3 tech giants that started in a garage
Some of the wealthiest and most successful businesses housed in giant buildings today were actually founded in a tiny garage. What’s even more surprising is that few of these businesses kick-started in rented garages! Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Tumbler, Disney, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Mattel, all massive companies, had humble beginnings. The modest origins of the three multibillion-dollar businesses we will discuss now show that great ideas can come from anywhere, even garages!
Apple
Apple, undoubtedly one of the world’s most well-known tech companies, was founded by three young guys in 1976, in a garage in Cupertino, California. In his parent’s garage, a guy named Steve Jobs, along with two others, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, began making Apple I, the company’s first hand-built computer. However, midway, Wayne quit the business. Apple got its first break when they signed an order with a local dealer for 50 Apple I units at $500 each. And what’s even more intriguing is that the crew finished this order in under 30 days! Sensing success, Apple then developed the Apple II. And by 1980, this computer recorded sales of $200 million! Talk of glory! Apart from these, Apple also developed the Macintosh series of products, which further attracted millions of dollars in investment.
Google
No one could have predicted that Google’s extraordinary journey would begin in a garage in California. In 1998, Susan Wojcicki (CEO, YouTube) and her husband, Dennis Troper, purchased a four-bedroom house in Menlo Park, California. To help pay their mortgage, they rented out the garage to two Stanford Ph.D. students. And friends named Larry Page and Sergey Brin for $1,700 per month. It was at this place, that the 25-year-old founders worked tirelessly for over five months on the algorithm that would one day make them famous.
Now, are you wondering when they moved out of this garage? Well, it was in March 1999, that Google began receiving considerable media attention and had become too big to fit in the garage. Since then, the business shifted several places before finally settling down at Santa Clara’s two-million-square-feet office space.
Want to know something interesting? The landlord of the garage had become an employee! Wojcicki joined Google as their 16th employee and eventually rose to the position of vice president of product management! Talk about tables turning!
To preserve Google’s humble origins, Page and Brin purchased the garage on Santa Margarita Avenue eight years after the company’s start. However, in 2019, Page and Brin walked out of this empire but continued to serve on the board of trustees. Yes, they did, and they explained it all in a letter to the employees.
As of late 2019, Google has approximately 114,000 employees, and its current market worth is estimated to be $870 billion!
Harley-Davidson
In 1901, William Harley, a 20-year-old innovator, came up with the idea of building a small engine that would attach to a bicycle. With pedalling, this engine would increase the bike’s speed. Finally, in 1903, Harley teamed up with his friend Arthur Davidson to advance on this concept and build a motorcycle. And no prizes for guessing where they started it! Of course, in a 10×15-foot garage.
Soon, Walter, Arthur’s brother, joined these ambitious inventors to further produce five models of motorbikes. Eventually, Harley-Davidson expanded, and in 1906, they manufactured 50 motorcycles, which prompted them to relocate their business to a bigger location on Chestnut Street in Milwaukee. As we all now know, Harley-Davidson has reached the top of motorcycle industry, all while having modest beginnings.