How They Made Their Millions
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
051: SoulCycle -Two moms with humble beginnings to a Multi-million dollar fitness empire
03 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone hates working out in the gym, Yet these two moms invented a fitness that made exercise effective and joyful. They had very humble beginning a...
050: WhatsApp: How a poor kid and later an orphan who lived on food stamps built WhatsApp and sold for $15+ billion
27 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jan Koum migrated to America in his teens. His family was poor,Yet this kid rose to build an app called Whatsapp. It grew like crazy and was purchased...
049: Cheese Cake Factory - How a failed musician who took over his mom's tiny struggling business and built it into a billion dollar business
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
David set aside his dreams of becoming a professional musician to help his parents with their struggling cheesecake business. He helped them open a sm...
048: WeGoLook - A farm girl who didn't know much about technology to a tech multi-millionaire
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Robin's story is an inspiring one . She grew up on a farm, had a bunch of personal and business setbacks. Yet she bounced back and finally sold her st...
047: The Honest company - How Jessica, an actress and a high school dropout built a billion-dollar business empire
06 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica was a popular Hollywood actress. She had a personal problem and could not find products to solve her problem. So, she started her own business...
046: Flickr -How a desperate couple who were running out of money built and sold Flickr for $30+ million
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Caterina and Stewart started building an online multi-player game and money was running out. They accidentally hit upon an photo sharing idea-- Flickr...
045: Subway Restaurants - A poor kid who started with a borrowed $1000 and built a billion dollar restaurant empire
22 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Before he turned 20, Fred used a borrowed $1,000 investment to open a sandwich shop in Connecticut. Today, Subway has more than 40,000 locations world...
044: Tickle - How two college friends sold their company for $90+ million with a simple idea of Personality tests
15 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
James and Rick were studying at Harvard and they accidentally hit upon an "Personality Testing" idea. They were close to shutting it down, but they pe...
043: IKEA - How a poor farm-boy rose to become a world-famous billionaire
08 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ingvar was a poor boy and his poverty propelled him to work hard and become entrepreneurial from a very young age. He later broke the rules of retail ...
042: RedLaser - How Two Geeks who failed miserably multiple times and ran out of money became multi-millionaires
01 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Vikas and Jeff wanted to build an app for receipt scanning, but it failed. They had another idea and that too failed. Finally they built Redlaser whic...
041: Mary Kay Ash Cosmetics - A poor girl with tough childhood to a billionaire
25 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mary kay Ash had a very tough childhood growing up as a poor girl. She faced many personal and professional setbacks and was depressed. She finally st...
040: WireCutter.com - A laid-off tech worker to Gym trainer to a multi-millionaire blogger
18 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Lam was laid-off from his tech job and he trained himself as a professional fighter, but he switched careers and finally started the Wirecut...
039: Nantucket Nectars: How two guys with no clue about business, started a multi-million dollar Juice empire
11 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Scott and Tom First started by delivering food and other stuff to boats in a harbor. They ultimately started a Juice company by accident which...
038: LinkedIn: A bad student always playing video games to starting LinkedIn and selling it for $20+ billion
04 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Reid Hoffman was bad at academics , then he started and failed at his first startup. Yet he persevered and later started Linkedin. He sold it to Mic...
037: Firehouse Subs - Two firefighters with no money to a multi-million dollar restaurant empire.
27 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Two firefighter brothers Chris and Robin were always looking for ways to increase their income. They failed many times and finally built a multi...
036: GrubHub - How two programmers bootstrapped a side hustle and made billions
20 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mike and Matt started GrubHub as a side project while working on their day jobs as computer programmers. They bootstrapped it with their own money an...
035: Jer's Chocolates - How a software sales person turned his chocolate making hobby into a $10+ million business
13 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jerry was a sales manager but he did not like it. He wanted to start a software business but he ended up starting a chocolate business. He did not...
