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Part One : Dictionary For Entrepreneur
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Introduction About The Dictionary : - The entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. ,many entrepreneurs see potential in this market" - The entrepreneur dictionary for startups contains terms, Vocabulary, and definitions from A to Z . commonly used by entrepreneurs interact with startup ventures and startup financing business - On the other part contains a successful stories of Entrepreneurs that influenced the world in many fields .
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A ………..4-7 B………..8-12 C ……….13-20 D ……….21-24 E ……….25-28 F ……….29-32 G ………33-34 H ………35-36 I ………..37-40 J ………..41-42 K ……….43-44 L ……….45-48
U ………76-77 V ……….78-80 W ………81-82 Y ……….83-84 Z ……….85-86
M ………49-52 N ………53-55 O ………56-57 P ………58-62 Q ………63-64 R ………65-67 S ………68-73 T ………74-75
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A
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Acquisition
Add-on Service
Adventure Capitalist
Advisor
Advertising
Alternative Minimum Tax
Angel Capital Association
Taking ownership of another business. Frequently used in conjunction with the word merger, as in mergers and acquisitions or M&As. Taking ownership of another business. Frequently used in conjunction with the word merger, as in mergers and acquisitions or M&As. An adventure capitalist is an entrepreneur who helps other entrepreneurs financially and often plays an active role in the company's operations such as by occupying a seat on the board of directors, etc. An individual providing business connections, guidance, advice and support to the entrepreneur as they develop and grow their startup. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media. Not to be confused with marketing or public relations - A tax designed to prevent wealthy investors from using tax shelters to avoid income tax. The calculation of the AMT takes into account tax-preference items. - A North American association of angel groups, accredited investors and family offices which promotes public policies for investors and startups. The association provides investors access to trending ideas and professional 6
Angel Financing Angel Fund
Angel Group
Angel Investor
Angel Round
knowledge and entrepreneurs insight into how angels think. Seed capital raised from independently wealthy investors, for startup companies A formal or informal assemblage of active angel investors who cooperate in some part of the investment process. Key characteristics of an angel group are: control by member angels (who manage the entity or have control over the entity’s managers), and collaboration by member angels in the investment process. An organization composed of accredited investors which serves as a platform for them to coordinate investments in seed and early stage startup companies. The group members typically work together consolidating their resources, expertise and capital through informal networks or formal funds. Individuals who back emerging entrepreneurial ventures, usually as a bridge to get from the self-funded stage to the level of business that would both need and attract venture capital. Funding level ranges anywhere from $50,000 to $2 million. A round of investment into a startup company from angel investors not previously affiliated with the founder. Typically the first money invested in a company after the founders own money, and the founders friends and family. 7
Annex Fund Anti Dilution Provisions
Articles of Incorporation
Appraisal
Annex funds are side funds that can provide an extra pool of money to supplement the original VC Funds. Anti Dilution Provisions are contractual measures that allow investors to keep a constant share of a firm's equity in light of subsequent equity issues. These may give investors preemptive rights to purchase new stock at the offering price. Examples include Broad-Based Weighted Average Ratchet, NarrowBased Weighted Average Ratchet, and Full Ratchet Anti Dilution. - Documentation filed with the Secretary of State or Company Registrar which acts as a charter to document the establishment and existence of a corporation. The articles typically include the businesses name, address, a statement of business purpose, and details related to the types of stock the corporation is entitled to issue. A formal estimate of the value of something on the open market. It also describes how the estimation and conclusion of value was made.
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B
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Barter Benchmarks
Big Hairy Audacious Goal Black Swan Board of Directors
Bootstrapping Bridge Loan
Broker-Dealer
Direct exchange of merchandise and/or services between businesses. Benchmarks are performance goals against which a company's success is measured. Benchmarks are often used by investors to help determine whether a company should receive additional funding or whether management should receive extra stock. The giant sweeping vision of a startup founder to change the world. An unpredictable event typically with extreme consequences. A group of people elected by the company's shareholders (often to the terms of the negotiated Shareholders Agreement) that makes decisions on major company issues, including hiring/firing the Chief Executive Officer. Funding a company only by reinvesting initial profits; from "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps A temporary short-term loan that is obtained for use for an interim period, typically one year, until the borrower can obtain a more comprehensive, longerterm financing package. In reference to “Crowdfunding”, one of the two types of "Intermediary" (“Portals” being the other) authorized by the “JOBS Act” to handle the sale of crowdfunded securities (i.e. equity or debt instruments) by an “issuing company”. More generally, a governmentally regulated component of 10
Brokers
Business Incubator Business Valuation Business Development Company
Business Judgment Rule
Business Model Canvas
the U.S. financial system, either a natural person or an organization trading securities on its own account or on behalf of customers. Broker-dealers are regulated by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)(a “Self-Regulatory Organization”, or “SRO”), and sometimes the various states. Licensed individuals or firms, which charge a fee, to raise capital for startup companies from private investors and funds Provides workspace, coaching, and support services to entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses. An estimate of the worth of a business entity and its assets. (BDC) A vehicle established by Congress to allow smaller, retail investors to participate in and benefit from investing in small private businesses as well as the revitalization of larger private companies. The legal principle that assumes the board of directors is acting in the best interests of the shareholders unless it can be clearly established that it is not. If the board was found to violate the business judgment rule, it would be in violation of its fiduciary duties to the shareholders. Based on nine building blocks, the Business Model Canvas is an entrepreneurial tool that enables entrepreneurs to design, develop, articulate, challenge, invent and pivot 11
their strategic business model. The building blocks referenced above include customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relations, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structures A document utilized by management and Business Plan relied upon heavily by some investors, that entrepreneurs use in detailing their business concept as well as their company’s overall strategic and financial objectives. In recent years the Business Model Canvas has become increasingly popular with both entrepreneurs and managers as a guide or framework for the startup's efforts, and in many cases is now utilized in lieu of the Business Plan by these parties. Business Plan Competition A program historically run by a university or other not-for-profit organization to encourage students to develop plans for a new business. Increasingly a showcase competition for existing startups seeking financing from angels and other investors. Business to Business transactions occur Business to Business when one business engages in commercial interactions with other business(es); under this scenario, one business is the supplier and the other business(es) engaging in the transaction are the customers. Business to Consumer transactions occur Business to Consumer when a business engages in commercial interactions directly with consumers; under this scenario, the consumer is the 12
Buyout
end-use customer of the product or services provided. A buyout is defined as the purchase of a company or a controlling interest of a corporation's shares, product line or business. A leveraged buyout is accomplished with borrowed money or by issuing more stock.
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C
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C-Corporation
A legal structure, preferred by investors and many entrepreneurs of startup companies seeking funding. Like Limited Liability Companies, (LLCs) and S-Corporations, CCorporations protect shareholders from liability in the event of a legal issue or bankruptcy. Unlike LLCs and SCorporations, C-Corporations may not make an election to pass corporate income, deductions and losses to shareholders for federal tax purposes. However, CCorporations have no limits on the number of shareholders which may own their shares. Entrepreneurs and investors typically prefer that their startup's CCorporation be registered in Delaware. However, Nevada and Wyoming are becoming increasingly popular. Additionally, many entrepreneurs chose to register as a C-corporation in their own state.
Call
A contractual term/condition which provides the company the option to compel the investor to sell their shares. Financial capital is a term that can refer to the money exchanged between entrepreneurs and investors during a business deal. Entrepreneurs need to raise capital for their startups while investors can provide them with the needed capital (or funding). Financial capital usually comes with interest, and new business owners can use their financial capital in purchasing real capital (or machinery or equipment) for their new business.
Capital
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Capitalization Table
Chief Analytics Officer Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Information Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Operations Officer Chief Security Officer Closed-end Fund
- A table depicting the quantity of shares or unit ownership which is held by each investor in a corporation or LLC, typically including founders' equity, investor equity, and advisor / employee Stock Option Pools. The senior executive officer responsible for the analytical aspects of a corporation / company. The senior executive officer responsible for the overall management of a corporation / company The senior executive officer responsible for the financial aspects of a corporation / company. The senior executive officer responsible for the informational aspects of a corporation / company. The senior executive officer responsible for the marketing aspects of a corporation / company. The senior executive officer responsible for the operational aspects of a corporation / company. The senior executive officer responsible for the security aspects of a corporation / company. A type of fund that has a fixed number of shares outstanding, which are offered during an initial subscription period, similar to an initial public offering. After the subscription period is closed, the shares are traded on an exchange between investors, like a regular stock. The market price of a closed-end fund fluctuates in response to investor demand as well as changes in the values of its holdings or its Net Asset Value. 16
Closing
Co-invest Committed Capital Common Stock
Unlike open-end mutual funds, closed-end funds do not stand ready to issue and redeem shares on a continuous basis. An investment event occurring after the required legal documents are implemented between the investor and a company and after the capital is transferred in exchange for company ownership or debt obligation. This is the transaction that occurs after entrepreneurs and investors legally exchange all required legal documentation and capital that is needed in their business deal. When an investor “closes in on a deal,” they have already negotiated with the entrepreneur the details encompassing corporate ownership and monetary obligation. Closing is the final event to complete the investment, at which time all the legal documents are signed and the funds are transferred. When more than one investor joins in making an investment on similar terms. The total dollar amount of capital pledged to a private equity fund. A class of ownership that has lower claims on earnings and assets than Preferred Stock. It is riskier to own common stock because in the event of Liquidation, common stock shareholders are the last to claim rights to assets. A unit of ownership of a corporation. In the case of a public company, the stock is traded between investors on 17
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Company By-Laws
various exchanges. Owners of common stock are typically entitled to vote on the selection of directors and other important events and in some cases receive dividends on their holdings. Investors who purchase common stock hope that the stock price will increase so the value of their investment will appreciate. Common stock offers no performance guarantees. Additionally, in the event that a corporation is liquidated, the claims of secured and unsecured creditors and owners of bonds and preferred stock take precedence over the claims of those who own common stock. This term represents a constituent in corporate ownership. People who own shares of common stock (common stockholders) often have voting rights in their company’s decision-making matters and executive board of elections. Through company dividends and capital appreciation of corporate assets, common stockholders can also share in their company’s financial success.
Written agreements established for the purpose of defining how corporations will operate and be managed. They are established specifically for corporations as opposed to LLCs and therefore also deal with issues related to the boards and issuance of shares such as shareholder rights, provisions to select officers and 18
directors and delineation of the various governance rules under which the corporation operates.
Convertible -
Consumer Direct Marketing Copyright
Corporation
Corporate Venture
Convertibles are the corporate securities, usually preferred shares or bonds, that can be exchanged for a set number of another form, usually common share, at a prestated price. Convertibles are appropriate for investors who want higher income than is available from common stock, together with greater appreciation potential than regular bonds offer. From the issuer's standpoint, the convertible feature is usually designed as a sweetener, to enhance the marketability of the stock or preferred. bonds offer. (See Common Stock, Dilution, and Preferred Stock) . A form of Network Marketing in which the distributors are all also consumers, i.e., they must also buy the product for their personal use. Copyright is a form of protection for published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic works that have been fixed in a tangible or material form A body that is granted a charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members. The primary advantage of a corporation is that shield its investors from personal liability for any losses the corporation may experience. An investment from one corporation in another, typically at an early stage for 19
strategic reasons.
