Curated playlist
1980s initial public offerings
- MicrosoftBill Gates claimed he had a working BASIC program before he had written any of it.
- Nike, Inc.A waffle iron inspired the sole of an early Nike running shoe. Coach Bill Bowerman wanted grip without metal spikes.
- SegaSega began in 1940 by supplying slot machines to American military bases in Hawaii. It later made Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Apple Inc.Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus to help start Apple. Steve Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator to fund a circuit board.
- AmgenThe name AMGen is shorthand for Applied Molecular Genetics, the label the company carried when it was founded in Thousand Oaks, California, in April 1980. The shortened name stuck, even though the original one described a science project…
- Home DepotHome Depot closed every big-box store in China by September 2012. Chinese shoppers preferred finished rooms to lumber.
- Berkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway has a share price that looks like a typo. In August 2024, a single Class A share reached $700,000, the highest per-share price of any public company in the world. That same month, the company became the first…
- KonamiKonami's legal team blocked Hideo Kojima from accepting his Game Awards 2015 prize. The audience booed.
- NamcoNamco began with two hand-cranked rocking horses on a Yokohama rooftop. He spent his entire 300,000 yen budget.
- Scholastic CorporationScholastic began as a four-page magazine handed out in 50 high schools near Pittsburgh.
- Tiffany & Co.Tiffany & Co. started in 1837 as a stationery shop, not a jeweler. Just $1,000 from a cotton mill owner funded it.