Today these CEOs might be known for earning millions from their business, but very few of us know that these business ideas are based on their childhood experiences and habits. Let’s check out some CEOs who started working when they were kids.
Seth Goldman, Honest Tea Seth Goldman’s company, Honest Tea, is an all-natural brand that would strive to create healthy and honest relationships with its customers, suppliers and the environment. Goldman was already building on those values from the age of four. While climbing through the bushes of a golf course near his house, Goldman would find deserted golf balls and resell them to empty-handed golfers. This is when he realized it pays to be resourceful.
Being an energetic person, Seth was persistently in search of the ideal drink to quench his thirst after a run, a game of basketball and between grad school classes. Yet, Seth found most drinks either too sweet or too tasteless. Barry Nalebuff, Seth's professor at the Yale School of Management, found that he and Seth shared a craze for the idea of a less sweet drink. And eventually they came up with the idea of Honest Tea, bottled tea made of real tea leaves.
Before introducing Honest Tea, Goldman was Vice President of the Calvert Group, which shaped the Calvert Social Index. Prior to that he was Director of an AmeriCorps demonstration project in Baltimore, MD, and served as deputy press secretary for Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. He worked for a year in China and a year and a half in the former Soviet Union. He graduated from Harvard University with a degree in government (a degree in Government is in the bureaus, agencies and departments of federal, state and even municipal governments) and from the Yale School of Management.
Katrina Markoff, Vosges Haut-ChocolateWho on earth does not love chocolates? From the age of seven Katrina started pleasing her customers by selling off her treats that she made in her Easy Bake Oven. As she grew older, she sold her treats to local stores and country clubs. She received training at Le Cordon Bleu, one of world’s best cooking stores. It was not surprising when she turned a gourmet chocolate maker. Her company Vosges Haut-Chocolate offers exotic varieties flavored with spices, bacon, and other ingredients. The company sells over $17 million of creative chocolate treats. The company features different gourmet chocolates at their Chicago, New York and Las Vegas boutiques.
Devon Rifkin, The Great American HangerAt the age of 10, Devon Rifkin realized the value of simple things. He grew up in Miami, and made money buying Blow-Pop lollipops from his local drugstore and then selling them to his classmates at Southwood Elementary School. His business was so well-liked that he made his parents contact the company so that he could sell the lollipops by the box. Later on, he found success with hangers. In 1999, he started The Great American Hanger, which made cloth hangers for big companies like Bloomingdale's and Nike. The company sold $25,000 worth of hangers in three months in 1999 and $500,000 worth the next year. Today it is one of the world's largest sellers of high-quality hangers.
Jason Finger, Seamless WebCan you resist yourself from a glass of lemonade, as soon as you finished your run? That could be the best thing available to quench your thirst that time. A very similar idea struck into nine year old Jason’s mind, which resulted him to set up a lemonade stand next to a jogging path in downtown Manhattan. He and his cousin were very optimistic to get business selling lemonade and Kool-Aid punch. In 1999, Finger founded Seamless Web, a New York based online food delivery service and was sold to Aramark in 2006. Users have the option of ordering from the website or from a Seamless mobile app for iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry. On June 8, 2011, Spectrum Equity Investors made a $50 million minority investment in Seamless and the company has now been spun out of Aramark into an independent entity. On June 28, 2011, SeamlessWeb notified their clients that they will change their name to “Seamless”.
Tony Hsieh, Zappos.comThe CEO of Zappos.com used to make $100 each month selling photo-buttons by mail at the age of 12. Customers would send him photos and self-addressed envelopes and Hsieh would transform them into buttons that people could pin on clothing, hats, and backpacks. That initial success made him confident as an entrepreneur. Today, people can’t stop ordering their shoes from Zappos.com; the company booked $1 billion in gross sales in 2008. In July 2009, the company announced it would be acquired by Amazon.com in an all-stock deal worth about $1.2 billion. Since its founding, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store.
Jenny Craig, Jenny Craig Weight Loss ProgramWhile Jenny Craig’s family spent the summer in Louisiana, the seven year old girl used to earn a penny for every hard shell crab she would fish in Lake Pontchartrain. She used to fish around three-dozen crabs in a single day, which her mother then sold to local restaurants. These days, Jenny Craig is a household name, known for creating a comprehensive weight-loss program that she turned into an empire. In June 2006, she sold her company to Nestle for $600 million.
Aaron Kennedy, Noodles & CompanyAaron Kennedy started two seasonal businesses in Elburn, Illinois at the age of eight. He used to sell greeting cards in the fall, and sell vegetable-seed packets door-to-door in the spring. Kennedy said, "I sold to anybody I could get to on my bicycle." In order to understand his customers in a better way, he planted seeds and tended to a garden in his own backyard. In the present day, he runs Noodles & Company, a 12-state franchise of restaurants that grossed more than $200 million in revenue last year. Noodles & Company has more than 255 locations in 18 U.S. states.
Michael Alter, SurePayrollPrior to help small companies keep track of the money they pay their employees, Michael Alter, President of SurePayroll, based in Skokie, Illinois, had to get through college. At 15, Alter started saving up by becoming a wedding, bar mitzvah, and special-events photographer. By 17, the company had taken off and he had enough money in the bank to pay his own way through Northwestern University that fall. SurePayroll introduced online Software as a Service (SaaS) payroll and payroll-tax filing process for small businesses interested in outsourcing their payroll. On February 9, 2011, Paychex acquired SurePayroll. The company remains headquartered in Glenview, Illinois Glenview, Illinois as a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex.
Jennifer Barclay, Blue Fish ClothingWhat kept Jennifer busy in her growing years was making ‘thumbies’, animal figures shaped by dipping thumb in the ring and pressing it onto cards. Earning a quarter for selling each, she constructed on that creativity as a teenager, putting together fabrics that expressed her personal style. This resulted in establishment of Blue Fish Clothing, an artisan, organic clothing company, with retail stores in New Mexico and New Jersey, and projected revenue of $2 million for 2009.