Corporate Venture Capital Crowdfunding
Corporate venture capital is a subsidiary of a large corporation which makes venture capital investments. “Crowdfunding” is the process of raising financial support for a venture via smaller amounts from many investors (“the crowd”), rather than the alternative pattern of larger amounts from a smaller number of supporters. Charities and philanthropies have traditionally employed both fundraising strategies (soliciting both the general populace, or crowd, as well as fewer wealthier donors), while businesses have usually taken the route involving fewer and larger supporters. Today’s internet has vastly increased the ability of fundraisers to communicate information, solicit and receive financial support from anyone on-line. Crowdfunding without the expectation of financial return, or with the promise of a specific good or service, are termed “donation-based” or “rewardbased” crowdfunding, are in the nature of charitable solicitation or business marketing, and have never been illegal in the U.S. In contrast, soliciting funds in return for a ownership interest or expectation of repayment, are termed “equity-based” or “debt-based” crowdfunding (together grouped as “securities-based” crowdfunding), and have been until now governed (and effectively prevented) by federal and state securities law. One of the most significant parts (Title 20
Crowdfunding Intermediary Regulatory Advocates
III) of the federal “Jumpstart Our Business Startups”, or JOBS Act of 2012 specifically enabled and legalized “security-based crowdfunding”, subject to a variety of regulations and restrictions. - (CfIRA) An open organization of diverse participants and parties interested in the crowdfunding industry (“portals”, “brokerdealers”, professional and business service providers, investors, etc.) dedicated to interacting with each other and advocating with the regulators charged with shaping and governing the nascent industry of securities-based crowdfunding authorized by the JOBS Act. CfIRA has participated in numerous hearings, written official letters as well as popular articles, etc., both in public as well as government forums (Congress, SEC, FINRA, etc.)
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D
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De Facto
Dead Pool Deal Flow Deal Lead
Deal Structure
Demand Registration
Demand Rights
To proceed with an action without legal authority but may be recognized as legally valid. De Facto may apply to a company that operates as a corporation even though they may have not taken the steps or documentation to become incorporated. In some cases, courts will treat the company as though it were legal to protect those who believed the business was legal. Where companies that die go. Deal flow (dealflow) is the rate at which investment offers are presented to funding institutions. The investor or investment organization taking primary responsibility for organizing an investment round in a company. The deal lead typically finds the company, negotiates the terms of the investment, invests the largest amount, and serves as the primary liaison between the company and the other investors. The framework of a deal between investors and a startup company which is typically outlined in a term sheet and defined in detail in Purchase Agreements and related documentation, providing the rights and obligations of the parties. Resale registration that gives the investor the right to require the Company to file a Registration Statement registering the resale of the securities issued to the investor in a private offering. Contemplate that the company must initiate and pursue the registration of a public offering including, although not necessarily limited to, the shares proffered 23
by the requesting shareholder(s).
Demo Day Dilution -
Where the graduating class of Incubators and Accelerators is given a chance to pitch to investors. Issuing more shares of a company dilutes the value of holdings of existing shareholders. A reduction in the percentage ownership of a given shareholder in a company caused by the issuance of new shares.
Disclosure Document
A booklet outlining the risk factors associated with an investment.
Discounted Convertible Note
A loan that converts into the same equity security being purchased in a future investment round, but at a discounted price representing a risk premium for early investment.
Double Bottom Line
n Impact Investing, the goal of measuring a company by its positive societal impact in addition to its financial returns. In a Multi-Level Marketing business, the collection of all people signed up underneath an individual on which the individual receives payment on their sales
Downline
Dry Powder Due Diligence
Money held in reserve by a venture fund or angel investor in order to be able to make additional investments in a company.  A process undertaken by potential investors — individuals or institutions — to analyze and assess 24
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the desirability, value, and potential of an investment opportunity. This is the process whereby individuals or groups of people conduct independent investigations regarding a particular matter. In the business world, investors conduct timely due diligence when inquiring about prospective investment endeavors. This may entail a background search of the company’s founders, review of the entrepreneur’s credit scores, and routine follow-up with references and associates, etc. New business owners, on the other hand, are encouraged to also conduct due diligence when finding a potential investor. Through due diligence, both the investor and entrepreneur has the opportunity to diligently analyze and assess each other for the potential of an investment opportunity and partnership.4 Due diligence is the process of investigation and evaluation, performed by investors, into the details of a potential investment, such as an examination of operations and management and the verification of material facts.
E
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Early Exit
Employee Stock Option Plan
Employee Stock Ownership Plan Entrepreneur
Equity
An approach to angel investing popularized by author Basil Peters, in which the goal of an investment is the sale of a company within a few years without requiring additional large investments from VCs, thereby providing high relative returns without requiring companies to be home runs (ESOP) A plan established by a company whereby a certain number of shares is reserved for purchase and issuance to key employees. Such shares usually vest over a certain period of time to serve as an incentive for employees to build longterm value for the company. A trust fund established by a company to purchase stock on behalf of employees. A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks to do so. Entrepreneurs are the founders of startups and are the people angel investors support. Ownership in the capital of a Company. In corporations, it is called “stock”; in limited partnerships or LLCs, it is called “interests” or “units.”3 This designation is given to a stockholder’s ownership in a company. The amount of ownership is obtained when an individual or corporation purchases one or more shares of stock (equity shares). The more equity purchased, the greater the ownership. 27
Equity Kicker
- Option for private equity investors to purchase shares at a discount. Typically associated with mezzanine financings where a small number of shares or warrants are added to what is primarily a debt financing.
Equity Offerings
Equity Offerings is raising funds by offering ownership in a corporation through the issuing of shares of a corporation's common or preferred stock. - When an entrepreneur first sells a part of his or her business - and therefore a proportional part of the good things (like profits) and the not-so-good things (like losses) - to an investor. Equity investments, unlike loans, do not need to be paid back. An executive summary is a one to two page document which provides an overview of a startup entrepreneur’s business opportunity. It summarizes the key points of the startup’s business plan with a focus on obtaining investor interest, for potential investment. The goal of the executive summary is to grab the attention of the investor, such that they desire to learn more about the opportunity. An exit route is the method by which an investor would realize an investment. This term generally refers to a company that is three years old or more. During this period of development, a company may already have been successful commercializing many of their products
Equity Seed Round
Executive Summary
Exit Route Expansion Stage Company
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Expenses
and services but may not generate desired profit. An enterprise that is in its expansion stage may resort to seeking additional sources of capital to minimize the risk of failure. Many venture capitalists invest during this stage of a company’s development. The cost a business incurs during operations in order to generate revenue. In normal circumstances, most of these are cash expenses; examples include wages, payments to vendors, and rent. Other expenses are non-cash, like depreciation, which decreases net revenue, but is not a cash outlay. These are governed by FASB and IRS accounting standards.
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F
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Family Lifestyle Business
Fiduciary Responsibility
Financier
First Stage Capital
First-round Financing Flat Round
A business established and operated by its founders for the purpose of developing and maintaining a particular lifestyle or level of income. Such businesses typically have limited scalability because of issues such as limited access to capital, owner decisions relating to business operating models and staffing and reinvestment objectives. Many are sole practitioners or small groups like husband / wife teams. They are typically highly dependent on the experience, skills, drive and engagement of the owners Refers to trust responsibility to make good investments that will earn a high rate of return. Financier is a person or financial institution engaged in the lending and management of money and makes a living participating in commercial financing activities. - First stage capital is the money provided to entrepreneur who has a proven product, to start commercial production and marketing, not covering market expansion, de-risking, acquisition costs. First-round financing is the first investment in a company made by external investors. An investment round in which the premoney valuation of a startups' round is the same as its post-money valuation from the previous round.
Follow-on Investing -
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follow-up investing) This word refers to the event whereby
Founder's Agreement
Founder's Stock
investors reinvest in a company sometime during its development. Often times, follow-on investments occur when a company is not performing successfully as planned. Angel capitalists tend to avoid follow-on investments within the same company because of the high risk of additional monetary loss. A subsequent investment made by an investor who has made a previous investment in the company, generally a later stage investment in comparison to the initial investment. A formal written agreement among the founders of a startup which documents the founder’s accord on ownership, roles and responsibilities, company governance / decision-making and operations. Issues such as founder contributions, vesting and exit / departure are also typically included in these Agreements. Founder’s agreements are typically shorter, less technical agreements between the founders that are to be developed further into operating agreements or corporate by-laws, as the concept and structure of the company develops. Operating agreements and corporate by-laws generally contain all of the same provisions typically included in a founder’s agreement. The common stock owned by one or more of the company's founders, typically received when the company was incorporated and not purchased for cash. - Synonyms: Founder's Equity 32
Founders’ Shares
Shares owned by a company’s founders upon its establishment.
Friends & Family Round
An investment in a company that often follows the founder's own investment, from people who are investing primarily because of their relationship with the founder rather than their knowledge of the business. A common way for a startup to fund their initial round of capital. A 20-25% discount from the next round is appropriate. The valuation cap is going to vary depending on the size of the raise and the size of the opportunity.
Friends and Family
Fund Size Funding
Funding Platform
The total amount of capital committed by the investors of a venture capital fund. This term is used synonymously with the words “financing” and “capital.” It refers to the amount of money that is needed for a business endeavor. For example, a new business owner may seek a certain amount of funding for their startup company. This “raised” capital can be used to launch their endeavor as well as to sustain their company until monetary profit can be generated. Any online website used to facilitate investments in private companies. As a defined term, a specific type of platform defined by the JOBS Act of 2012 that will allow non-Accredited investors to invest in private offerings.
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G
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General Partnership
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Golden Rule
Grant
An organizational structure in which each general partner shares in the administration, profits and losses of the operation The common set of accounting principles, standards, and procedures. GAAP is a combination of authoritative standards set by standard-setting bodies as well as accepted ways of doing accounting. The investor with the gold, makes the rules. (The same meaning as "those who bring the money drive the bus"; i.e., forget whatever any previous contracts say, if you need money and only one source is willing to supply it, you'll take the money on their terms, period.) Money provided by a government agency or other organization that does not need to be repaid and does not purchase equity.
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H
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Holding Period
The amount of time an investor has held an investment. The period begins on the date of purchase and ends on the date of sale, and determines whether a gain or loss is considered short term or long term, for capital-gains-tax purposes.
Home Based Business
A home based business is a business whose primary office is in the owner's home. The business can be any size or any type as long as the office itself is located in a home. A highly attractive offering used to entice a specific, targeted audience. The internal rate of return that a fund must achieve before its general partners or managers may receive an increased interest in the proceeds of the fund. Often, if the expected rate of return on an investment is below the hurdle rate, the project is not undertaken
Honeypot Hurdle Rate
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I
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Independent Contractor One who practices an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the public. The person contracting for their services must have the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result.
Illiquid
Impact Investing In-Licensing Agreement
Information Rights
Initial Public Offering
An investment that cannot be readily sold or transferred into cash. Unlike public stocks for which there is a ready market, angel investments are typically held for 5 to 10 years Financial investments that also aim to have a benefit for society. Agreements with external or third parties under which the startup has been granted permission to utilize certain technologies owned by those third parties, under defined terms and conditions. - A provision, typically found in Investors Rights Agreements which requires startup companies to provide board updates and financial information to minority shareholders on a periodic, (such as quarterly or yearly) basis. 
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(IPO) The sale or distribution of a stock of a portfolio company to the public for the first time. IPOs are often an opportunity for the existing investors (often venture capitalists) to receive significant returns on their original investment. During periods of market downturns or corrections, the opposite is true.3 (IPO) This is a private corporation’s firsttime sale or allocation of a stock that is made 39
available to the public. IPOs can be distributed to both young and established companies who seek to expand or warrant public trading. - Synonyms: IPO
Institutional Investors
Internal Rate of Return
Organizations that professionally invest, including insurance companies, depository institutions, pension funds, investment companies, mutual funds, and endowment funds.  Institutional Investors refers mainly to insurance companies, pension funds and investment companies collecting savings and supplying funds to markets but also to other types of institutional wealth like endowment funds, foundations, etc. - A typical measure of how VC Funds measure performance. IRR is technically a discount rate: the rate at which the present value of a series of investments is equal to the present value of the returns on those investments. 
Often used in capital budgeting, it's the interest rate that makes net present value of all cash flow equal zero. Essentially, IRR is the return that a company would earn if they expanded or invested in themselves, rather than investing that money abroad.
