023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site

014: Club Penguin: Bootstrapped by borrowing from credit cards, focused on one niche area and sold to Disney for $325+ million: Can a simple kid's game with penguins become a blockbuster hit , and then attract Disney to buy them for $325+ million. Here is how three guys, Lane Merrifield , Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe did it with Club Penguin. by How They Made Their Millions

17 min listen

025: ShutterStock: One person , a $800 initial investment to $2+ billion IPO: Jon needed photographs for his websites and when he couldn't find cheaper photographs, he sensed that others will have the same problem and started ShutterStock. He started with less than $1000 and took it to $2+ billion IPO.Let's... by How They Made Their Millions

19 min listen

008: IMDB: Movie watching hobby business Sold to Amazon for multiple millions: Can a movie watching hobby be turned into a serious business that too a multimillion dollar business. Col Needham did this with one of the world’s top entertainment website IMDB.com and sold to Amazon. Let us check out how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

11 min listen

003: GeekSquad: Starting with $200 and selling to Best Buy for multiple millions: Robert Stephens started Geek Squad with just himself and $200 investment. He did some fascinating marketing without any money. and he grew to thousands of employees and sold Geek Squad to Best buy for Millions. How did he do it. Let us check out. by How They Made Their Millions

25 min listen

006: Geox: Hole-in-shoe idea to Billion Dollars: While there are already big players in the shoe business, Can someone come with a new idea for shoes and succeed and also make tons of money. Mario Polegato did it with Geox and made it a billion dollar company. with a weird idea —having... by How They Made Their Millions

6 min listen

002: Build-a-Bear: How Maxine quit her lifeless job-followed her passion and built a multi-million dollar business: Maxine had a good job with pretty good money. Years passed by and she felt a void in her heart. She wanted to do something which she loved and leave her mark in this world. Find out how she quit her job, started her passion business called... by How They Made Their Millions

13 min listen

011: PetFinder.com: How Betsy started a hobby pet website and sold for $25+ million: Betsy Saul did not set out to make money. She couldn't see bad things happen to Pets. She started as a service to help pets and it grew into a business and produced millions as a side benefit. Here is who she did it. by How They Made Their Millions

15 min listen

010: Chobani: How an immigrant with simple yogurt business beat the giant companies and became a billionaire.: We all heard about internet unicorns --the billion dollar-- valuation companies. but can that be done with a non-internet business that too with a simple Yogurt business. Hamdi Ulukaya an immigrant proved it can be done and became a billionaire. ... by How They Made Their Millions

13 min listen

012: Amy's Kitchen: How one couple turned their frozen food problem into a multimillion dollar organic powerhouse: When Rachel, a healthy vegetarian food lover, injured herself during pregnancy, her husband got her a frozen vegetarian dinner, which tasted Yucky. They started their own vegetarian frozen dishes business and grew big into a 200+ million business. How? by How They Made Their Millions

9 min listen

005:TreeHugger: Tiny Green movement blog to a $10million blog: Can you build a high trafficked blog with your passion and also make money. Graham Hill did it with TreeHugger.com and sold for $10 million. Here is how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

16 min listen

016: 1-800-flowers.com : The rags-to-riches story of Jim - A Bartender to a highly-successful multi-millionaire: How did a bartender became a millionaire, Jim McCann transformed 1-800-FLOWERS from a small struggling floral shop into a multi-million dollar flower and gift business. Did he plan it and did he have the desire to become a millionaire?. Let us check out. by How They Made Their Millions

13 min listen

038: LinkedIn: A bad student always playing video games to starting LinkedIn and selling it for $20+ billion: Reid Hoffman was bad at academics , then he started and failed at his first startup. Yet he persevered and later started Linkedin. He sold it to Microsoft for $20+ billion. Holy Tasty Strawberry pie. How did he do it. Let us check it out. by How They Made Their Millions

46 min listen

017: CDBaby: A small-time musician with no background in tech and business, started with $500 and sold his business for $19+ million: Derek did not know anything about programming, he did not know how to start and run a business. He did not have enough money. He just started with $500 and eventually sold his business CDBaby for $19+ millions. Let us check out, how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

16 min listen

021: Ben and Jerry ice Cream: The wonderful story of two Guys, their love of ice cream, a $5 investment to a multi-million dollar business: Two friends turned their passion of ice creams into a multi-million dollar empire. They just started with $5 investment and did not know anything about how to start a business. Yet they became wildly successful. Let us see how they did it. by How They Made Their Millions

18 min listen

024: Minecraft Games: How a depressed, introverted Geek started a side hustle hobby game and sold it for $2+ Billion: Markus started the game Minecraft as a side project, while working on his day job. He had personal tragedies during this time.Yet he kept pushing. Later he sold for 2+ billion. Let us see how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

