Billionaires who saw their first company fail
Aug 22, 2024
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1. Elon Musk
Tesla boss Elon Musk has an estimated net worth of USD 247 billion as per Forbes and is the richest man in the world. But did you know that his first company, Zip2, was sold to another company?
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What happened
In 1999, Compaq acquired Musk's startup for USD 307 million. That same year, Musk co-founded X.com, which later merged with Confinity to become PayPal. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.
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2. Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey, the chocolatier behind Hershey's, struggled for years before finding success. But did you know that his first candy businesses failed?
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What happened
Hershey faced multiple failures in Chicago and New York before finding success with the Lancaster Caramel Company. He later sold this company for $1 million and built a chocolate factory that led to the Hershey brand we know today.
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3. Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, is known for his entrepreneurial spirit. But did you know that his first magazine venture didn’t take off?
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What happened
Branson initially launched Student magazine, which struggled to succeed. He then pivoted to a mail-order record business, eventually creating Virgin Records, a billion-dollar empire.
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4. Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is a tech pioneer with a net worth of over $90 billion. However, his first business venture wasn’t successful.
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What happened
Before Microsoft, Gates co-founded Traf-O-Data, a company that failed due to a lack of customers. Despite this, Gates went on to build Microsoft into a global tech giant, learning from his early mistakes.
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5. Jeff Bezos
Before founding Amazon, Jeff Bezos faced several setbacks. Did you know that he initially aimed to start a fax newsletter startup but ended up on Wall Street instead?
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What happened
After saving money for his startup, Bezos shifted gears and worked on an online auction site that evolved into zShops, which ultimately failed. Reflecting on these experiences, Bezos once said, "I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing, but I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all."
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