Intrapreneur Invention Assignment Agreement
An intrapreneur is one who takes on entrepreneurlike ventures within a large corporate environment An agreement under which founders, employees, contractors, developers and others assign intellectual property rights to a company. Typically, these stakeholders or related parties of the 40
Investment Banks
Investment Company Act of 1940 Investment Letter -
Investment Round
IRA Rollover
Issued Shares
company acknowledge that any and all intellectual property developed by them while working for or with the company, whether individually or jointly with other stakeholders, are the property of the company, not the individual. It can also apply to intellectual property that founders and others may contribute to a startup company at the time of its establishment. Investment Bank is a financial intermediary that performs a variety of services which includes underwriting, acting as an intermediary between an issuer of securities and the investing public, facilitating mergers and other corporate reorganizations, and also acting as a broker for institutional clients - Investment Company Act shall mean the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, including the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder A letter signed by an investor purchasing unregistered long securities under Regulation D, in which the investor attests to the long-term investment nature of the purchase. These securities must be held for a minimum of one year before they can be sold. A set of one or more investments made in a particular company by one or more investors on essentially similar terms at essentially the same time. The reinvestment of assets received as a lump-sum distribution from a qualified tax-deferred retirement plan. Reinvestment may be the entire lump sum or a portion thereof. If reinvestment is done within 60 days, there are no tax consequences. The amount of common shares that a corporation has sold (issued). 41
J
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JOBS Act
Joint Venture
The “Jumpstart Our Business Startups” (“JOBS”) Act, passed by overwhelming bipartisan congressional majorities in both chambers and signed into law by President Obama in April, 2012. The JOBS Act contains seven sections, or “titles” aimed at facilitating different aspects of the development and success of the allimportant business startups and growth companies that create the vast majority of new employment in our country. Title III legalizes and regulates securities-based crowdfunding. Actual implementation of the securities-based crowdfunding authorized in the JOBS Act awaits rulemaking by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), called for within 270 days of passage of the JOBS Act but realistically hoped for sometime in 2013. A legal entity created by two or more businesses joining together to conduct a specific business enterprise with both parties sharing profits and losses. It differs from a strategic alliance in that there is a specific legal entity created.
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K
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Kentucky Windag
- In hunting, the modified aim required to compensate for wind or target movement. Used herein to describe the process by which an investor must increase the percentage he needs today so that he will end up with a desired target percentage ownership in the future, after adjusting for future dilutive financing rounds.
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L
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Later-stage Company
- This is a company that is considered to be in its mature stages of development. Unlike early and expansion-stage companies, later-stage companies already have successful commercialized products and services that are publically available as well as a significant generated cash flow. Many venture capitalists tend to invest in mature companies since they are less risky, are already established, have proven to be a financial success.
Lead Investor
The primary investor of a syndicated round of financing. This investor is typically the largest investor of the syndicated round and ususally structures and leads the negotiation of terms related to the investment's documentation.
Limited Partnerships -
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An organization comprised of a general partner, who manages a fund, and limited partners, who invest money but have limited liability and are not involved with the day-to-day management of the fund. In the typical venture capital fund, the general partner receives a management fee and a percentage of the profits (or carried interest). The limited partners receive income, capital gains, and tax benefits. Limited partnership is a business organization with one or more general partners, who manage the business and assume legal debts and obligations and one or more limited partners, who are liable only to the
extent of their investments. Limited partnership is the legal structure used by most venture and private equity funds. Limited partners also enjoy rights to the partnership's cash flow, but are not liable for company obligations.
LinkedIn Liquidation Preference
Liquidation Waterfall
Loan to Value
Lock-up Period
A business oriented social media platform which can be found online at www.linkedin.com. Liquidity preference is the right to receive a specific value for the stock if the business is liquidated. The sequence in which all parties, including investors, employees, creditors, and others receive payments in the event of a company's liquidation through acquisition or bankruptcy Loan Amount / Value of the Collateral. This ratio is most often used in evaluating the risk of real estate loans, where the appraised value of the property can be more objectively ascertained. The higher the LTV, the riskier the loan. The bank may specify a maximum LTV in order to make a loan. - Synonyms: LTV  The period of time that certain stockholders have agreed to waive their right to sell their shares of a public company. Investment banks that underwrite initial public offerings generally insist upon lockups for a set period of time, typically 180 days from large 48
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Logo
shareholders (such as 1% ownership or more) in order to allow an orderly market to develop in the shares. The shareholders that are subject to lockup usually include the management and directors of the company, strategic partners, and such large investors. These shareholders have typically invested prior to the IPO at a significantly lower price to that offered to the public and therefore stand to gain considerable profits. If a shareholder attempts to sell shares that are subject to lockup during the lockup period, the transfer agent will not permit the sale to be completed. Lock-Up Period is the period an investor must wait before selling or trading company shares subsequent to an exit, usually in an initial public offering the lock-up period is determined by the underwriters.
Symbols which identify and represent a company or its’ product or services. It may also be a motto or identifying statement related to a company, its’ product or services.
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M
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Mafia
Main Street Business
Management Fee
Marketing
Meetup
In the context of angel funding and startups, used to describe the loose association of people previously involved with a highly successful technology company, such as Google, Facebook, Paypal or LinkedIn, as founders, early employees or investors A term utilized to reference small traditional family lifestyle businesses such as local retail and service providers. These businesses are typically operated by family for the benefit of the family without the objective of a liquidation event such as the strategic sale or IPO of the company. As a result, these businesses are not typically funded by angel investment groups or VCs. Compensation typically paid annually from an investment fund to the general partner or investment advisor of the fund to cover administration costs, expenses related to investor relations and to compensate them for their services and expertise. - The process of researching, promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. Marketing covers a broad range of practices, including advertising , publicity, promotion, pricing, and overall packaging of the goods or services - A website which enables the facilitation of online in-person meetings of groups with similar interests. Local Meet-ups groups focus on a wide variety of 51
interests, including technology, entrepreneurship, investments and startups from the entrepreneurial world.
Mezzanine Level
Mezzanine level is a term used to describe a company which is somewhere between startup and IPO. Venture capital committed at mezzanine level usually has less risk but less potential appreciation than at the startup level, and more risk but more potential appreciation than in an IPO.
Mission statement
A brief summary of what a business owner wants a business to be doing. The correct term for organizations often referred to as super angels. Structured similar to a traditional venture fund, a Micro-VC is typically much smaller in size, with fewer partners, and invests less money but at an earlier stage. Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Companies or MESBICs are government-chartered venture firms that can invest only in companies that are at least 51 percent owned by members of a minority group. - Synonyms: MESBICs, MESBIC
Micro-VC
Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Companies
Distinct website users who engage with a site's offerings or services in a given month Multi-level Marketing (MLM) Any business in which a person receives proceeds not only from their own sales, but from the sales made by people they have signed up, and potentially people
Monthly Active Users
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those people have signed up, and so on.
Mutual Fund
A mutual fund, or an open-end fund, sells as many shares as investor demand requires. As money flows in, the fund grows. If money flows out of the fund, the number of the fund’s outstanding shares drops. Open- end funds are sometimes closed to new investors, but existing investors can still continue to invest money in the fund. In order to sell shares, an investor usually sells the shares back to the fund. If an investor wishes to buy additional shares in a mutual fund, the investor must buy newly issued shares directly from the fund. (See also: Closed-end Funds.)
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N
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Negative Control Provisions
Terms agreed to as part of an investment round that protect investors from major adverse actions (such as dissolving the company, or selling it to someone for $1), but do not provide the right to affirmatively control the company.
Net Financing Cost
Also called the cost of carry or, simply, carry, the difference between the cost of financing the purchase of an asset and the asset’s cash yield. Positive carry means that the yield earned is greater than the financing cost; negative carry means that the financing cost exceeds the yield earned. A business in which a distributor network is needed to build the business. Usually, such businesses are also MLM (see above) The typical label for any newly organized company, particularly in the context of a leveraged buyout. An agreement under which an employee or principal agrees not to solicit their existing employer’s or company’s employees, clients or customers after departing the company either for their own benefit or that of a competitor. An agreement between two parties under which one party agrees not to become employed by, enter into or establish a similar business, trade or profession in competition with the other party. Such agreements typically restrict competition on a geographic basis for a certain period of time.
Network Marketing
Newco Non Solicitation Agreement
Non-Compete Agreement
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Nonaccredited NVCA Model Documents
- Synonyms: Restrictive Covenants An investor not considered accredited for a Regulation D offering. (See “Accredited Investor.�) A standard set of investment documents for a Series A equity investment round developed by a group of most of the major venture law firms for the National Venture Capital Association.
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O
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Open-end Fund
- An open-end fund, or a mutual fund, generally sells as many shares as investor demand requires. As money flows in, the fund grows. If money flows out of the fund, the number of the fund’s outstanding shares drops. Open-end funds are sometimes closed to new investors, but existing investors can still continue to invest money in the fund. In order to sell shares, an investor generally sells the shares back to the fund. If an investor wishes to buy additional shares in a mutual fund, the investor generally buys newly issued shares directly from the fund.
Outstanding Stock
The amount of common shares of a corporation which are in the hands of investors. It is equal to the amount of issued shares less treasury stock.
Over-the-Counter
A market for securities made up of dealers who may or may not be members of a formal securities exchange. The overthe-counter market is conducted over the telephone and is a negotiated market rather than an auction market such as the NYSE. Purchasing standard operational services from another business. Outsourced services typically including accounting, payroll, IT, advertising, and more. See Top 10 Tips for Outsourcing Success
Outsourcing
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P
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PageRank Pay to Play
Peer to Peer Lending
Pitch
Pitch Deck
An algorithm which provides a measure of the relative importance of internet web pages and returned search results. A term in VC financing that requires investors to participate in future downvaluation financings of the company, or else suffer punitive consequences (such as getting their Preferred stock converted into Common stock). One reason why investors keep some dry powder on hand. A relatively new type of online financing solution through which individuals lend money to other individuals or small businesses A presentation in which a startup founder attempts to persuade an investor of the viability of their company. The presentation spectrum varies based on the specific purpose of the pitch. Brief presentations in which an entrepreneur provides a 30 - 60 second overview of their idea, business model and marketing strategy, with the purpose of attaining a followup audience with an investor are described as elevator pitches. Formal, detailed presentations utilizing power point type slide decks, with the specific objective of seeking investment from angel groups or VCs, are known as investment presentation pitches. A presentation created by entrepreneurs that details the attributes of a startup opportunity in order to help the entrepreneurs communicate it with investors, in their efforts to raise money 60
Placement Agent
Platform as a Service
Portfolio Portfolio Companies Post-money Cap Table
to fund their venture. The presentation, which typically includes approximately a dozen slides, provides a summary of the startup’s business plan, and helps investors determine if they have a continued interest in evaluating the company. The investment bank, broker, or other person that locates investors to purchase securities from the Company in a private offering, in exchange for a commission. A cloud computing service category which provides a foundation upon which customers can develop, operate and manage multiple app functionalities without the need to develop the underlying infrastructure. - Synonyms: PaaS A strategic collection of startup companies invested in by an angel, angel group or Venture Capital Fund. Startups and other companies in which an angel group, venture capital fund or private equity firm have invested. - A cap table depicting the ownership of the founders and investors in terms of absolute quantities of shares or units, depending upon entity type, and percentages of total ownership they represent. These ownership stakes and the related analyses, typically represent the stakeholders of a startup venture and also provides analysis of equity dilution. The table depicting the value of the entity and equity holdings by each of the 61
Pre-money Cap Table
Preemptive Right
Professional Partner
Proprietary Deal Flow Public Relations (PR)
stakeholders after an investment by new investors is a post-money cap table. A cap table depicting the ownership of the founders and investors in terms of absolute quantities of shares or units, depending upon entity type, and percentages of total ownership they represent. These ownership stakes and the related analyses, typically represent the stakeholders of a startup venture and also provides analysis of equity dilution. The table depicting the value of the entity and equity holdings by each of the stakeholders prior to an investment by new investors is a pre-money cap table. A shareholder's right to acquire an amount of shares in a future offering at current prices per share paid by new investors, whereby his/her percentage ownership remains the same as before the offering. Services and professional partners of the startup entity typically including, but not limited to their commercial attorney, intellectual property attorney, accountant / CPA, consultants and contract development partners. When an investor has an opportunity to review a deal before other potential investors. The deliberate promotion of a specific image for a business. Often confused with publicity which is simply the materials used in a specific part of a public relations effort. 62
Put
Put option
A contractual term/condition which provides the investor the option to compel the company to purchase their shares. The right to sell a security at a given price (or range) within a given time period.
