Startup Stories - Baked fresh daily

Creating childhood memories for Orphans

2011-07-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

Public relations executive Stacie Krajchir visited an orphanage in Thailand with the intent of dropping off some clothes, but what she saw inspired her to start something more permanent. Realizing that the orphans would grow up with no tangible memories of childhood, she started the "See and Sprout" Project, which donates digital photo equipment and teaches photography skills. The Photography skills are for making them get a job too when they grow up. Read more...

A couple's frozen food problem.. turned into a business.

2011-07-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

When Rachel Berliner a healthy vegetarian food lover, injured herself during pregnancy, her husband got a frozen vegetarian dinner, which tasted like cardboard.
Sensing a need, the couple took 100 hand-made vegetarian pot pies to a health food show and they sold off fast. Then they started Amy's Kitchen and 20 yrs later they are generating $240 million in revenue.
Amy, the baby who helped start it all, is now in college, training to take over the business. Read more...

Small liquor store to Wine empire.

2011-07-01T01:30:00.000-07:00

A family liquor store in Springfield, N.J., became a "multimillion-dollar wine Mecca," after Gary Vaynerchuk started "Wine Library TV," his daily podcast on wine tasting. Read more...

TV show editor to music-search engine creator.

2011-06-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

Jared Gutstadt's frustration with finding the right song for a film project turned the would-be rocker into an entrepreneur. Read more...

Meeetup.com - Success through Stranger 'Meetups'

2011-06-29T01:30:00.000-07:00

Scott Heiferman founder of Meetup.com shares how he started meetup.com and his secret sauce. Read more...

In Pictures: Meet Seven Grade School Entrepreneurs

2011-06-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

Young Kids less than 15yrs turning their hobbies into tiny businesses. Read more...

Instapaper Founder Marco Arment's Journey From Bagel Jockey to Publishing Pioneer

2011-06-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

Marco Arment wanted to read the web pages he saved during the day while riding back home after work. Since he didn't find a solution on the internet, he started InstaPaper. Read more...

Chicago entrepreneur launches new kind of pizzeria

2011-06-24T01:42:00.000-07:00

Opening a pizza joint in Chicago -- a city that gave its name to a whole style of Italian pies -- may seem about as foolish as the proverbial "selling ice to an Eskimo." But with 23 stores and $9 million in sales, Eric Fosse's HomeMade Pizza chain proves there's always room for a truly fresh idea.

Fosse elbowed into a crowded market with premium-priced, uncooked pizzas that customers heat at home on parchment paper. Read more...

Midwife in the office for Busy pregnant executives

2011-06-23T01:42:00.000-07:00

A midwife in London has found a niche in bringing prenatal services to the workplace. For about $9,000, she'll give busy executives blood tests, check-ups and advice, saving them the trouble of traveling to a doctor's office.

"High-flying city women quite rightly want more control over their lives and the opportunity to compete on a par with male colleagues," she says. Read more...

Selling at Flea Market to Sephora and Macy's

2011-06-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

Lisa Price started selling body lotion at a church bazaar at her mother's suggestion. The founder of Carol's Daughter Bath and Body Works credits her mom for her inspiration. Read more...

Tea cozies hobby turned into a tasty business

2011-06-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

Poppy Treffry never intended to start her own business. “It just kind of happened to me. She turned her hand-made tea cozies(a padded cloth covering to keep a teapot warm) hobby into a business. Read more…

How Jeff quit his job by identifying his passion for real estate

2011-06-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

Jeff Lewis spent six years bouncing around the job market before identifying his passions for real estate and design. This success as real estate renovator led to a reality-television show and more good things. Read more…

Renting Textbooks to $112 million Funding

2011-06-17T01:49:00.000-07:00

Aayush Phumbhra was a cash-strapped student when he realized that the Netflix model of online movie rentals might work for textbooks, too. Phumbhra co-founded Chegg.com in 2007. Read more…

Chartered surveyor to online trampoline-sales business

2011-06-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

Pen and Patrick Polglase launched an online trampoline-sales business in the English countryside because it let them work from home and keep their children active. Read more…

Unused space in Trucks - inspiration for $6Million opportunity

2011-06-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

Matt Chasen needed a 9-foot truck for moving but only a 20-foot truck was available to rent. Those 11 feet of unused space were the inspiration for uShip. Read more..

How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard

2011-06-14T01:30:00.000-07:00

Pandora, which recorded its first profitable quarter at the close of 2009 , avoided the startup graveyard by making frequent adjustments to its business model and instilling loyalty among customers and its employees. Read more…

How Omniture was started and sold to Adobe for a hefty sum

2011-06-13T01:30:00.000-07:00

Josh James and a friend started designing Web sites while still in college, and when clients got the bill, they often wanted proof that their expensive new site was getting traffic. Based on that need, the duo launched Omniture and sold it to Adobe for $1.8 billion. Read more…

Cable splicer to kite-surfing franchiser

2011-06-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

Jeff Kafka was an AT&T cable splicer when he first tried kite-surfing — and he was immediately hooked, and eventually quit his job to launch a kite-surfing franchise in California. Read more…

Unemployed ex-salesman to Golf Entrepreneur

2011-06-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

Iain Fox was feeling depressed in his life , when a day of miniature golf took his mind off his troubles...the idea for a business wasn’t far behind. Read more…

Turning accident into opportunity..

2011-06-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

Alison Schuback's life was changed forever by a speeding car accident, which left her partially paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
Yet,this 23-yr old instead of being a victim, started her own business. Read more..

How this 19-year-old Is taking on Google

2011-05-31T01:30:00.000-07:00

Daniel Gross from Israel moved to San Francisco when he was invited by Ycombinator for an interview for his startup.
Once here in the united states, his original idea was not picking up steam and after working on several ideas, he came up with the idea for a different kind of search engine. Read more...

Making millions publishing books through Amazon kindle.

2011-05-30T01:30:00.000-07:00

26-Year-Old Amanda Hocking is making millions Cutting Out Traditional Publishers With Amazon Kindle.
She never had a publishing deal or hasn't published any traditional books before. Read more...

IBM consultant - quit and started "career hangover cure" business

2011-05-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

Anthony Adams was a recent college graduate working for IBM. He was not satisfied with his job and so he quit and now he sells hangover cures. Read more...

Hedge Fund manager making millions quit his job to create Free education for all

2011-05-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

Bill Gates's favorite teacher Sal Khan seeks to make his popular YouTube lessons universally accessible, and change the nature of education in the process. Read more...

How reddit became stupendously successful

2011-05-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

Alexis Ohanian the co-founder of reddit discusses on how they started reddit in an apartment.
Initially he and his co-founder and a few friends started submitting and voting on stories for a few weeks and then the users picked it up from there. He talks about the three ingredients which made reddit sucessful. Reddit was later sold to Conde Nast. Read more...