Who founded Groupon?
Groupon was founded by Andrew Mason in 2008. He originally received $1 million in funding from, his former boss and entrepreneur, Eric Lefkofsky to develop ThePoint.com in 2007. This website gave Mason the idea for Groupon, which he developed and launched in 2008. Since this time many websites have also begun using the same business model, but Groupon remains the most popular and most successful.

Did you know?
In December 2010, Google reportedly offered $6 billion to purchase Groupon, but the company turned down the offer.

Related Articles

Who Founded Google

Who Invented eBay

Who founded juicy couture?
Juicy Couture was founded in 1995 by Gela Nash (now Gela Nash-Taylor) and Pamela Skaist-Levy. They decided to create their own fashion label and called it Travis Jeans, originally selling maternity pants. The next year they changed the name to Juicy Couture with the aim of creating a major label that was affordable to the general public. Without much money to start their company they began sending some of their designs to celebrities. One of these celebrities was Madonna and after she was seen wearing the tracksuit in public the label became a massive success. The founders have since introduced many other products into their label and with continued exposure have became a huge success.

Did you know?
The Juicy Couture crest features the phrase “Love, G&P,” which was changed from “Love P&G” after being sued by Procter & Gamble.

The company has used many slogans over the years including; “Go Couture Yourself”, “Wake Up And Smell the Couture”, “Some Girls Have All the Juicy” and “Juicy Made Me Do It.”

Related Articles

Who Founded Victoria Secret

Who Founded Avon

Who founded The Home Depot?
Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Pat Farrah and Ron Brill. Marcus and Blank were both top executives of Handy Dan Improvement Centers, but had a falling out with the boss of the company. They decided to start their own home improvement stores that would be larger than any other competitors. The investment banker Ken Langone helped them to raise the necessary funds and in 1979 the first two stores were opened. Ron Brill was also fired from Handy Dan Improvement Centers and joined with Marcus and Blank to become their first official employee. Pat Farrah started his own home improvement company called Homeco, with a similar idea to Home Depot, and when his business came into financing issues he was hired by Home Depot to help the company get off to the best possible start. Marcus Blank and Brill retired from the company in 2000.

Related Articles

Who Founded Costco

Who Founded Walmart

Who founded Universal Studios?
Universal Studios was founded by German-Jewish immigrant Carl Laemmle. He was the manager of a clothing store and during a trip in 1905 to buy new merchandise he discovered the popularity of nickelodeons. These were small multipurpose theaters that showed movies, slide shows and lectures. One story reports that he sat outside the box office for a day to calculate how much money they were making. Weeks later Laemmle bought his first nickelodeon and before long he owned several of them.

In 1908 the Motion Picture Trust was created, which meant that owners of the nickelodeons would be forced to pay fees for the movies they showed. Some of the owners decided they could avoid this fee by producing their own films and in 1909 Laemmle founded the Independent Moving Pictures Company. In 1912 Laemmle merged his company with Mark Dintenfass (Champion Films) Pat Powers (Powers Picture Company) and Bill Swanson (American Éclair) to form the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company on April 30, 1912. Laemmle became the president of the company and was involved in over 400 films.

Related Article

What Was the First Movie Ever Made

Who founded Victoria Secret?
Victoria Secret was founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond. Raymond came up with the idea for the store after feeling uncomfortable shopping for lingerie for his wife in a department store. The first store was opened in Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California. The store was designed to make lingerie shopping comfortable for men with helpful sales assistants. The brand was a huge success and it wasn’t long before Raymond had opened 2 more stores. He also developed a mail-order catalog so that people could order the products from anywhere in the country.

After just 5 years Roy Raymond sold the company to Leslie Wexner, the founder of The Limited (now known as Limited Brands), for $4 million. Victoria Secret made an aggressive expansion into malls around the country and began including other products, such as shoes and perfume, into their line of products. The company became one of the leading lingerie retailers in the 1990′s and in 1995 they introduced the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which is shown on primetime television.

Related Article

Who Founded Avon

Who Founded Gibson Guitars
Gibson Guitars was founded by Orville Gibson, who began making mandolins at his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Orville Gibson created a completely new style of mandolin that were louder, stronger and easier to manufacture. Although he began selling his design in 1894, he didn’t patent this design until 1898. It wasn’t long before he had more orders than he was able to keep up with. Due to the growing demand he sold his design to five businessmen from Kalamazoo who formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd., which produced the new style of mandolin. Many of Gibson’s most famous innovations and inventions came after the death of Orville Gibson, which occurred in 1918.