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Q
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Quarter over Quarter
- A financial comparison which examines a specified performance factor for a specified quarter with the same performance factor for the previous quarter. Quarter over Quarter comparisons can can be direct comparing the actual performance factors, or differences between the factors in either absolute or percentage terms. - Synonyms: QoQ
Quora
A leading question-and-answer website where many industry experts in early stage investing answer questions.
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R
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Raising capital refers to obtaining capital from investors or venture capital sources. The reorganization of a company’s capital Recapitalization structure. A company may seek to save on taxes by replacing preferred stock with bonds in order to gain interest deductibility. Recapitalization can be an alternative exit strategy for venture capitalists and leveraged-buyout sponsors. (See also: Exit Strategy and Leveraged Buyout.) - The act a broker/dealer makes with an investor Reconfirmation to confirm a transaction. [“Public Offering”] A transaction in which a Registered Offering Company sells specified securities to the public under a Registration Statement which has been declared effective by the SEC. - Synonyms: Public Offering The SEC’s review process of all securities intended Registration to be sold to the public. The SEC requires that a registration statement be filed in conjunction with any public securities offering. This document includes operational and financial information about the company, the management, and the purpose of the offering. The registration statement and the prospectus are often referred to interchangeably. Technically, the SEC does not “approve” the disclosures in prospectuses Registration Obligation The obligation of Company to register the shares issued to an investor in a private offering for resale to the public through a Registration Statement which the SEC has declared effective. - The right to require that a company register Registration Rights restricted shares. Demand Registered Rights enable the shareholder to request registration at any time, while Piggy Back Registration Rights enable the shareholder to request that the company register his or her shares when the
Raising Capital
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company files a registration statement (for a public offering with the SEC). Separate agreement in which the investor’s registration rights are evidenced.
Registration Rights Agreement Registration Statement The document filed by a Company with the SEC
Representations and Warranties Resale Registration Reverse Vesting
Risk
Rule 144
Runway
under the Securities Act in order to obtain approval to sell the securities described in the Registration Statement to the - A list of material statements or facts that are included in the investment documentation and to which the entrepreneur unequivocally commits. - Registration by a Company of the investor’s sale of the shares purchased by the investor in a private offering. When founders of a company agree that they will give back part of their stock holdings if they leave the company before a specified date (typically four years). This is usually required by investors, and a good thing for founders themselves in the case of multiple founders. The probability that part or all of an original investment will be lost or that investment returns will be lower than anticipated. Numerous factors may impact these potential investment and return losses, including but not limited to demand risk, economic risk, environmental risk, funding risk, legislative risk, maintenance risk, operational risk, procurement risk, technology risk and timing risk. Rule 144 provides for the sale of restricted stock and control stock. Filing with the SEC is required prior to selling restricted and control stock, and the number of shares that may be sold is limited. How long a startup can survive before it goes broke; that is, the amount of cash in the bank divided by the burn rate 68
S
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Scalability
Screening
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Optimization
Secondary Purchase Secondary Sale Seed Capital
The ability of a startup or small business to leverage its' existing resources to grow and operate at a larger scale without being encumbered by factors such as capital investment, human resources and legacy structures, etc. A process utilized by individual investors, angel groups and VC funds to determine their interest in investment opportunities. The screening may be informal or formal in nature and typically includes an assessment of the opportunity against the investors previously determined criteria for investment. An online type of marketing designed to drive traffic to a company or an organizations’ website to optimize its ranking, including but not limited to paying for the site to appear in search engine results. - Synonyms: SEM Processes and methods used to increase or boost site rankings or the frequency in which a websites search results are returned by an internet search engine as part of a process to maximize user traffic to the site. - Synonyms: SEO Secondary Purchase is purchase of stock in a company from a shareholder rather than purchasing stock directly from the company The sale of private or restricted holdings in a portfolio company to other investors. Seed Capital is the money used to purchase equity-based interest in a new or existing company. This seed capital is usually quite small because the venture is still in the idea or conceptual stage. - Synonyms: Seed Money 70
Seed Fund Seed Money
Serial Entrepreneur Series Seed
Servicemark
Sherpa Signature Loan
Silent Partner
A venture capital fund specializing in very-earlystage startups. - The initial round of capital for start-up companies, typically provided by angel investors through preferred stock or convertible bond type instruments. - Synonyms: Seed Capital An entrepreneur who has previously founded and run one or more ventures. Used generally to refer to the first equity round from serious seed or angel investors in a company, following its Friends & Family round but prior to a Series A. An identifying word, phrase, design or symbol that permits third parties to distinguish and differentiate the sources of differing parties services. Servicemarks are registered with the appropriate governmental offices such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, (USPTO). - Synonyms: SM In the startup world, an advisor who helps guide and support a new company. This type of loan is secured by the “signature” or promise to pay by the borrower. There may or may not be restrictions on its use. Also known as a “character loan” or “good-faith loan”. A silent partner is an investor who does not have any management responsibilities but provides capital and shares liability for any losses experienced by the entity. Silent partners are liable for in any losses up to the amount of their invested capital and participate in any tax and cash flow benefits. 71
A new form of funding for early stage companies developed by YCombinator to solve a number of issues with traditional convertible note financing. Provides loans to small-business investment Small Business companies (SBICs) that supply venture capital Administration (SBA) and financing to small businesses. - Synonyms: SBA Small Business Innovati The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) on Development Act of program is a set-aside program for domestic small-business concerns to engage in 1982 Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. The SBIR program was established under the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982, reauthorized until September 30, 2000 by the Small Business Research and Development Enhancement Act, and reauthorized again until September 30, 2008 by the Small Business Reauthorization Act of 2000. See Small Business Innovation Development Act Small Business of 1982. Innovation Research - Synonyms: Small Business Innovation Research Program
Simple Agreement for Future Equity
Small Business Investment Companies
Small Business
(SBIC) Small Business Investment Companies or SBIC are lending and investment firms that are licensed and regulated by the Small Business Administration . The licensing enables them to borrow from the federal government to supplement the private funds of their investors. SBICs prefer investments between $100,000 to $250,000 and have much more generous underwriting guidelines than a venture capital firm. - Synonyms: SBIC The Small Business Technology Transfer program, from the US government; intended 72
Technology Transfer program Social Media
Social Proof Social Venture
Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics Startup
Statutory Voting
Strategic Investors
to assist educational institutions in transferring new technology to the private sector. The use of electronic online communities to share information, communicate ideas and personal messages and engage with others through comments, discussion and various media such as blog articles and video. Examples of platforms on which social media communities exist include FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora and Twitter. An investment approach leaning heavily on the identity of other, well-known people who are supporting the company - A startup enterprise established to benefit society utilizing entrepreneurial methods. Social ventures may be either a "for-profit" or a "nonprofit" entity. - Synonyms: Social Enterprise (SCCE) A non-profit professional organization dedicated to fostering law-compliant and ethical corporate behavior. - Synonyms: SCCE A startup is a new business venture / enterprise in its initial or early stages of development. These stages include the concept, seed, early, growth and mezzanine stages. A method of voting for members of the Board of Directors of a corporation. Under this method, a shareholder receives one vote for each share and may cast those votes for each of the directorships. For example: An individual owning 100 shares of stock of a corporation that is electing six directors could cast 100 votes for each of the six candidates. This method tends to favor the larger shareholders. Corporate or individual investors that add value to investments they make through industry and 73
Subordinated Debt
Success Fee Super Angel
Syndicate Syndication
personal ties that can assist companies in raising additional capital as well as provide assistance in the marketing and sales process. A note or loan which can only be paid after other, more senior or higher ranking obligations can be paid, in the event of a liquidation. This type of obligation, also known as "junior debt" is riskier than unsubordinated, debt which has preferential claims on company assets. - A percentage commission paid to an intermediary or other individual as an incentive on the closing of a large financing transaction. - A misnomer describing micro VCs. True super angels are active angels who make many significant investments, find and negotiate investments, and can bring other investors along with them Underwriters or broker/dealers who sell a security as a group. The process whereby a group of venture capitalists will each put in a portion of the amount of money needed to finance a small business
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T
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Tag-Along Rights / Rights of A minority-shareholder protection affording the right to include their shares Co-Sale Takedown Schedule
Term Loan
Terms Sheet
Time Value of Money
Trademark
Turnaround
in any sale of control and at the offered price. A takedown schedule means the timing and size of the capital contributions from the limited partners of a venture fund.
A loan that is paid off in a set period of time, usually in equal monthly installments throughout the duration (or term) of the loan. Term Loans can be a secured or unsecured loans. A non-binding agreement or template that outlines an overview of the terms and conditions between the entrepreneur and investor, which will ultimately be incorporated in the definitive investment agreements between the parties. The basic principle that money can earn interest; therefore, something that is worth $1 today will be worth more in the future if invested. This is also referred to as future value - An identifying word, phrase, design or symbol that permits third parties to distinguish and differentiate the goods of differing parties. Trademarks are registered with the appropriate governmental offices such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, (USPTO). - Synonyms: TM Turnaround is the term used when the poor performance of a company or the business experiences a positive reversal. 76
U
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UI Designer
Underwriter
Underwritten Offering
Up-round
User
A designer in the tech world who has a principal focus on how the product is laid out. - Synonyms: User Interface Designer An investment banking firm leading the float of a public issue, with the commitment and willingness to take the securities being offered into its own book should the distribution fail. Registered offering that is sold through a consortium of investment banks assembled by one or more lead investment banks. When the valuation of a company at the time of an investment round is higher than its valuation at the conclusion of the previous round. An individual or enterprise that utilizes a product or service. Such use can be on a paid or unpaid basis.
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A statement a company utilizes to express why customers should purchase their product or service, as compared to that of a competitor. The objective of the statement is to convince potential customers that their product or service adds more value than that of alternative offerings. A public announcement of new hardware or software prior to the products actual development. Often the product is never released and announcements are not rescinded; hence the reference to "vapor". Venture is often used for referring to a risky start-up or enterprise company. Investment capital made available to high growth, scalable startups, typically beginning at the early stage, from a fund supported by accredited investors. Venture Capital Firm is an investment company that invests its shareholders' money in startups and other risky but potentially very profitable ventures. Venture capital funds pool and manage money from investors seeking private equity stakes in small and medium-size enterprises with strong growth potential. - Venture Capital Limited Partnership is a limited partnership which is formed to invest in small
Value Proposition
Vaporware
Venture Venture Capital
Venture Capital Firm
Venture Capital Funds
Venture Capital Limited Partnership 80
startup businesses with exceptional growth potential. A group of high net worth investors who pool their money to invest in later stage startup companies A timetable and methodology under which a startup releases shares to employees, management, founders, advisors, board members and other company stakeholders.
Venture Capitalist Vesting Schedule
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W
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Wantrepreneur
Waterfall Website
Weighted Average Antidil ution
White Paper
Wireframe
Write-up/Write-down
An individual who continuously ponders, desires or wants to start a business, acts as if they are an entrepreneur but fails to take the steps necessary to establish and operate a business. - The order in which investors (and everyone else) get their money out on an exit. Almost always this is "last in, first out." An organized property made up of a group of connected pages on the World Wide Web, (Internet) that are considered a single entity. - Synonyms: Internet The investor’s conversion price is reduced, and thus the number of common shares received on conversion increased, in the case of a down round; it takes into account both: (a) the reduced price and, (b) how many shares (or rights) are issued in the dilutive financing. A white paper is a proposal, report, or other informational document created by a company or non-profit with an emphasis on a product, service, or solution A visual depiction in the form of a schematic or blueprint that represents the framework of a website and related web pages. Typically low tech, it lacks in "look and feel" characteristics, focusing more on the layout of the pages and arrangement of the content including potential navigational processes. An upward or downward adjustment of the value of an asset for accounting and reporting purposes. These adjustments are estimates and tend to be subjective, although they are usually based on events affecting the investee company or its securities beneficially or detrimentally. 83
Y
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Year over Year
A financial comparison which examines a specified performance factor for a specified year with the same performance factor for the previous year. Year over Year comparisons can can be direct comparing the actual performance factors, or differences between the factors in either absolute or percentage terms. It has the advantage over shorter term comparisons of eliminating seasonality and potentially revealing longer term trends.