31 min listen

009: Kiss My Face : Not knowing anything about the business to a 75+million year business: Can you start a business without knowing anything about the business and still make millions. Most people will say No, but Bob MacLeod and Steve Byckiewicz proved that it can be done. They just started and learnt along the way. Let... by How They Made Their Millions

8 min listen

004: Monster Audio: From Jobless and broke to a multi-millionaire: Can a person born to Chinese immigrants who was broke and no job, build a 100million-plus business with his passion for music. Check out how Monster Audio's Noel Lee did it. by How They Made Their Millions

11 min listen

015: Nobu Restaurants: Chef Nobu’s fabulous rise from Suicide-attempting Restauranteur to HollyWood Celebrity Restauranteur to multi-millionaire: Nobu a poor boy , dreamt of opening his own sushi restaurant. He started a few restaurants, but all of them failed He attempted suicide but it was averted . He pulled himself up and opened a fourth one and it became wildly successful... by How They Made Their Millions

15 min listen

001: California Pizza Kitchen(CPK) : How two friends built the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain by quitting their stressful day jobs: Two Friends were stressed out by their Lawyer Jobs and wanted to do something which they loved and they loved Restaurants. They did not know anything about restaurants. but how did they succeed? Check out the founders story of... by How They Made Their Millions

10 min listen

026: Wufoo : A simple form-creation idea started with little money and later sold for $30+ million: Three friends started Wufoo with less than 20k, while still working on their day jobs. They faced lot of hurdles with lots of uncertainties. Finally they sold the company for $30+ million. Let us find out how they did it. by How They Made Their Millions

16 min listen

019: Method : How two friends started in their stinky little apartment and grew Method to $100+ million: Household cleaning products were dominated by giant companies with their toxic and harmful products. Two friends created "non-toxic" and "cool-looking" cleaning products and they beat the giants and are making $100+ million. Let us check out how... by How They Made Their Millions

19 min listen

018: LifeisGood: Living in a van, eating peanut butter sandwiches to a $100+ million company – The story of Life is Good and the power of optimism: Is it possible to invest $200 and make millions from a simple message of “Do what you like, like what you do” and also bring happiness to millions of people. Let us check out how two brothers Bert and John Jacobs did it. by How They Made Their Millions

25 min listen

013: TwitTV: How Leo Laporte accidentally bootstrapped a multimillion dollar empire From Podcasts: Is it possible to do what we love..have fun and.. also make money. Leo Laporte of the famous “TWIT TV” podcast did it by bootstrapping his podcast empire almost by accident. Let us check out how he is doing it. by How They Made Their Millions

10 min listen

007: LittleMissMatched: Wacky Mismatched socks idea to a smash hit with 30+ million in revenue: Can an insane idea of selling mismatched socks succeed?. Who would want to wear them.. right? Wrong..,Jonah Staw proved it will succeed by building LittleMissMatched and generating multiple millions. Let us see how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

8 min listen

028: Hershey's Chocolates: A fourth grade dropout ,and a farm boy to a world-famous billionaire chocolatier: Milton Hershey started many business and failed in all of them. Any one else would have been crushed by these failures but not Milton. His passion kept him going and he became one of the richest person in America. Let us find out how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

26 min listen

022:Pandora Music: The extra-ordinary story of how Tim went from a Penniless Nanny to a billionaire: Tim started his career as a Nanny and was playing in bands as a side hustle. He saw the agonizing problems his fellow musicians were facing and he started Pandora. He faced several problems and he came very close to shutting it down, but... by How They Made Their Millions

24 min listen

069: OpenTable - A business which almost failed to an astonishing billion dollar business: While Chuck saw his wife struggling for hours to get a reservation at a restaurant, He hit upon a business idea. OpenTable was born. He struggled but finally he sold it for $2+ billion. Bingo Bango , how did he do it, Let us check it out. by How They Made Their Millions

24 min listen

032: StubHub: How Jeff started StubHub at the worst possible time, survived and sold to eBay for $300+ million: Jeff ran out of money and was not able to pay his employees. On top of this, his company got sued, yet he kept pushing forward and succeed and sold StubHub to ebay for $300+ million. Let us check out how he did it. by How They Made Their Millions

29 min listen

052: Archives.com - Two college dropouts selling their company for $90+ million: Brian and Matt had a simple idea of enabling anyone to search for family history across centuries. Initially they did not have this idea, but found it from their users. They sold this company for $90+ million. Holy Waffle, Let us check out how... by How They Made Their Millions

36 min listen

023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site: Can you be cheap and scrappy and yet build a business that is both fun and makes millions. James and Jim built HotorNot by bootstrapping all the way and came out with creative ideas to save themselves from shutting down. Let us check out how they did it. by How They Made Their Millions

16 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site

023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from How They Made Their Millions

Related podcast episodes