Explore every episode of the podcast How They Made Their Millions
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 151: GoPro: Nick Woodman - From selling bead belts in a VW van to creating a billion-dollar empire | 18 Jul 2023 | 00:20:37 | |
How did Nick Woodman , the founder of GoPro grow from selling bead belts in a VW van to creating a billion-dollar empire. Let us check it out. | |||
| 150: J.P. Morgan - Turning chaos into billion dollar opportunities | 04 Jul 2023 | 00:16:38 | |
Here is the riveting journey of J.P. Morgan, the titan who transformed American finance.Let us discover how this financial maestro navigated uncertainty while everything was in chaos and etched an indelible legacy in the annals of American business. | |||
| 141: Mark Cuban - The son of a automobile upholstery installer to a Billionaire | 28 Feb 2023 | 00:20:31 | |
Mark Cuban’s father was an automobile upholstery installer and life was not the best. He figured out ways to make money and finished his education. He was not sure what to do with his life, but a chance firing from his job made him start a business. Later he started Broadcast.com, sold it and became a billionaire. Let us check out his story. | |||
| 051: SoulCycle -Two moms with humble beginnings to a Multi-million dollar fitness empire | 03 Aug 2017 | 00:37:58 | |
Everyone hates working out in the gym, Yet these two moms invented a fitness that made exercise effective and joyful. They had very humble beginning and started in a sublet scrappy studio and built a Multi-million dollar indoor cycling fitness empire. | |||
| 050: WhatsApp: How a poor kid and later an orphan who lived on food stamps built WhatsApp and sold for $15+ billion | 27 Jul 2017 | 00:37:04 | |
Jan Koum migrated to America in his teens. His family was poor,Yet this kid rose to build an app called Whatsapp. It grew like crazy and was purchased for a whopping $15+ billion. Holy smokes. How is this possible. Let us check out this unbelievable story. | |||
| 049: Cheese Cake Factory - How a failed musician who took over his mom's tiny struggling business and built it into a billion dollar business | 20 Jul 2017 | 00:28:28 | |
David set aside his dreams of becoming a professional musician to help his parents with their struggling cheesecake business. He helped them open a small restaurant and today it has become a billion dollar global phenomenon. Let us check it out. | |||
| 048: WeGoLook - A farm girl who didn't know much about technology to a tech multi-millionaire | 13 Jul 2017 | 00:20:45 | |
Robin's story is an inspiring one . She grew up on a farm, had a bunch of personal and business setbacks. Yet she bounced back and finally sold her startup for 30+ million. Let us find out how she did it. | |||
| 047: The Honest company - How Jessica, an actress and a high school dropout built a billion-dollar business empire | 06 Jul 2017 | 00:37:02 | |
Jessica was a popular Hollywood actress. She had a personal problem and could not find products to solve her problem. So, she started her own business and made it into a multi-million dollar company. Holy Danish pastry. Let us check out how she did it. | |||
| 046: Flickr -How a desperate couple who were running out of money built and sold Flickr for $30+ million | 29 Jun 2017 | 00:30:43 | |
Caterina and Stewart started building an online multi-player game and money was running out. They accidentally hit upon an photo sharing idea-- Flickr-- and built it and sold for $30+ million. Holy Crispy Croissants. Let us check out, how they did it. | |||
| 045: Subway Restaurants - A poor kid who started with a borrowed $1000 and built a billion dollar restaurant empire | 22 Jun 2017 | 00:42:31 | |
Before he turned 20, Fred used a borrowed $1,000 investment to open a sandwich shop in Connecticut. Today, Subway has more than 40,000 locations worldwide and Fred became a billionaire. Holy Macaroni, How did he do it, Let us find out. | |||
| 044: Tickle - How two college friends sold their company for $90+ million with a simple idea of Personality tests | 15 Jun 2017 | 00:29:28 | |
James and Rick were studying at Harvard and they accidentally hit upon an "Personality Testing" idea. They were close to shutting it down, but they persisted. They sold the company for $90+ million. Let us check out how they did it | |||
| 043: IKEA - How a poor farm-boy rose to become a world-famous billionaire | 08 Jun 2017 | 00:27:04 | |
Ingvar was a poor boy and his poverty propelled him to work hard and become entrepreneurial from a very young age. He later broke the rules of retail and created the world-famous IKEA and became a billionaire. Let us check out this awesome story. | |||
| 042: RedLaser - How Two Geeks who failed miserably multiple times and ran out of money became multi-millionaires | 01 Jun 2017 | 00:30:28 | |
Vikas and Jeff wanted to build an app for receipt scanning, but it failed. They had another idea and that too failed. Finally they built Redlaser which was a hit and sold to eBay for multiple millions. Let us check out how they did it. | |||
| 140: CableVision - Charles Dolan - A college dropout to a Maverick Billionaire | 14 Feb 2023 | 00:20:08 | |
Charles Dolan, failed at two businesses. He faced many setbacks. Yet in 1973, this Maverick entrepreneur started Cablevision and built it into a multi-billion dollar company. Let us check out his daring story. | |||