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Z
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A VC firm that is unable raise a new fund, and thus is unable make investments in new opportunities. A company which claims to have continuing operations but which demonstrates little or no growth in website visitations or use in recent quarters.
Zombie Fund Zombie Startup
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Part Two : Successful Stories For Entrepreneur
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Index: Successful Entrepreneurs Stories in Hospitality Business 90-- 102 Successful Entrepreneurs Stories in Social Media and Applications 103 --- 126 Successful Entrepreneur stories in innovative Technology 127 ---- 134
Successful Entrepreneur stories in Entertainment industry 135 ---- 150
Successful Entrepreneur stories in Food & Beverage industry 151 --- 163
Successful Entrepreneur stories in other industries 164 ----175
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Introduction About The Successful Stories : Most entrepreneurs have said to themselves they want to be like one of people in this list,. We define them as success and role models for who we want to be. This document is to give credit to these amazing entrepreneurs. One thing that most of these people have in common is the fact that they all worked really hard and in the end, they were really well rewarded for that. The list of entrepreneur is divided into sections according to their type of industry field . Here some examples of Successful stories of Entrepreneur who start up a business .
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Successful Entrepreneurs Stories in Hospitality Business
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Conrad Hilton :
Born : San Antonio, New Mexico December 25 , 1885
Died : Santa Monica , California January 3 , 1979 ( aged 91)
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : Hilton Hotels and Resorts
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Entrepreneurial History : Conrad Hilton followed his father of being an entrepreneur. His first hotel purchase was the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, in 1919. He went on to buy hotels throughout Texas. The first high rise hotel he built was the Dallas Hilton, which opened in 1925. Followed by the many great hotels he owned from 1953-1975 when he built over 188 hotels just in the U.S.
The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a family foundation established in 1944 by the man who started Hilton Hotels. The Hilton Foundation provides funds to nonprofit organizations working to improve the lives of disadvantaged and needing people throughout the world.
Conrad N. Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels, established the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation as a philanthropic trust in 1944. In 1950, the Foundation was legally established as a nonprofit corporation, separate from Hilton Hotels Corporation. Upon his death in 1979, Conrad Hilton left nearly his entire estate to the Hilton Foundation. Other Hilton family members serve on the Foundation board.
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William Becker
Born : Pasadena , California May 18, 1921
Died : Pasadena , California April 2, 2007
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : creating the Motel 6 concept of inexpensive motel rooms
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Entrepreneurial History :  He was working as a house painter in Santa Barbara, California when he took a trip in 1960. The price and quality of the motel rooms were substandard, and he contacted a building contractor friend named Paul Green about building low-cost hotels. The first Motel 6 opened in Santa Barbara in 1962 and offered rooms for $6. They sold the chain of 180 motels in 1968 for $14 million.  They reinvented the Motel 6 in Santa Barbara, California, last 1962. What made this hotel stood out from other high-class hotels was that it offers a high-quality lodging at an affordable price compared to the other upscale properties. This pretty deal makes it attractive for travelers to check-in in their hotel. They used their expertise and experience in developing low-cost housing to turn it into a business.
 They know first-hand the need of giving an affordable but high-quality bedding to average families, especially those who are traveling a lot. Their price at that time is $6 a night, no matter the location.
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Cezar Ritz
Born : 23 February 1850 Niederwald, Switzerland
Died : 24 October 1918 (aged 68) KĂźssnacht, Switzerland
Nationality : Swiss
Entrepreneur for : Founder of several hotels
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Entrepreneurial History : Ritz's formative five years in Paris, including the siege of 1870–71 during the Franco-Prussian War, gave him sufficient polish and confidence to transform himself from a waiter and general factotum into a maître d'hôtel, manager, and eventually hotelier. After a short stint working at the Hotel de la Fidélité, he worked as a waiter in a workman's bistro and took a position in a prix fixe restaurant owned by the Chevallier family In the winter of 1873 his astonishing career in hotel management began when he undertook the direction of the restaurant at the Grand Hôtel in Nice. He once stated that his "years of wandering in the wake of a migratory society had begun".[7] While working as manager at the Rigi-Kulm Hotel in Switzerland, an incident occurred that changed his career.
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Barry Sternlicht
Born : November 27 , 1960 ( age 58) New York City , USA
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : Founder of Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
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Entrepreneurial history  In 1993, Sternlicht sold the apartment portfolio to real estate magnate Sam Zell in exchange for a 20% stake in Equity Residentil , which turned out to be a very profitable investment In 1994, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, Sternlicht's company purchased Westin Hotels & Resorts in a $561 million transaction.Sternlicht's innovations included the "W" brand of hotels and the Westin Heavenly Bed.  In 1991, at the age of 31, Sternlicht launched Starwood Capital Group, with Bob Faith, to buy apartment buildings that were being sold by the Resolution Trust Corporation, created by the federal government to hold and liquidate the real estate assets owned by failed banks after the savings and loan crisis.Sternlicht was able to raise $20 million from the families of William Bernard Ziff, Jr.
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Kemmons Wilson
Born : January 5, 1913 Osceola, Arkansas
Died : February 12, 2003 (aged 90) Memphis, Tennessee Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : Occupation Builder/Developer Founder, Holiday Inn
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Entrepreneurial history
Wilson initially came up with the idea after a family road trip to Washington, D.C., during which he was disappointed by the quality of the roadside hotels of that era. The name Holiday Inn was given to the original hotel by his architect Eddie Bluestein as a joke, in reference to the 1942 movie of the same name It’s one of the most famous hotel and motel in 1952. Kemmons Wilson founded this famous hotel chain. He first opened his hotel in Memphis where it grew dramatically. Holiday Inn was known to provide a standardized, clean, family-friendly, first-class accommodation to road travelers. Wilson retired from Holiday Inn in 1979. In 1988, Holiday Corporation was purchased by UKbased Bass PLC, followed by the remaining domestic Holiday Inn hotels in 1990, when founder Wilson sold his interest, after which the hotel group was known as Holiday Inn Worldwide.
Wilson was the founder of many different kind of companies such as Holiday Inn Records. And Orange Lake Country Club. After selling his shares of Holiday Inn, he formedWilson World , another hotel chain. 101
J. Willard Marriott
Born : September 17, 1900 Marriott Settlement, Utah
Died : August 13, 1985 (aged 84) Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : Founder, Marriott Corporation, since 1993 Marriott International
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Entrepreneurial History He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation (which became Marriott International in 1993), the parent company of one of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washignton . in 1927 to a chain of family restaurants by 1932, to its first motel in 1957 Many attested to the fact that he ate, lived, breathed and dreamed about how to run and improve his company "His managers never knew what time of day or night he’d show up at the kitchen door and go bird-dogging almost at a half-run through the kitchen, the pantries, the storage rooms, the refrigerators, the restaurant itself, running a finger over the shelves to check for dust, checking under tables and in cutlery drawers, checking the ranges, the storage rooms, the trays about to be served, sampling the root beer, and raising hell if everything wasn’t spotless, neat, clean, bright, polished, done efficiently, done well." Even after the company grew to include hundreds of restaurants and hotels, Marriott vowed to personally inspect every establishment at least four times a year. 103
Successful Entrepreneurs Stories in Social Media and Applications
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Jeff Bezos:
Born : Albuquerque , New Mexico , U.S January 12, 1964 ( aged 55 )
Nationality : American
Know for : Chairman , CEO , and president of Amazon
Entrepreneur for : Founding Amazon
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Entrepreneurial History
After Bezos graduated from Princeton in 1986, he was offered jobs at Intel, Bell Labs, and Andersen Consulting, among others.
He first worked at Fitel, a fintech telecommunications start-up, where he was tasked with building a network for international trade. Bezos was promoted to head of development and director of customer service thereafter He then joined D. E. Shaw & Co, a newly founded hedge fund, in 1990 and worked there until 1994. Bezos became D. E. Shaw's fourth senior vice-president at the age of 30. In late 1993, Bezos decided to start an online bookstore. ( Amazon ) He revolutionize the way we shop things as he launched Amazon.com Gone are the things that we need to physically go to a brick and mortar store to shop the things we want. In just a click away, we can shop for things at any time of the day and have it deliver on our doorstep with ease. In 1998, Bezos diversified into the online sale of music and video; by the end of the year, he had also expanded the company's products to include a variety of consumer goods. In 2002, Bezos led Amazon to launch Amazon Web Services, which compiled data from weather channels and website traffic 106
Pierre Omidyar
Born : June 21, 1967 (age 51) Paris, France
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : Founding of eBay
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Entrepreneurial History Pierre was the founder of the online auction site, eBay. He bridged the gap by connecting buyers and sellers of collectible items. And now, He created a global marketplace out of his little experiment. “What would happen within a marketplace if everyone had equal access to information and tools?” Omidyar wondered. “Would a level playing field enable individuals to compete alongside big businesses?” Judging by eBay’s success, Omidyar’s answer is yes. He created a simple prototype on his personal web page, and on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 1995, he launched an online service called Auction Web, which would eventually become the auction site eBay.[19] The service was originally one of several items on Omidyar's website eBay.com, which also had a section devoted to the Ebola virus, among other topics.[20][21] The first item sold on the site was a broken laser pointer[22]. He originally wanted the "Echo Bay" name because of the recreational area near Lake Mead, Nevada because it "sounded cool." When he found out that echobay.com was taken, he simply dropped the "cho", and ebay.com was born.[23] The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media.
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Larry Page
Born : March 26, 1973 (age 46 years), East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Google
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Entrepreneurial History Larry Page was a Standford graduate who envisioned to create a more convenient way in accessing the Web. Together with his team, they formed Google in 1998. The only vision they had for Google was centered on valuing content. Now, Google became the world’s trusted source of information on The Web. Aside from that, Google takes pride in creating a creative environment to foster their employees. Landing them on the top of Fortune magazine’s Best Places to Work. Since Google now controls almost 80% of world’s search business market, Page became one of the wealthiest men alive. Time is like the primary thing" and that "If you think about it from a music point of view, if you're a percussionist, you hit something, it's got to happen in milliseconds, fractions of a second". Page was first attracted to computers when he was six years old, as he was able to "play with the stuff lying around"—first-generation personal computers—that had been left by his mother and father.[25] He became the "first kid in his elementary school to turn in an assignment from a word processor" His older brother also taught him to take things apart and before long he was taking "everything in his house apart to see how it worked".