Did you know?
After the formation of the company the board passed a motion declaring they would only pay Orville Gibson for the actual time he worked at the company. He decided to sell his stock in the company a year after it formed and it is thought that he had very little to do with the company after this time.

Related Articles

Who Invented the Electric Guitar

What is a Violin Made out of

Who founded Dunkin’ Donuts ?
In 1950 Dunkin’ Donuts were founded by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts. 4 years earlier he had founded a company called “Industrial Luncheon Services” to deliver meals, snacks and coffee to factory workers. He had so much success doing this that he opened his first coffee and doughnut shop, called the “Open Kettle.” This was the beginning of a company that now has almost 10,000 stores!

Did you know?
The current slogan for the company is “America Runs On Dunkin,” but “You ‘Kin Do It!” is also used. The original slogan was “Sounds Good, Tastes Even Better.” The company sponsors a number of sporting teams including the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots.

William Rosenberg also founded the International Franchise Association in 1960 to promote and support franchise systems around the world.

Dunkin’ Donuts have been criticized for the levels of trans fats in some of the products. In response the company has announced plans to reduce the levels from their food. They have been trailing a new cooking oil since 2007.

Related Articles

Who Founded Starbucks

Who Founded White Castle

Who Founded KFC?
Kentucky Fried Chicken was founded by Harland Sanders, who’s likeness still features on many of their advertisements today, in 1930. He began serving chicken at his gas station and was so successful that, in 1935, the governor of Kentucky made Harland Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel. This is why many advertisements make reference to “the Colonel” or “Colonel Sanders.” Shortly after receiving this honor he expanded his restaurant to 142 seats. Unfortunately, the new Interstate 75 highway meant that most travelers bypassed his establishment. He decided to take the money from his first social security check to search the country for potential franchisees. In 1952 Sanders and Pete Harman struck a deal and the first KFC franchise was opened in South Salt Lake, Utah. Only a decade later there were over 600 KFC franchises in the United States and Canada. In 1964 Sanders sold the US portion of the operation for $2 million.

Did you know?
The KFC recipe is so secret that different parts of the secret blend of herbs and spices are produced in different locations. The only written recipe is kept in a special secure vault at the company’s headquarters. It is guarded with security cameras and motion detectors.

Related Articles

Who Founded McDonald’s

Who Founded Burger King

Who founded the Salvation Army?
The Salvation Army was founded in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth as the East London Christian Mission. William Booth was a former Methodist preacher who had a passion to help the poor and destitute people of Britain. He started the East London Christian Mission to preach to these people and offer them some sort of assistance. The majority of the first converts to the church were the outcasts of society who were not welcome in polite Christian society. This included homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts and prostitutes.

The organization changed their name to the Salvation Army in 1878 and created a military structure for the organization. William Booth became the “general” and the ministers were called “officers.” Other members of the organization were referred to as “soldiers.” They also designed a flag, crest, shield, uniforms and salute. They are also known for creating their own style of Christian music, which was often based on traditional pub tunes. Today, the Salvation Army still holds to many of their traditional military symbols, but there is a push from some members to drop aspects of the military symbolism.

Related Articles

Who Founded Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Who Founded the International Red Cross

Who Founded Crayola?
The company was founded in New York City in 1885 by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. They named the company Binney & Smith, which wasn’t officially changed to Crayola until the beginning of 2007. Originally the company produced colorants for use in products such as paint and tires. In 1900 the company soon shifted its focus to art products for schools and made a name for themselves in this area when they invented of dustless white chalk.

In 1903 Edwin Binney worked with his wife Alice Binney to create wax crayons that sold under the name Crayola. Alice Binney came up with the name from the French words for chalk (craie) and oily (ola). In 1904 the company won the gold medal for their dustless chalk at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. This helped them immensely with their marketing and the gold medal appeared on their packaging for at least 50 years. Today, Crayola crayons are one of the best recognized brands in the world.

Did you know?
A study conducted at Yale university showed that the scent of a Crayola crayon is one of the most recognizable in adults. In a separate study, the brand Crayola is recognized by 99% of Americans.

All Crayola products are made to be non-toxic and safe for children.

Related Articles

Who Invented Crayons

How are Pencils Made