Working on a startup project is not easy. At the very beginning, entrepreneurs do not have anything besides their great idea and determination. With no money, limited resources and short runway, startups need to resort to what they have.
What makes an ideal garage workplace?
Well, it doesn’t cost you anything and all you need is to do is ask your mom or dad for permission to use their garage and convince them that what you’re doing will be worth millions of dollars one day. Garages are spacious enough to set up your home office and bring in your startup friends for late night brainstorming sessions.
In today’s article, we rounded up the six world’s most successful businesses that started in garages.
1. Amazon
This gigantic company was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos as an online bookshop. At the time, it was completely run out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington.
He sold the first book in July 1995 and two years later he issued his IPO.
Today Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer.
Address: 10704 NE 28th, Bellevue, Washington
2. Apple
In 1976, 21 years old Steve Jobs and 26 at the time Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers. The first 50 units were sold for $500 a piece to a local retailer. Jobs took the purchase order to a parts distributor and with his small team of friends, he hand-built 50 computers in a month from a little garage in Cupertino, CA
Today, Apple is the most valuable technology company in the world.
Address: 2066 Crist Dr, Los Altos, California
3. Disney
About 40 kilometres from Universal Studios in California, there’s a house in Los Angeles where The Walt Disney Company got its beginning.
In 1923, the property was owned by Walt Disney’s uncle, Robert Disney. Walt and his brother Roy moved in with their uncle and set up “The First Disney Studio” in the one-car garage out back. There, they filmed the Alice Comedies which was part of the original Alice’s Wonderland.
Today, Disney is the biggest media producer in the world.
Address: 4651 Kingswell Ave, Los Angeles, California
4. Google
As Stanford Graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started what’s now known as Google from Susan Wojcicki’s garage in September 1998.
Soon the project was interfering with their studies, so they tried to sell the business to Excite for $1 million. Excite rejected the offer and now Google is the biggest search engine site in the world.
Address: 232 Santa Margarita Ave, Menlo Park, California
5. Harley Davidson
In 1901, 21-year-old William S. Harley invented a small engine to power a bicycle.
Over the next two years, Harley and his childhood friend, Arthur Davidson, built their motor-bicycle out of their friend’s small wooden shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let’s assume it was the equivalent of a garage because they didn’t have cars.
They officially founded Harley-Davidson in 1903 and today it’s the most well-known motorcycle brand in the world.
Address: Northern Milwaukee, Wisconsin
We all have to start somewhere.
We often look at the world’s largest companies and think, “I could never start something like that” and we probably would be right. For majority of these successful companies, it took decades to get
where they are today.
Neither of these great minds was trying to create Google or Apple. They started by designing an online book business and a computer.
Whether it’s a garage, a basement, or a dormitory, every business has hard beginnings. It’s not about where you start. It’s where you end up.
Metro Garage Services is Sydney’s well-known repair and maintenance specialist for all garage door breakdowns and servicing requirements.