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Bill Gates
Born : October 28, 1955 (age 63) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : Principal founder of Microsoft
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Entrepreneurial History William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, and humanitarian. He is best known as the principal founder of Microsoft CorporationDuring his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014 This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.[11] Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people, an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding and ranking against those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.[12][13] From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years, and held it consistently from March 2014 to July 2017, with an estimated net worth of US$89.9 billion as of October 2017.[1] However, on July 27, 2017, and since October 27, 2017, he has been surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion at the time.[14] As of August 6, 2018, Gates had a net worth of $95.4 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, behind Bezos. In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen launched Microsoft, which became the world's largest PC software company. Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, 112
but he remained chairman and became chief software architect.[7] In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation that he and his wife, Melinda Gates, established in 2000.He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.[9] He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO
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Mark Zuckerberg
Born : White Plains, New York, USA May 14 ,1984 ( aged 34)
Nationality : American
Know for : Co-Founding and leading facebook
Entrepreneur for : Technology entrepreneur facebook application
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Entrepreneurial History : Zuckerberg first launched his website Facebook whilst attending Harvard University, the website was launched from his dormitory room, on 4 February 2004. It has been rumoured, but the inspiration for Facebook actually came from his former high school the Phillips Exeter Academy which had its own student directory known as”The Photo Address Book” which according to rumour, the students nicknamed the Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg was joined by fellow Harvard university students Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes as he wanted to evolve the Facebook website. To begin with Facebook wasn’t available to everybody and due to this competitors such as; MySpace and Bebo seemed to be the clear winners, in terms of social networking. However that soon changed when Zuckerberg and the cofounders of Facebook dropped out of the Harvard University in a bid to make Facebook success, which they knew was possible, due to the amount of support it had received at the University. By then the 2004 Facebook had received over 1 million users for the website. Then in 2005 capital venture firm Accel partners, invested $12.7 million into the business to help them evolve its further. Soon Facebook was being approached by massive brands and companies 115
who wants to buy out Zuckerberg and co-tutor is obvious trendsetting capabilities and the possible revenue to be made from it. However we know that Zuckerberg didn’t actually sell Facebook and he still is CEO of it although his partners have left now, and today according to Forbes magazine Zuckerberg is worth  approximately $6.9 billion. Not bad for a college dropout.
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Arianna Huffington
Born : Athens, Greece July 15 , 1950 ( age 68 )
Nationality : Greek – Americann
Know for : Founder of The Huffington Post Founder and CEO of Thrive Global , Author of 15 books
Entrepreneur for : A Pioneer in Blogging and Online News
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Entrepreneurial career : Ariana Huffington, born in 1950 in Athens has got to be the most influential and professional as well as successful female within the blogging industry. she also wrote a biography on public Picasso eight years later in 1989. To became well known in the early 90s due to her relentless support for conservative causes during her ex-husband’s unsuccessful bid for the Senate in (1994). She later founded the Huffington is which is now liberal American news websites which he co-founded with Ken Lerer and Jonah Peretti. The website itself of some mass of valuable information regarding politics, business, lifestyle, and environmental causes as well as media and entertainment news. They decided that the website could do with some localisation, so that loyal supporters of the Huffington Post could read detailed news for the area, due to this in 2000 they launched their very first local version of the Huffington post called HuffPost Chicago, very soon after came New York and Denver as well as Los Angeles. As well as writing articles for the blog herself she also has the help from many of her famous supporters such as Rosie O’Donnell and Harry Shearer. She has also won many awards through the Huffington post; such as winning the People’s Voice Award in the 2010 webby awards, she also won the 2006 and 2007 webby award for best politics blog and in 2009 the blog was named second in the best 25 blogs of 2009 in Time magazine
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Caterina Fake
Born : Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US Nationality : Amerocan
Entrepreneur for : Co-founding Flickr and Hunch websites image hosting service and video hosting service.
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Entrepreneurial History : Caterina Fake is an American entrepreneur and businesswoman. She co-founded the websites Flickr in 2004—for which she received much recognition—and Hunch in 2011. Fake has been a trustee of multiple nonprofit organizations, and was the chairwoman of Etsy. She has been recognized as a leader in Silicon Valley.
In 1997, she took a job managing the community forums of Netscape.This experience, along with others in blogging and online communities, led her to co-found Ludicorp in Vancouver with Stewart Butterfield and Jason Classon in summer 2002.The company developed a massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Game Neverending Fake joined the board of directors of Creative Commons in August 2008, and the Sundance Institute board of trustees in 2015 In 2014, she left Etsy's board of directors after eight years, citing other professional and personal priorities. Fake has won various awards, including Bloomberg Businessweek's "Best Leaders" in 2005,Forbes's 2005 eGang, Fast Company's Fast 50, and Red Herring's 20 Entrepreneurs under 35.[citation needed] She was listed on the 2006 Time 100—Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people—under the category "Builders and Titans" with her Flickr co-founde
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Jeffrey Christopher Smith
Nationality : Amerocan
Entrepreneur for : Co-founder and CEO of Smule A developer of apps and a social platform for music creation
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Entrepreneurial History : Jeffrey Christopher Smith is an American entrepreneur based out of San Francisco, CA. He is the co-founder and CEO of Smule, a developer of apps and a social platform for music creation and collaboration. Smith began his career as a software engineer at IBM’s Scientific Research Center and has held senior roles at several technology companies, including Frame Technology, Ashton-Tate, and HewlettPackard. Subsequently, Smith co-founded a consumer electronic publishing business that he sold to Novell/WordPerfect. Smith co-founded his second company, Tumbleweed Communications in 1992.Tumbleweed attracted wellknown partners and customers, notably Datek Online Holdings, UPS, Pitney Bowes, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the U.S. Postal Service.As CEO, Smith grew the company to several thousand customers, and eventually took it public on the Nasdaq ('TMWD’). Smith co-founded a third company, Simplify Media, where he served on the board. Simplify Media was eventually acquired by Google, and Smith set off to pursue a Ph.D in Computer Music at Stanford University. He actually co-founded Smule while pursuing his Ph.D. In 2013, Smith completed his Ph.D. with the thesis “Correlation analyses of encoded music performance”, where he documented cultural differences of music performance interpretation. 122
Vladimir Gendelman,
Born : born June 22, 1974) Is a Ukrainian
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : The founder and CEO of Company Folders, Inc ( online folder printing )
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Entrepreneurial History Vladimir Gendelman(born June 22, 1974) is a Ukrainian -born Americanbusinessman. He is a serial entrepreneur in the e-commerce sphere, having founded and sold businesses in multiple sectors. In addition to his business ventures, Gendelman serves on the board of Hebrew Free Loan. Shortly after opening his own computer repair company, Gendelman was approached by a client who asked if he knew how to make branded presentation folders. Realizing that there weren’t many unique foldersavailable online, Gendelman decided to fill this need by founding Company Folders [2] , an innovative presentation folderprinter boutique, in December of 2003. Company Folders now offers one of the largest selections of printed presentation folders [3] and is Gendelman's longest-running enterprise. The company has won multiple awards, including a ranking on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies[4] and on the Internet Retailer Second 500 list. After several journalist acquaintances asked him to contribute his opinion for their articles, Gendelman decided to share his experience and knowledge on a more regular basis. He has since authored numerous articles related to printing, print design, entrepreneurship and leadership
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Matt Maloney and Mike Evans way.
Born : The Matt Maloney : Mike Evans :
December 6, 1971 (age 47) Silver Spring, Maryland August 21, 1993
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for :’’ Grubhub’’ online and mobile food ordering and delivery application
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Entrepreneurial History :
The eureka moment for GrubHub came when Mike and I were working as developers for Apartments.com. We were frustrated by the lack of dinner options as well as the pain in the ass of calling restaurants and reading our credit cards. We wanted to be a national company, but we couldn't afford to put an office in every city in the U.S. So we had to figure out a way to build a market, drive awareness, and sign up restaurants without having to pay rent. When we announced we were keeping both the GrubHub and Seamless brands, the resounding response was, "Why?" GrubHub was doing a really good job nationwide--but Seamless had incredible brand awareness in New York. So we built a tablet app for restaurants to confirm and complete orders, send messages back to us, change a menu item or the restaurant's hours-whatever they need. By keeping both brands, we didn't have to spend money to promote Seamless in markets outside of New York or to promote GrubHub inside New 126
York.We realized that certain restaurants were having a hard time keeping up with the volume of orders.If your order hasn't been confirmed within five minutes, someone from GrubHub is calling that restaurant, because we don't have time to spar
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Successful Entrepreneur stories in innovative Technology
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Micahel S.Dell
Born : on February 23, 1965, Houston, Texas Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : founded Dell technologies
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Entrepreneurial History : Michael Dell helped launch the personal computer revolution in the 1980s with the creation of the Dell Computer Corporation, now known as Dell Inc. Dell's success wasn't entirely surprising. While his mother, a stockbroker, and his father, an orthodontist, pushed their son to consider medicine, Dell showed an early interest in technology and business. A hard worker, Dell landed a job washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant at the age 12 so that he could put away money for his stamp collection. A few years later he harnassed his ability to sift through data to find new customers for newspaper subscriptions for the Houston Post, which earned the high school student $18,000 in one single year. Intrigued by the expanding world of computers and gadgetry, Dell purchased an early Apple computer at the age of 15 for the strict purpose of taking it apart to see how it worked. It was in college that Dell found the niche that would become his boom. The PC world was still young and Dell realized that no company had tried selling directly to customers. Bypassing the middleman and the markups, Dell tapped his savings account for $1,000 and started building and selling computers for people he knew at college. His emphasis, however, wasn't just on good machines, but strong customer support and cheaper prices. Soon, he had accounts outsi 130
Steve Jobs +
Born : Saint Francisco , California February 24 , 1955 Died : Palo Alto , California October 5 , 2011 , ( aged 55 ) Nationality : American
Know for : Co-Founder of , Chairman and CEO of Apple INC Entrepreneur for : Co-Creator of I-Pod , I-Phone , I-Pad and first apples store
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Entrepreneurial History : Steven Paul Jobs was an American inventor, designer and entrepreneur who was the cofounder, chief executive and chairman of Apple Computer. Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in the Jobs’ family garage. They funded their entrepreneurial venture by Jobs selling his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak selling his beloved scientific calculator. Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry with Apple by democratizing the technology and making machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers. Wozniak conceived of a series of user-friendly personal computers, and — with Jobs in charge of marketing . With a new management team a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. Jobs’ ingenious products (like the iMac), effective branding campaigns and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again. In the ensuing years, Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone, all of which dictated the evolution of technology. Almost immediately after 132
Apple released a new product, competitors scrambled to produce comparable technologie Apple became the second-biggest music retailer in America — second only to Walmart, fueled by iTunes and iPod sales. Apple has also been ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of "America's Most Admired Companies," as well as No. 1 among Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.
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George Eastman
Born : Waterville , New York July 12 , 1854
Died : Rochester , New York March 14 , 1932, ( aged 77)
Nationality : American
Know for : Businessman, Entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist
Entrepreneur for : Photography pioneer, Founder of Eastman Kodak
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Entrepreurial History : George Eastman was a self educated man born in Waterville, New York, and is most notable legacy alongside his massive generosity, donating literally millions of dollars of his own personal wealth to charities and hospitals, is that of the roll film. He played a massively leading role in transforming photography as a form bringing it from a very expensive hobby into the public domain so that anybody could take photographs and keep their memories forever. The Kodak company was founded in 1884, and although Eastman had founded the business he was more intrigued with the inventions within the photography industry rather than actually running the business. Due to this he hired Henry Strong as the president of Eastman Kodak. In 1885 Eastman invented the roll film which was used worldwide for over 100 years it was also the basis for the motion picture camera film which early filmmakers such as Thomas Ava Edison used. In 1888 Eastman decided to register Kodak as an official trademark he also came up with the “phrase You Press the Button and We Do the Rest”. Easement died in 1932 but not before donating masses of his personal fortune to numerous causes, such as the University of Rochester and the Royal Free Hospital.*
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Successful Entrepreneur stories in Entertainment industry
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Walt Disney :
Born : December 9 , 1901 Chicago , IIIinois Died : December 15 , 1966 ( aged 65) Burbank , California
Nationality : American Known for : Entrepreneur , Animator , voice actor , film producer
Entrepreneur for : Walt Disney company
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Entrepreneurial history His first break in entertainment came when he was hired by the Kansas City film Ad Company, where he learned to make animations from cut-outs. He was then given a massive inspiration after reading the book by Edwin G. Lutz; Animated Cartoons: how they are made. Upon reading it and getting quite excited about the prospects of becoming a professional animator he left Kansas City Film Ad Company. His second business went bankrupt; which was mainly down to the studio costs, staff costs and and lack of business to bring in revenue to pay for them. Which meant he wasn’t a bad businessman, he was just bad with money. Having really learned his lesson from failing so miserably, Walt and his brother Roy went to Hollywood where they managed to secure a distributor deal to help with the business. Things grew more and more successful and the business started to go from strength to strength. His unique characters and his ability to bring animation to life really brought the fans to the cinemas and theatres. Walt Disney received an Academy award in 1932 for his efforts in animation, thanks to his new found fans who were demanding more cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney continues his success for another 34 years before his death they left behind a legacy which is now called the Walt Disney Co. Today the Walt Disney business is currently worth $35 billion.