| 041: Mary Kay Ash Cosmetics - A poor girl with tough childhood to a billionaire | 25 May 2017 | 00:27:36 | |
Mary kay Ash had a very tough childhood growing up as a poor girl. She faced many personal and professional setbacks and was depressed. She finally started a cosmetics company with $5000 and became a billionaire. Let us check out, how she built it. | |||
| 040: WireCutter.com - A laid-off tech worker to Gym trainer to a multi-millionaire blogger | 18 May 2017 | 00:24:22 | |
Brian Lam was laid-off from his tech job and he trained himself as a professional fighter, but he switched careers and finally started the Wirecutter website. He sold it to The New York Times for $30+ million. | |||
| 039: Nantucket Nectars: How two guys with no clue about business, started a multi-million dollar Juice empire | 11 May 2017 | 00:35:22 | |
Tom Scott and Tom First started by delivering food and other stuff to boats in a harbor. They ultimately started a Juice company by accident which was sold for $100+ million dollars. | |||
| 038: LinkedIn: A bad student always playing video games to starting LinkedIn and selling it for $20+ billion | 04 May 2017 | 00:45:34 | |
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. | |||
| 037: Firehouse Subs - Two firefighters with no money to a multi-million dollar restaurant empire. | 27 Apr 2017 | 00:28:51 | |
Two firefighter brothers Chris and Robin were always looking for ways to increase their income. They failed many times and finally built a multi-million dollar restaurant empire. Holy Pecan Pie, Let us check out how they did it. | |||
| 036: GrubHub - How two programmers bootstrapped a side hustle and made billions | 20 Apr 2017 | 00:26:40 | |
Mike and Matt started GrubHub as a side project while working on their day jobs as computer programmers. They bootstrapped it with their own money and took GrubHub to a 3+ billion IPO. Holy Chocolatey Doughnut. How did they do it. Let us check it out… | |||
| 035: Jer's Chocolates - How a software sales person turned his chocolate making hobby into a $10+ million business | 13 Apr 2017 | 00:28:33 | |
Jerry was a sales manager but he did not like it. He wanted to start a software business but he ended up starting a chocolate business. He did not know anything but he made it into a $10million business. Let us check out how he did it. | |||
| 034: Plenty of Fish - How a one-Person startup generated millions in profits and later sold for $500+ million | 06 Apr 2017 | 00:29:15 | |
There were huge dating websites with plenty of cash and thousands of employees. Can one person and a new entrant take on these giants and still succeed and make millions with zero employees. Markus did it with PlentyofFish.com. Holy Apple Pie!, Let us find out how he did it. | |||
| 033: Whistle: How a seemingly gimmick business - Fitbit for dogs got started and sold for $100+ million | 30 Mar 2017 | 00:20:44 | |
If you look at it , Fitbit for dogs seems like a gimmick business. Who would think that this will become successful. Yet Ben Jacobs proved that this is a worthwhile business and started it and finally sold it for $100+ million. Let us see how he did it. | |||
| 032: StubHub: How Jeff started StubHub at the worst possible time, survived and sold to eBay for $300+ million | 23 Mar 2017 | 00:29:10 | |
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. | |||
| 139: Zipcar - Robin Chase & Antje Danielson - Two Moms with no business experience to starting a multi-million dollar car-sharing empire. | 31 Jan 2023 | 00:21:09 | |
Robin Chase was a stay at him mom & Antje Danielson was a mom and academic researcher. They never had any prior experience starting a business but they had deep passion to make the world a better place. They started ZipCar and even though they faced several problems and came close to shutting it down, they survived. Finally they sold it for $500 million. Let us check out their story. | |||
| 031: Clark's Botanicals: How Francesco who was paralyzed, sad and dejected built a multi-million dollar business | 16 Mar 2017 | 00:27:52 | |
Francesco Clark was living a happy life but suddenly his life was hurled and turned upside down by an accident leaving him paralyzed and not able to move 95% of his body, Yet he built a multi-million dollar business. Let us check out how he did it. | |||
| 030: Mint.com: How Aaron started part-time and made a "sure-to-fail" business successful and sold for $160+ million. | 09 Mar 2017 | 00:40:37 | |
Microsoft and Quicken were leaders and giants with lots of cash and marketing power in the personal finance software business. Yet, Aaron took on the giants and built a "sure-to-fail" business and sold to Intuit for $160+ million.Let us see how he did it. | |||
| 029: Instagram: A side hustle to selling it for $1 billion in 2 years | 02 Mar 2017 | 00:40:18 | |
Kevin worked on his startup idea close to 2 years but it didn't take off. He took a risk, scraped his old idea and went with a new idea, which he found almost by accident. | |||
| 028: Hershey's Chocolates: A fourth grade dropout ,and a farm boy to a world-famous billionaire chocolatier | 23 Feb 2017 | 00:26:12 | |
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. | |||
