Curated playlist

Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange

McDonald'sIn 1948, the McDonald brothers fired all 20 of their carhops and cut the menu to nine items.
Nike, Inc.A waffle iron inspired the sole of an early Nike running shoe. Coach Bill Bowerman wanted grip without metal spikes.
The Walt Disney CompanyMickey Mouse was almost named Mortimer Mouse. Walt Disney's wife persuaded him to change it.
BPBP began in May 1908 when British geologists struck oil in southwestern Persia.
Wiley (publisher)Wiley once published Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville. It began as a Manhattan print shop in 1807.
PfizerIn 2025, a single Pfizer medicine called Eliquis brought in 7.9 billion dollars. That was 13 percent of the company's revenue for the year. Pfizer is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation, and its headquarters sit at The…
JPMorgan ChaseJPMorgan Chase began in 1799 as a water company that never laid pipe. Aaron Burr hid a bank clause in its charter.
VerizonVerizon began in 1984 as a piece of a broken-up phone monopoly. It was one of seven Baby Bells.
SpotifySpotify got its name from a word Daniel Ek misheard across the room. Its founders later built a meaning around it.
AB InBevAB InBev made four offers for rival SABMiller that were all rejected. Its fifth offer was accepted in principle.
UnileverUnilever, the world's largest soap producer, began as a 1930 margarine and soap merger.
General MotorsGeneral Motors was started by a man who insisted he disliked cars. William C. Durant had built horse-drawn carriages.
Goldman SachsGoldman Sachs began in 1869 in a one-room basement office next to a coal chute.
Morgan StanleyMUFG paid $9 billion for a stake in Morgan Stanley with one paper check. Banks were closed for Columbus Day.
Bank of AmericaBank of America began as a storefront bank for Italian immigrants. Amadeo Giannini opened it in San Francisco in 1904.
Kellogg'sThe Kellogg Company, known to shoppers as Kellogg's, traces its origins to a batch of wheat-berry dough that a doctor left behind one night. By 2018 the company made and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its largest factory stood at…
FedExThe FedEx logo hides a right-pointing arrow between the E and the X.
StubHubStubHub began when Eric Baker struggled to find a secondhand Lion King ticket.
RedditReddit began in 2005 with hundreds of fake users. The founders needed the empty site to look alive.
Alibaba GroupAlibaba began in a Hangzhou apartment, where Jack Ma gathered 17 friends and students.
MastercardMastercard began after Bank of America refused a bank a card license for being too large.
Bristol Myers SquibbAlmost a third of Bristol Myers Squibb's 2025 revenue came from one drug, Eliquis.
ValvolineValvoline began in a doctor's bag, not a garage. Dr. John Ellis went looking for medical uses for crude oil.
The Hershey CompanyThe Hershey Company, based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, produces over 70 million candies every day. Its chocolate is sold in 60 countries, and it ranks among the largest chocolate makers in the world. Yet the company is more than a name on a…
IBMIBM began in 1911 as a merger of four companies, including a meat slicer maker.
BakktIn July 2025, Bakkt sold its loyalty points business for $11 million. The crypto payments company kept one focus.
Shake ShackShake Shack, an American fast casual chain based in New York City, keeps a webcam on its own website. The camera points at the line outside its original kiosk, so anyone can check the wait before leaving home. On a pleasant summer weekend,…
Home DepotHome Depot closed every big-box store in China by September 2012. Chinese shoppers preferred finished rooms to lumber.
Wyndham Hotels & ResortsA journalist said a Dallas developer named the Wyndham hotel brand after her. Trammell Crow launched it in 1981.
CourseraTwo Stanford professors left the university to build Coursera. Their online courses drew huge numbers of students.
GameStopGameStop began in 1984 as a Dallas software store called Babbage's. It later grew to more than 7,500 stores at its peak.
BlackRockBlackRock began with one trader's $90 million loss. Larry Fink lost it at First Boston, then built a firm in 1988.
MGM Resorts InternationalMGM Resorts began as little more than a name Kirk Kerkorian kept. In 1986 he sold his casinos and kept the name.
Quanta ServicesQuanta Services has bought more than 200 firms, yet most people never heard its name. It builds power lines.
Southern CompanySouthern Company built the first new U.S. nuclear units in roughly 30 years at Plant Vogtle.
Snowflake Inc.Snowflake Inc. hid what it was building for more than two years. It came out of stealth in October 2014 with 80 users.
Ford Motor CompanyFord's first president was a banker, not Henry Ford. Investors wanted John S. Gray in charge to calm their fears.
General DynamicsGeneral Dynamics traces back to a single $150,000 submarine the U.S. Navy bought in 1900.
SonySony built the PlayStation after Nintendo dropped it as a partner in 1991.
The Coca-Cola CompanyCoca-Cola began as a pharmacist's attempt to escape morphine addiction.
Visa Inc.Visa does not issue credit cards, extend credit, or set your interest rate. Banks build on its payment network.
CencoraCencora handles roughly 20 percent of all pharmaceuticals sold and distributed across the United States.
DiageoDiageo, maker of Guinness, did not exist before 1997. It now produces 40% of all Scotch whisky.
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…
Occidental PetroleumOccidental Petroleum kept operating after the Piper Alpha fire killed 167 workers. No criminal charges followed.
GlobantFour friends in Buenos Aires started Globant in 2003. The software company later bought more than a dozen firms.
NRG EnergyNRG Energy began in 1989 as a small arm of a Minnesota utility. By 2003 it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Public Service Enterprise GroupPSEG traces back to 1903, when one company absorbed more than 400 New Jersey gas, electric and transit businesses.
Townsquare MediaIn 2014, Townsquare Media bought the hip-hop magazine XXL and stopped printing it.
Oaktree Capital ManagementOaktree Capital Management raised $1.5 billion within three months of opening in 1995.