What's the best startup story you ever heard?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622

by eusman • 19 years ago

9 15 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

doesn't have to be about software

eusman• 19 years ago

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

german• 19 years ago

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!)

prakash• 19 years ago

I would say Viaweb and/or Vermeer purely because there is so much information about them.

bboland1• 19 years ago

I just read about the 17 year old founder of whateverlife.com yesterday. That is a great story.

falsestprophet• 19 years ago

"The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis

alex_c• 19 years ago

Gary Dahl, "inventor" of the pet rock.

http://www.petsdo.com/blog/pet-rock-made-man-multi-millionai...

Leon• 19 years ago

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.

paulv• 19 years ago

That's the worst idea I've ever heard in my life, Leon.

aandreev• 19 years ago

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".

toisanji• 19 years ago

Please help keep all these stories at: http://startupflames.com/

joe• 19 years ago

Oops, looks like a few got out.

abstractbill• 19 years ago

I enjoy reading about the early days of Netscape:

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

ballred• 19 years ago

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

byrneseyeview• 19 years ago

Epiphyte: http://zgp.org/pipermail/linux-elitists/1999-December/000074...

pg• 19 years ago

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.

What's the best startup story you ever heard?

Related Stories