| 027: Auntie Anne's Pretzels: One woman with unbearable grief, started in a farmers market and making multi-millions. | 16 Feb 2017 | 00:21:14 | |
Pretty inspiring story. Anne Beiler had to face an agonizing, intolerable personal loss. Yet this 8th grade dropout,courageously came out and built one of the most enduring Pretzel stores dotting across the world.Let us find out how she did it. | |||
| 026: Wufoo : A simple form-creation idea started with little money and later sold for $30+ million | 09 Feb 2017 | 00:15:54 | |
Three friends started Wufoo with less than 20k, while still working on their day jobs. | |||
| 025: ShutterStock: One person , a $800 initial investment to $2+ billion IPO | 02 Feb 2017 | 00:18:43 | |
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. | |||
| 024: Minecraft Games: How a depressed, introverted Geek started a side hustle hobby game and sold it for $2+ Billion | 26 Jan 2017 | 00:31:14 | |
Markus started the game Minecraft as a side project, while working on his day job. | |||
| 023: HotOrNot.com: How two friends totally broke and inexperienced became millionaires with their super-simple dating site | 19 Jan 2017 | 00:16:13 | |
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. | |||
| 022: Pandora Music: The extra-ordinary story of how Tim went from a Penniless Nanny to a billionaire | 12 Jan 2017 | 00:24:20 | |
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. Let us see how he did it. | |||
| 138 : Duty Free Shops - Chuck Feeney - From a poor kid to a billionaire, who gave it all away. | 17 Jan 2023 | 00:24:30 | |
Chuck Feeney was born poor. He made a fortune selling duty-free goods, building an enterprise out of nothing. Then, he gave all his money away. Let us check out his truly inspiring story. | |||
| 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 | 05 Jan 2017 | 00:18:26 | |
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. | |||
| 020: FUBU: How Shark Tank's Daymond John went from a Restaurant waiter to multi-millionaire founder | 02 Jan 2017 | 00:12:40 | |
Daymond John was an ordinary guy working as a waiter in a restaurant and in his spare time started FUBU(For us by Us) a sports apparel company with just $40 and turned it into $350+ million in revenue. Let us check out how he did it. | |||
| 019: Method : How two friends started in their stinky little apartment and grew Method to $100+ million | 29 Dec 2016 | 00:19:12 | |
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... | |||
| 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 | 26 Dec 2016 | 00:25:22 | |
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. | |||
| 017: CDBaby: A small-time musician with no background in tech and business, started with $500 and sold his business for $19+ million | 22 Dec 2016 | 00:16:12 | |
Derek did not know anything about programming, he did not know how to start and run a business. | |||
| 016: 1-800-flowers.com : The rags-to-riches story of Jim - A Bartender to a highly-successful multi-millionaire | 19 Dec 2016 | 00:12:36 | |
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. | |||
| 015: Nobu Restaurants: Chef Nobu’s fabulous rise from Suicide-attempting Restauranteur to HollyWood Celebrity Restauranteur to multi-millionaire | 15 Dec 2016 | 00:14:32 | |
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 and generated millions. Let us see how he did it. | |||
| 014: Club Penguin: Bootstrapped by borrowing from credit cards, focused on one niche area and sold to Disney for $325+ million | 08 Dec 2016 | 00:16:55 | |
Can a simple kid's game with penguins become a blockbuster hit , and then attract Disney to buy them for $325+ million. | |||
| 013: TwitTV: How Leo Laporte accidentally bootstrapped a multimillion dollar empire From Podcasts | 05 Dec 2016 | 00:09:41 | |
Is it possible to do what we love..have fun and.. also make money. | |||
| 012: Amy's Kitchen: How one couple turned their frozen food problem into a multimillion dollar organic powerhouse | 03 Nov 2016 | 00:08:49 | |
When Rachel, a healthy vegetarian food lover, injured herself during pregnancy, her husband got her a frozen vegetarian dinner, which tasted Yucky. | |||
| 137: Maker Studios - Ordinary YouTubers to Millionaires | 03 Jan 2023 | 00:20:21 | |
Danny Zappin, Shay Carl and a few other YouTubers, started their own YouTube Channels and amassed millions of subscribers. They decided to pool together their talent, followers and subscribers into a kind of talent network. They called it Maker Studios. It kept growing and they finally sold it for more than $500 million. Let us check out their story. | |||
| 011: PetFinder.com: How Betsy started a hobby pet website and sold for $25+ million | 29 Oct 2016 | 00:14:44 | |
Betsy Saul did not set out to make money. She couldn't see bad things happen to Pets. | |||
| 010: Chobani: How an immigrant with simple yogurt business beat the giant companies and became a billionaire. | 27 Oct 2016 | 00:13:05 | |
We all heard about internet unicorns --the billion dollar-- valuation companies. | |||
| 009: Kiss My Face : Not knowing anything about the business to a 75+million year business | 23 Oct 2016 | 00:07:43 | |
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 us find out who they did it.. Pretty interesting | |||