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Martha Stewart
Born :
August 3, 1941 (age 77 years), Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia , Television, magazine publisher , Health, Entertainment, Advice
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Entrepreneurial History Martha Stewart may not be very well-known to our British readers; although you probably have heard her name before. Martha Stewart, is an American television host who also has published magazines in the past. She managed to create amazing success for herself through a plethora of business ventures such as publishing, merchandising, presenting and also broadcasting. Perhaps the most recognizable thing that many of you will think of when you think of Martha Stewart is prison, or rather her prison time. In 2004 she was convicted of lying to an investigator, regarding a stock sale and served only five months in prison. Just so the British readers understand, lying to an investigator in the US, is a federal offense which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Many people thought that inside the prison she would deteriorate, and possibly have a mental breakdown however that did not happen and on her return from prison she bounced back massively and became even more successful than before. In 2005 she released a book which was highly publicized due to her comeback, this was received very well by her funds and became a very good seller. To them back into television with the Martha Stewart show and also appeared on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Today with all of her merchandise which is in many stores around the US, her lucrative television deals and her many books and magazines have earned her an accumulated total approximately $913 million.
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Simon Fuller
Born :
17, 1960 (age 58 years), Cyprus
Nationality : British Entrepreneur for : the founding creator of the pop Idol franchi and the television producer
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Enterpreneurial History : Simon Fuller, although born in Cyprus, is a British artist manager, he’s also the television producer and the founding creator of the pop Idol franchise. Pop Idol as you may know first appeared in the UK and has continued over 100 different versions including American Idol and Australian Idol to name just a few. Is also being a manager of many very great performers his most notable ones being Annie Lennox, the Spice Girls, and S club 7. He was the chief executive in 19 Entertainment, which is based in the three major cities of London, LA, and New York. He founded the business in 1985 after leaving the company Chrysalis Ltd and working with some of the most profound names in the music industry such as Madonna. In 1985 aged only 25 years old, he signed the musician Paul Hardcastle his first song went to number one in both the UK and the US charts with his Vietnam song,”19”. In 1999 he got his first taste of working in television after he had auditioned over 10,000 different people to form a new band, the band was called S club 7. The band later became one of the most popular pop bands of the era taking many number one places in the UK and the US charts. Fuller later came up with the idea of Pop Idol after taking his time and thinking about how S club 7, was such a success and how the process was such a fun way to decide which musicians and singers to have within a band. As many of you will know, and as stated above, pop Idol went on to become huge success and later went over the waters to America where it was just as successful. Fuller had managed to get some of the best presenters and judges in the entertainment industry to appear on a show. This only created more of a hype and just made the program or that more successful. 142
Oprah Gail Winfrey
Born :
January 29, 1954 (age 65 years), Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : Founder The Oprah Winfrey Show
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Entrepreneurial History : Oprah Winfrey, this is not the first time I have spoken about her and it probably won’t be the last time either; it seems she’s coming up in quite a few places. The reasons why Oprah is such an influential entrepreneurs is because of the fact that she’s been through so much and yet accomplished so much more. After being the subject of vicious sexual attack at the age of nine; she later became pregnant, losing the child at birth she was only 14 years of age at the time. In 1986 she famously revealed this to her shocked viewers on her live show. Her fame came to fruition in 1983, when her seductive character and genuine love of people gained her the job of her dreams; as a talk-show host. The following exposure was explosive and she soon became one of the most famous, most well loved, and most professional people in the entertainment industry. However; she did not want to stop there as she felt there was another side to her, a side of which she wanted to pursue, her entrepreneurial side. In 1988 following her instincts she founded the company Harpo Studios, which for those of you not realised is simply Oprah spelt backwards. The business went on in leaps and bounds most likely due to her television career which gave her a massive amount of advertising is each and every day. The company now has over 250 employees and is currently growing every year. She also co-founded oxygen media which helps attract over 50 million viewers. Because of all of the skills she possesses, and her entrepreneurial side she’s managed to create a personal wealth .
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J. K. Rowling
Born :
July 31, 1965 (age 53 years), Yate, United Kingdom
Nationality : British Entrepreneur for : Founder for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series
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Entrepreneurial History :
Joanne Rowling , who goes by the pen name J.K. Rowling, is a British author and screenwriter best known for her seven-book Harry Potter children's book series. J.K. Rowling was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and struggling to get by as a single mom before her first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, was published. The children's fantasy novel became an international hit and Rowling became an international literary sensation in 1999 when the first three installments of Harry Potter took over the top three slots of The New York Times best-seller list after achieving similar success in her native United Kingdom. The series has sold more than 450 million copies and was adapted into a blockbuster film franchise. Rowling published the novel The Casual Vacancy in 2012, followed by the crime novel Cuckoo Calling under the pen name Robert Galbraith in 2013. In 2016, she released a play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and a movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
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Hans Christian Andersen
Born : April 2, 1805, Odense, Denmark
Died : August 4, 1875, Rolighed
Nationality:
Danish
Entrepreneur for : writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems
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Entrepreneurial History Hans Christian Andersen, born in Denmark in 1805, practically invented the writing of eventyrs; the adventure fairy tale, or fantastic tale. Although he wrote a broad range of work, including plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, it was his fairy tales that became culturally iconic in the Western world. His tales transcend age barriers, national and cultural boundaries and have been translated into more than 125 languages. Many of his stories are featured in our collection of Favorite Fairy Tales. His stories have inspired countless plays, ballets, and movies. Who hasn't read or seen an animated movie adaptation of Thumbelina (1835), The Emperor's New Clothes (1837), The Little Mermaid (1836), and The Princess and the Pea (1835?) Andersen also blessed us with one of the saddest but most poignant and beautiful Christmas stories of all time, The Little Match Girl (also known as The Little Matchstick Girl). We encourage teachers and students to use our Study Guide .In 1847 on his first visit to Britain, Andersen met Charles Dickens. Andersen wrote in his diary, "We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most." ("Hcandersenhomepage.dk. 2001-12-30). Both authors focused on the poor and underprivileged, tales of transcendence to a better life through hard work, guts, and good fortune. Andersen's stories laid the groundwork for other children's classics, such as The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. It's as if Andersen was a pre-ordained Disney 148
writer, with his penchant for making inanimate objects, like toys, come to life and have adventures appealing to people of all ages he created a series of timeless classics. Andersen was a master writer whose work and themes have been emulated throughout time, and through a broad spectrum of platforms  Andersen died on August 4, 1875 in Copenhagen, having never fully recovered from an injury he sustained after falling out of his bed two years earlier.
Peter Jones :
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Born :
March 18, 1966 (age 53 years), Maidenhead, United Kingdom
Nationality : British Entrepreneur for : investor on the BBC Two television show Dragons' Den and on American television series American Inventor.
Entrepreneurial History :  Peter (CBE) is probably best known by the public for his role on Dragon’s Den, a British television programme which is broadcast on the BBC network. He is a British entrepreneur whose main dealings are within the mobile telecommunication, media and leisure industries. He is also named America for his television programme the American Inventor, on which he judges businesses in an almost X-factor style show for business. His first business venture to earn him money was a tennis academy which he set up at the age of 16. His second and also successful 150
business venture was completely different in that it was a technological company based on computers where he manufactured his own PCs however the business went bankrupt after failing to receive payment from his customers. This led to him having to give up his threebedroom house as well as his cars, forcing him to move back in with his parents. He then joined the company Siemens Nixdorf, and it 20 years of age he became the youngest ever head of the business unit in United Kingdom. After leaving Siemens Nixdorf he started to work within the telecommunications industry and after a year of hard saving he managed to set up his next business venture which was Phones International Group. Times were obviously hard in the beginning as he has stated he had to sleep on the office floor until his business grew enough for him to find somewhere suitable to live. His business became amazingly successful and is revenue totalled nearly £14 million by the end of his first year which more than doubled in his second year when it nearly reached £45 million. Peter James undoubtedly brought telecommunications to new heights and new levels within United Kingdom, and in doing so has made brave leaps of faith within business proving years true entrepreneur. Since starting his second business venture he has been part of many other investments through the Dragon’s Den programme on the BBC with most notable ones probably being; Reggae Reggae, Visual Talent, and more recently Worthenshaw
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Successful Entrepreneur stories in Food & Beverage industry
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David Chang
Born :
August 5, 1977 (age 41) Vienna, Virginia, U.S.
Nationality : American
Entrepreneur for : founder of the Momofuku restaurant group
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Entrepreneurial History David Chang is an American restaurateur, author, and television personality. He is the founder of the Momofuku restaurant group, which includes Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Milk Bar, and Momofuku Ko in New York City; Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney; Momofuku Noodle Bar and Kojin in Toronto; and Momofuku CCDC in Washington, DC In 2009, Momofuku Ko was awarded two Michelin stars, which it has retained each year since. In 2018, Chang created, produced, and starred in a Netflix original series, Ugly Delicious. Chang stayed at Craft for two years and then moved back to Japan to work at a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel, Chang started attending the French Culinary Institute (FCI)— now known as the International Culinary Center—in New York City in 2000, While he was training, he also worked part-time at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan and got a job answering phones at Tom Colicchio's Craft restaurant In 2004, Chang opened his first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar in the East Village. Chang's website states momofuku means "lucky peach", but the restaurant also shares a name with Momofuku Ando[—the inventor of instant noodles. In August 2006, Chang's second restaurant, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, opened a few blocks away. In March 2008, Chang opened Momofuku Ko, a 12-seat restaurant that takes reservations ten days in advance, online only, on a first-come-first-served basis. Later that year, Chang expanded Momofuku Ssäm Bar into an adjacent space, which he named Momofuku Milk Bar, serving 154
soft serve, along with cookies, pies, cakes and other treats. In May 2009 it was reported that Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie, Cereal Milk, and Compost Cookies were in the process of being trademarked. In October 2009, Chang and former New York Times food writer Peter Meehan published Momofuku, a highly anticipated cookbook containing detailed recipes from Chang's restaurants.  A new Momofuku restaurant, Kojin, opened in the space in 2018.
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Colonel Sanders
Born : September 9, 1890 Henryville, Indiana, U.S. Died : December 16, 1980 (aged 90) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : Founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken
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Entrepreneurial history
Colonel Harland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890, in Henryville, Indiana. At the age of 40, Sanders was running a popular Kentucky service station that also served food—so popular, in fact, that the governor of Kentucky designated him a Kentucky colonel. Eventually, Sanders focused on franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold. The company went on to become the world's largest fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 16, 1980. Best known for founding the fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, Colonel Harland David Sanders was born on September 9, 1890, in Henryville, Indiana. After his father died when he was 6 years old, Sanders became responsible for feeding and taking care of his younger brother and sister. Beginning at the age of 10, he held down numerous jobs, including farmer, streetcar conductor, railroad fireman and insurance salesman.
At age 40, Sanders was running a service station in Kentucky, where he would also feed hungry travelers. Sanders eventually moved his operation to a restaurant across the street, and featured a fried chicken so notable that he was named a Kentucky colonel in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon.He traveled across the country, cooking batches of chicken from restaurant to restaurant, striking deals that paid him a nickel for every chicken the restaurant sold.Kentucky Fried Chicken went public 157
in 1966 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1969.After closing the restaurant in 1952, Sanders devoted himself to franchising his chicken business.In 1964, with more than 600 franchised outlets, he sold his interest in the company for $2 million to a group of investors.After closing the restaurant in 1952, Sanders devoted himself to franchising his chicken business.
