Entrepreneurship Facts

Dell Computers was started by a 19 year old with only $1,000.

Hewlett Packard was started at a garage in Palo Alto in 1939.

Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com, had a classic startup problem: no users. His solution was to get everyone at the company, plus friends and family, to create profiles. That included his girlfriend. The strategy worked a little too well — she met someone else on the site and left him.

There's a man named Raffi Stepanian who mines diamonds and gold from New York City sidewalks, making over $600 in one week.

Walt Disney was a high school dropout and he was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

The co-founder and CEO of SnapChat, 23-year-old Evan Spiegel, turned down an offer of $3 billion from Facebook and then a $4 billion bid from Google.

50 Cent was offered a flat $5 million to be the face of Vitamin Water. He turned down the cash and negotiated for a minority equity stake in the company instead. When Coca-Cola bought Glacéau (Vitamin Water's parent company) for $4.1 billion in 2007, 50 Cent walked away with an estimated $100 million.

Jo Malone built her fragrance brand from scratch in her kitchen. She sold it to Estee Lauder in 1999 - and the deal included her own name. She cannot use "Jo Malone" to sell fragrances again. Her second brand is simply called Jo Loves. Selling her name is the one thing she says she regrets.