5 Multi-Billion Dollar Companies That Started In Garages

Many of us have great aspirations and passions on what we’d love to pursue and to be successful in. What’s often overlooked is that you can start anywhere, at any time – even right from your garage.

Garages aren’t only a great place for car enthusiasts to tune their cars, perform maintenance and repairs around the house, or build stepping stools, it happens to be a great place to start a company as well.

#1. Apple

#2. Google

Currently, the most used and well-known search engine actually started in a garage. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, graduates of Stanford University, started what is now known as Google from Susan Wojcicki’s garage in September 1998. They worked day and night on it for several months and eventually, this project started to interfere with their schoolwork.

Their goal was to develop a platform where information can be organized and accessed from anyone in the world from one location. Larry and Sergey first tried to sell their work to Excite for $1 million, but they refused. Now, not only is Google the most powerful search engine on the planet, they venture into other markets as well such as virtual reality headgear, mobile phones, Chromebook, google document and spreadsheets, renewable energy and more.

#3. Disney

Yes, Disney also started in a one-car garage in Anaheim, CA. In 1923, Walt and Roy Disney created their first film, “Alice Comedies”, which were a part of the original Alice and Wonderland animation series. The journey of Disney has been rough – lots of hardship and being toyed with by investors. The house actually belonged to Walt Disney’s uncle, Roy, and Walt moved in to set up “The First Disney Studio”. Now, Disney is the highest-grossing media conglomerate in the world.

In 1994, Jeffrey P. Bezos made the decision to quit his Wall Street job and start an internet company from his garage. Jeff was 30 years old at the time and noticed a growing rate of 2,300 percent a year in web usage. He saw a trend and sought a business plan that might make sense with the growth. He decided to sell books due to their inexpensive cost and a universal demand. He sold his first book in 1995 from his garage and now, Amazon.com has become the largest online shopping store in the world.

#5. Hewlett-Packard (HP)

With an initial investment of only $538, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in Packard’s garage in 1939. These 2 inventors designed the audio oscillator (HP200A) that was sold to Walt Disney to improve its sound system for the movie Fantasia. Walt Disney Productions was one of the first customers and bought 8 audio oscillators that were installed in theaters for that film.

The garage was only 12-by-18 feet in the back of the house they were renting. It was used as a research lab, development workshop, and manufacturing facility for nearly a year before they finally outgrew that space and moved to a larger space. In 1947, the company became incorporated and 10 years later, became public. Today, the garage is a private museum known as the “birthplace of Silicon Valley”.