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Ray Kroc
Born : October 5, 1902, Oak Park, Illinois, United States
Died : January 14, 1984, San Diego, California, United States
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : founder of fast food chain Macdonald’s
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Entrepreneurial History : Ray Kroc,is an American restaurateur and entrepreneur of the fast-food industry with his worldwide McDonald’s enterprise. At age of 15 Kroc lied about his age in order to join the Red Cross ambulance service on the front lines of World War I. He was sent to Connecticut for training, where he met fellow trainee Walt Disney, but the war ended before Kroc could be sent into service overseas. Kroc then returned to Chicago and held various jobs throughout the 1920s and ’30s, including jazz pianist, real-estate salesman, and paper-cup salesman for LilyTulip Cup Co. In the early 1940s he became the exclusive distributor for the “multimixer,” a blender that could simultaneously mix five milk shakes. In 1954 he visited a restaurant in San Bernardio, California, that used eight of his mixers. The restaurant was owned by two brothers, Maurice and Richard McDonald, who used an assembly-line format to prepare and sell a large volume of hamburgers, french fries, and milk shakes. Impressed by what he saw, Kroc decided to set up a chain of drivein restaurants based on the McDonald brothers’ format, and he agreed to pay the brothers a franchise fee based on gross receipts from the new restaurants. The first of Kroc’s McDonald’s restaurants was opened April 15, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois. After two more stores were opened that same year, gross sales amounted to $235,000. Kroc continued to expand McDonald’s, selling franchises on the condition that owners manage their restaurants. He instituted a training program for owner-managers and continually emphasized the automation and standardization of McDonald’s operations. 160
John Schnatter
Born : November 23 , 1961 ( 57 years ) Jeffersonville, Indiana
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : founder of papa john’s Pizza
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Entrepreneurial History John H. Schnatter, better known as Papa John, is a noted American entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and former CEO of the American restaurant franchise company ‘Papa John's Pizza,’ which operates the fourth largest pizza delivery restaurant chain in the US. A business degree holder from ‘Ball State University,’ Schnatter started off by purchasing used pizza equipment with the money he received from selling his car. He then converted a broom closet in the back of his father’s pub ‘Mick's Lounge’ in Jeffersonville where he made pizzas before selling them to the customers of ‘Mick's Lounge.’ With time, his pizzas became quite popular. His company, which was launched publicly in 1993, had 1,500 stores by 1997. Schnatter remained the CEO of the company until January 1, 2018, when he stepped down from the post following comments he had made on ‘NFL’ commissioner Roger Goodell. He had blamed Goodell for doing nothing about the ‘US national anthem protests’ by football players. During his attempt to diffuse the controversy, Schnatter got entangled in a scandal that forced him to resign as the chairman of the board of directors of the company in July 2018. 162
V. G. Siddhartha
Born : Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka , India
Nationality : Indian
Entrepreneur for : Founder of CafĂŠ coffee day
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Entrepreneurial History He is best known as the founder-owner of the chain of Cafe Coffee Day outlets. After doing his Masters he joined J M Financial Limited in 1983-1984 in Mumbai as a management trainee/intern in Portfolio Management and securities trading on the Indian Stock Market under Vice Chairman Mahendra Kampani. Its venture capital division came to be known as Global Technology Ventures (GTV) as well as a site in the city in 1984 and turned it into a highly successful investment banking and stock broking company. Siddhartha bought a stock market card for Rs 30,000, along with a company called Sivan Securities, which was renamed in 2000 as Way2wealth Securities Ltd.
Now, his company has a curing capacity of 75,000 tonnes, which is the largest in the country.[3] He was the first entrepreneur in Karnataka to set up a café in 1996 (Café Coffee Day, a chain of "youth hangout" coffee parlors) today is the largest exporter of green coffee from India and perhaps one of the two fully integrated coffee companies of Asia, involved in all sectors of coffee from plantations to retailing to exports. He owns 12,000 acres (4047 ha) of coffee plantations.[2] He started his coffee trading company ABC in 1993, with a Rs 60 million turnover. His cyber cafes attract at least 40,000 to 50,000 visitors a week.[3] Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. His coffee growing and trading company, Amalgamated Bean Company (ABC), has an annual turnover of Rs 25 billio 164
Successful Entrepreneur stories in other industries
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Travis Kalanick
Born : August 6, 1976 (age 42 years), Los Angeles, California, United States Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : founder for Uber, a transportation network company.
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Entrepreneurial history Travis Kalanick, is an American entrepreneur who was cofounding CEO (2009–17) of the ride-hailing app company Uber, which provided transportation by enabling users to page freelance drivers of privately owned vehicles via smartphones.
Kalanick grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles. He was interested in computers from a young age and had learned to write computer code by the time he was in middle school. He studied computer engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but he dropped out in 1998 to help launch the start-up company Scour, Inc., with several of his UCLA classmates. Scour, which offered an Internet search engine and file-sharing services, was one of the first dot-com companies to enable users to share movies and music online. Although its services quickly became popular, the company was sued for copyright infringement by both the recording and motion-picture industries. Scour eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and later sold off all of its assets. Shortly thereafter Kalanick announced that Eric Holder—a former U.S. attorney general—and his law firm had been hired to lead an investigation into those charges as well as claims that Uber promoted an overly aggressive workplace environment. 167
In 2014 taxi drivers in major European cities, including London, Paris, and Madrid, staged highprofile demonstrations to protest Uber and to call for government oversight of it and other ride services that relied on unregulated private-hire drivers. Holder’s report was released to Uber’s board in June, and it included the action point “review and reallocate the responsibilities of Travis Kalanick.” The board approved the recommendations, and several days later Kalanick announced that he was taking a leave of absence. In Thailand, the Netherlands, and a number of other countries and cities, Uber faced complete or partial bans, with several courts ruling that Uber’s practices constituted unfair competition. While Kalanick touted Uber’s efficiency and its innovative use of smartphones, cloud computing, and GPS technology, the company was fiercely opposed by the established taxicab industry and often found itself at odds with regulators. In 2013 Uber notably began operating in China, but, amid stiff competition and government raids, it was announced in 2016 that UberChina was being acquired by rival Didi Chuxing. The news sparked a backlash against Uber, especially after Trump introduced a controversial immigration order, and Kalanick stepped down from the forum in February 2017.
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Henry Ford
Born : July 30, 1863 Greenfield Township, Michigan, U.S. Died : April 7, 1947 (aged 83) Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S
Nationality : American Entrepreneur for : Founder of Ford Motor Company
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Entrepreneurial history : Henry Ford (was an American automobile manufacturer who created the Model T in 1908 and went on to develop the assembly line mode of production, which revolutionized the industry. As a result, Ford sold millions of cars and became a world-famous business leader. The company lost its market dominance but had a lasting impact on other technological development and on U.S. infrastructure. Today, Henry Ford is credited for helping to build America's economy during the nation's vulnerable early years and is considered one of America's leading businessmen
In 1890, Henry Ford was hired as an engineer for the Detroit Edison Company. In 1893, his natural talents earned him a promotion to chief engineer.All the while, Ford developed his plans for a horseless carriage. In 1892, Ford built his first gasoline-powered buggy, which had a two-cylinder, four-horsepower engine. In 1896, he constructed his first model car, the Ford Quadricycle.
In the same year, he attended a meeting with Edison executives and found himself presenting his automobile plans to Thomas Edison The lighting genius encouraged Ford to build a second, better model.
By 1898, Ford was awarded with his first patent for a carburetor. In 1899, with money raised from investors following the development of a third model car, Ford left Edison Illuminating Company to pursue his car-making business full-time.
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Linda Benne
Born : September 8, 1962 (age 56 years) London, United Kingdom
Nationality : English-Icelandic
Entrepreneur for : Founder of the fashion retailer L.K.Bennett.
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Entrepreneurial history Linda Bennett is truly a remarkable entrepreneur not only has she made it in a very saturated industry but she has made it by working her way from the bottom to the top. Her passion is in the clothing industry. She founded the luxury womenswear brand LK Bennett in the United Kingdom in 1990. The reason she named LK Bennett was because her middle name is Kristin and she thought it would make for a more professional sounding business name. Bennett trained at Hackney’s cordwainer’s College as well as at Reading University where she studied land management also. To this day Bennett still likes to design many of her brand items and is constantly creating new shoes for her brand.
Aged 26 she opened an accessories shop in Wimbledon with just £13,000 worth of savings and a £15,000 bank loan. She managed to turn this into one of the most stylistic and high end brands within the clothing industry creating shoes for the likes of the Duchess of Cornwall, which she wore for her wedding in 2005 to Prince Charles. With an entrepreneurial streak Bennett has managed to place all of the stores in very prime locations, just in reach of her ideal customer base. In 2004 she decided to sell the business and asked for £75 million ($117.8 million) however the asking price was never met and she kept hold of the business. Just four years on she managed to sell the business to a private equity firm called Phoenix Equity partners and Sirius Equity, the deal was for a rumoured £70 million ($110 million). However that was on top of the wealth that she had already accumulated throughout the life of the business.
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Coco Chanel
Born : August 19, 1883, Saumur, France Died : January 10, 1971, HĂ´tel Ritz Paris, Paris, France
Nationality : French Entrepreneur for : The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand
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Entrepreneurial history : Coco Chanel, it kind of slips of the tongue doesn’t it, it’s one of those names that we all know and probably one of those names that we associate with the world of fashion and her perfumery. Known worldwide Coco Chanel was one of the most creative and successful entrepreneurs of her era. Her first chosen career was that of a singer, although she couldn’t get the work whether that was because she had a poor voice or because there was such excellent singers at the time I’m not quite sure. However it spurred her into becoming the entrepreneur that we know her are as today. In 1910 she became a hat maker and opened up her own beauty in the Paris, France. The business was a success and in 1913 she opened a boutique in Deauville, where she began introducing a luxury line of casual clothing which were apparently suitable for leisure or sport.
In 1921 after concocting a perfume for herself, she found other people enjoyed it so much that she decided to introduce it to her boutique she called it Chanel No. 5. It is thought that this perfume was the first of its kind, by that I mean that it was the first perfume that was ever sold worldwide and not just within a singular state or country. In 1939 at the beginning of World War II, Chanel decided to close her, now many, boutiques as she believed it to be the wrong time to sell fashion. However after four years without working she decided it was time to renew her passion. 1945 after moving back to Paris (she had previously moved to Switzerland), she continued with their collections of luxury clothing and perfumes, and although her new collections at first did not have much success with the Parisians at the time, she was very successful with the British and American customers. Today her legacy, Chanel, is worth an estimated$4.5 billion. 174
Madame C. J. Walker
Born : December 23, 1867, Delta, Louisiana, United States Died :
May 25, 1919, Irvington, New York, United States
Nationality : African-American Entrepreneur for : Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company Hair Care Pioneer
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Entrepreneurial history : Madame CJ Walker is somebody that you may very well and not know that you’d be forgiven for not doing as well but she died over 90 years ago. Although her fortune of $600,000 may not seem much the reason why she such inspirational person to have on this list is because she made herself an empire, through hard work and determination, she was also an inspiration to all other female would-be entrepreneurs. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, is known best for being America’s first African-American entrepreneur, as well as being one of the most wealthiest women of her era. A lot of the women in her era experienced hair loss for some reason. It’s thought that this was due to a lacking of indoor plumbing and electricity, making it hard for them to bathe each and every day. Walker had experienced this also (hair loss) and so she experimented with some of own home-made remedies. They work so well that she decided that it was worth investing in and creating a business out of so she did. The products were an instant hit and soon stores all across the country were selling them, in 1908 she opened a College to train hair care trainees, and in 1910 she moved to Indianapolis and established a factory which he used as her main headquarters. Later in her life she went on to teach and lecture female entrepreneurs to help them build their own businesses and to gain their own freedom and independence. This in itself made quite a name for her and she later joined the National Association of the advancement of coloured people also known as the NAACP. She joined them in an effort to stop hate crimes and to ban lynching, making it a federal crime. She died in 1919 because of apparent kidney failure leaving behind her fortune and the manufacturing business to her daughter A’Lelia Walker. Today the business continues although not as successful as in its heyday. 176