Major corporations that now sit on enormous 35 acre complexes didn’t just pop into existence. They all had to start somewhere. For these 5 world famous companies, that place just happened to be a dusty garage.
Amazon
In 1994, Jeff Bezos opened his garage door in Bellevue, Washington and started what would soon become the world’s largest online retailer. The company went public 2 years later, starting at $18 a share, and by the end of the day had raised $54 million dollars.
Apple
It was April Fools Day, 1976 when Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne stepped through a garage door in Cupertino, California and changed the world forever. The Apple I would become the first mass produced personal computer in history. Sadly, for Ronald, he couldn’t foresee the future and quickly sold his share of the company a year later for $800.
In September of 1998, Susan Wojcicki probably had no idea that letting Larry Page and Sergey Brin start up a project in her garage would have an impact on the entire planet. The two young men had just raised $1 Million from investors and Susan, who is now the VP of product management at Google, needed help paying her mortgage. She rented the garage out and the rest is history. On it’s 8th birthday, Google purchased the garage and attached home and plans to preserve it as part of their history.
Hewlett Packard
It was in 1939 that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP inside Packard’s little garage. Their original investment of $538, helped launch their first creation. This tiny garage, located in Palo Alto, California, is now recognized as the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
Their first product was an audio oscillator. It didn’t hurt that their very first customer was Walt Disney, who purchased eight of the oscillators to develop the sound system for the movie Fantasia. HP is now one of the largest companies in the world.
Disney
Speaking of Walt Disney, it was 1923 and inside the garage of a home in Los Angeles where this infamous company was born. The home belonged to Robert Disney, Walt’s uncle, and was a mere 45 minutes down the road from where Disneyland Park would later be built in Anaheim, California.
Walt and his brother Roy moved in with their uncle. In the one car garage in the back, they set up the first Disney Studio. There they started filming the Alice Comedies which was part of the original Alice’s Wonderland. We all know how that turned out for the boys. Disney is now the highest grossing media conglomerate in the entire world.
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