034: Plenty of Fish - How a one-Person startup generated millions in profits and later sold for $500+ million
06 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
There were huge dating websites with plenty of cash and thousands of employees. Can one person and a new entrant take on these giants and still succee...
033: Whistle: How a seemingly gimmick business - Fitbit for dogs got started and sold for $100+ million
30 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If you look at it , Fitbit for dogs seems like a gimmick business. Who would think that this will become successful. Yet Ben Jacobs proved that this i...
032: StubHub: How Jeff started StubHub at the worst possible time, survived and sold to eBay for $300+ million
23 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jeff ran out of money and was not able to pay his employees. On top of this, his company got sued, yet he kept pushing forward and succeed and sold St...
031: Clark's Botanicals: How Francesco who was paralyzed, sad and dejected built a multi-million dollar business
16 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Francesco Clark was living a happy life but suddenly his life was hurled and turned upside down by an accident leaving him paralyzed and not able to...
030: Mint.com: How Aaron started part-time and made a "sure-to-fail" business successful and sold for $160+ million.
09 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft and Quicken were leaders and giants with lots of cash and marketing power in the personal finance software business. Yet, Aaron took on the ...
029: Instagram: A side hustle to selling it for $1 billion in 2 years
02 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin worked on his startup idea close to 2 years but it didn't take off. He took a risk, scraped his old idea and went with a new idea, which he fo...
028: Hershey's Chocolates: A fourth grade dropout ,and a farm boy to a world-famous billionaire chocolatier
23 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Milton Hershey started many business and failed in all of them. Any one else would have been crushed by these failures but not Milton. His passion k...
027: Auntie Anne's Pretzels: One woman with unbearable grief, started in a farmers market and making multi-millions.
16 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pretty inspiring story. Anne Beiler had to face an agonizing, intolerable personal loss. Yet this 8th grade dropout,courageously came out and built on...
026: Wufoo : A simple form-creation idea started with little money and later sold for $30+ million
09 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Three friends started Wufoo with less than 20k, while still working on their day jobs. They faced lot of hurdles with lots of uncertainties. Finally...
025: ShutterStock: One person , a $800 initial investment to $2+ billion IPO
02 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jon needed photographs for his websites and when he couldn't find cheaper photographs, he sensed that others will have the same problem and started ...
024: Minecraft Games: How a depressed, introverted Geek started a side hustle hobby game and sold it for $2+ Billion
26 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Markus started the game Minecraft as a side project, while working on his day job. He had personal tragedies during this time.Yet he kept pushing...
023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site
19 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Can you be cheap and scrappy and yet build a business that is both fun and makes millions. James and Jim built HotorNot by bootstrapping all the way a...
022: Pandora Music: The extra-ordinary story of how Tim went from a Penniless Nanny to a billionaire
12 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Tim started his career as a Nanny and was playing in bands as a side hustle. He saw the agonizing problems his fellow musicians were facing and he s...
021: Ben and Jerry ice Cream: The wonderful story of two Guys, their love of ice cream, a $5 investment to a multi-million dollar business
05 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Two friends turned their passion of ice creams into a multi-million dollar empire. They just started with $5 investment and did not know anything abou...
020: FUBU: How Shark Tank's Daymond John went from a Restaurant waiter to multi-millionaire founder
02 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Daymond John was an ordinary guy working as a waiter in a restaurant and in his spare time started FUBU(For us by Us) a sports apparel company with ju...
019: Method : How two friends started in their stinky little apartment and grew Method to $100+ million
29 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Household cleaning products were dominated by giant companies with their toxic and harmful products. Two friends created "non-toxic" and "cool-looking...
018: LifeisGood: Living in a van, eating peanut butter sandwiches to a $100+ million company – The story of Life is Good and the power of optimism
26 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to invest $200 and make millions from a simple message of "Do what you like, like what you do" and also bring happiness to millions of ...
