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Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by ballred on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @01:07PM (#47884)
If you've never read how Kenneth Cole (shoe/fashion company) started out by launching a movie production company, it's a great story: http://www.kennethcole.com/scripts/aboutus/ourstory.asp
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by eusman on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @06:00PM (#47624)
James Dyson's story is one of the most interesting startup stories I know. Trying to sell your technology and everyone ignoring you...

http://www.bestchoicevacuums.com/dyson-story.html

Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by german on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @07:29PM (#47655)
Once someone told me about a guy who invented the disk brake, he went to a racing team to offer it, but they told him "we're looking for something to speed up our cars, not to slow them down."

At the end, disk brakes helped a lot in racing because drivers could reduce speed in less time which gave them more time to accelerate.

(I don't know if this is a true story or just a joke, but its a great story!)

Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by bboland1 on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @09:48AM (#47818)
I just read about the 17 year old founder of whateverlife.com yesterday. That is a great story.
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by alex_c on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @11:59AM (#47859)
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by Leon on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:51PM (#47919)
The guy made a million dollars. You know, I had an idea like that once. A long time ago.

It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor, and it would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to.

Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by paulv on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:39AM (#48117)
That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, Leon.
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by pg on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @09:07PM (#48058)
Of all the stories in Founders at Work I think my favorite is Wozniak's. It still amazes me that he made the entire Apple II by himself, both hardware and software.
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by prakash on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @05:54AM (#47794)
I would say Viaweb and/or Vermeer purely because there is so much information about them.
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by aandreev on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @12:30PM (#47871)
My personal favorite is the story of the Lycos founder in "Founders at Work". The guy just got a call from a VC, saying "we will give you money if you run a company with this great search technology we bought".
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by byrneseyeview on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @01:19PM (#47891)
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by abstractbill on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @12:54PM (#47878)
I enjoy reading about the early days of Netscape:

http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nscpdorm.html

Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by toisanji on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @12:31PM (#47872)
Please help keep all these stories at: http://startupflames.com/
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by joe on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:15PM (#47908)
Oops, looks like a few got out.
Re:What's the best startup story you ever heard? by falsestprophet on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @10:18AM (#47823)
"The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis