced the business in his garage. It started with marketing books through internet and skyrocketed as an online corporation that sells a varied list of products such as computers and other electronic items. Though the firm has undergone two legal suits but still continues to rise high and maintain the position to be the "world's largest bookstore".

6. Disney

Alice Comedies is an enthralling comedy starring girl who wanders around with her cat, Julius. This series all started in a downtown Los Angeles car shed. Walt and Roy Disney shaped the acts in their Uncle Robert's one-car parking garage. Later on they successfully brought collectively a group of animators that would build the cord of events in Alice Comedies. Today, Walt Disney Company is the biggest international media enterprise that rings a bell in every bend of the world.

7. Dell

While attending the University of Texas in 1984, Michael Dell established the company as PCs Limited. The way to the success that Dell now enjoys started with an idea and only $1,000 investment. Initial operations of Dell’s company executed from Dell’s dorm room, until he resolute to leave college to run his company full time basis. In 1985, the company generated the first computer of its own design, and by 1988 had an IPO that treasured the company at nearly $80 million.

8. Yankee Candle Company

Stories after stories convey the furtive secrets of this globe’s major corporations. All the ambiguity comes from what we now know as a plain garage. Michael Kittredge wanted to woo his mother during Christmas of 1969 with an unusual gift so he used his crayons to produce scented candles in their garage room. The scent was so lucrative that neighbors showed curiosity in his "products" and soon he was making candles to the entire neighborhood. In four years, it was big hit and the garage wasn’t enough to hold it. From a small-time car stall, Yankee Candle Company is the U.S. biggest distributor of scented candles in the market.

9. Harley Davidson

It all started when two childhood friends William Harley and Arthur Davidson were fascinated towards a motor bike from a Milwaukee garage. They began to work upon the motor bike but realized that the engine was very much underperforming. They decided to build an engine on their own and that was the historic moment when Harley Davidson invented their first motor bike. Today Harley Davidson is among the best motor bike brand company in the world.

10. Maglite

Maglite founder Anthony Maglica in 1955 had set up a tiny job shop in his garage in Los Angeles as a side venture. His initial investment was just $125 which he had saved, just enough for a deposit on a $1,000 borer. Slowly and steadily Maglite started gaining reputation for the quality of their products. Today the company has various latest forms of lights like LED version of the Solitaire, 2D LED Pro promising a beam in excess of 200 Lumens and many more.