017: CDBaby: A small-time musician with no background in tech and business, started with $500 and sold his business for $19+ million
22 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Derek did not know anything about programming, he did not know how to start and run a business. He did not have enough money. He just started with $5...
016: 1-800-flowers.com : The rags-to-riches story of Jim - A Bartender to a highly-successful multi-millionaire
19 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How did a bartender became a millionaire, Jim McCann transformed 1-800-FLOWERS from a small struggling floral shop into a multi-million dollar flower ...
015: Nobu Restaurants: Chef Nobu's fabulous rise from Suicide-attempting Restauranteur to HollyWood Celebrity Restauranteur to multi-millionaire
15 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Nobu a poor boy , dreamt of opening his own sushi restaurant. He started a few restaurants, but all of them failed He attempted suicide but it was...
014: Club Penguin: Bootstrapped by borrowing from credit cards, focused on one niche area and sold to Disney for $325+ million
08 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can a simple kid's game with penguins become a blockbuster hit , and then attract Disney to buy them for $325+ million. Here is how three guys, Lane ...
013: TwitTV: How Leo Laporte accidentally bootstrapped a multimillion dollar empire From Podcasts
05 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Is it possible to do what we love..have fun and.. also make money. Leo Laporte of the famous "TWIT TV" podcast did it by bootstrapping his podcast e...
012: Amy's Kitchen: How one couple turned their frozen food problem into a multimillion dollar organic powerhouse
03 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When Rachel, a healthy vegetarian food lover, injured herself during pregnancy, her husband got her a frozen vegetarian dinner, which tasted Yucky. T...
011: PetFinder.com: How Betsy started a hobby pet website and sold for $25+ million
29 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Betsy Saul did not set out to make money. She couldn't see bad things happen to Pets. She started as a service to help pets and it grew into a busine...
010: Chobani: How an immigrant with simple yogurt business beat the giant companies and became a billionaire.
27 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We all heard about internet unicorns --the billion dollar-- valuation companies. but can that be done with a non-internet business that too with a si...
009: Kiss My Face : Not knowing anything about the business to a 75+million year business
23 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can you start a business without knowing anything about the business and still make millions. Most people will say No, but Bob MacLeod and Steve Byc...
008: IMDB: Movie watching hobby business Sold to Amazon for multiple millions
15 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can a movie watching hobby be turned into a serious business that too a multimillion dollar business. Col Needham did this with one of the world's to...
007: LittleMissMatched: Wacky Mismatched socks idea to a smash hit with 30+ million in revenue
09 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can an insane idea of selling mismatched socks succeed?. Who would want to wear them.. right? Wrong..,Jonah Staw proved it will succeed by building L...
006: Geox: Hole-in-shoe idea to Billion Dollars
07 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
While there are already big players in the shoe business, Can someone come with a new idea for shoes and succeed and also make tons of money. Mario ...
005:TreeHugger: Tiny Green movement blog to a $10million blog
05 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can you build a high trafficked blog with your passion and also make money. Graham Hill did it with TreeHugger.com and sold for $10 million. Here is...
004: Monster Audio: From Jobless and broke to a multi-millionaire
03 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Can a person born to Chinese immigrants who was broke and no job, build a 100million-plus business with his passion for music. Check out how Monster A...
003: GeekSquad: Starting with $200 and selling to Best Buy for multiple millions
01 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Stephens started Geek Squad with just himself and $200 investment. He did some fascinating marketing without any money. and he grew to thousa...
002: Build-a-Bear: How Maxine quit her lifeless job-followed her passion and built a multi-million dollar business
26 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Maxine had a good job with pretty good money. Years passed by and she felt a void in her heart. She wanted to do something which she loved and leave...
001: California Pizza Kitchen(CPK) : How two friends built the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain by quitting their stressful day jobs
20 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Two Friends were stressed out by their Lawyer Jobs and wanted to do something which they loved and they loved Restaurants. They did not know anythin...