Over the years, many homeowners use their garage door space for all types of uses; it is used for the obvious reasons like parking their cars, storing yard equipment, storing kids’ toys, storing food and drinks in an extra refrigerator, and much more. More frequently, especially in Dallas, garage doors are used much more than the front door to get in and out of the house. What we don’t typically think of the garage being used for is to start a business, although many of us have done work on the side like working on a friend’s car, working on construction projects, or even creating art work; but you probably haven’t thought of your garage as the place to start a multi-million or even billion dollar company.
It’s quite interesting to read and find out that some of the most well-known, and now billion dollar companies, were started right behind a garage door.
- Google – Google, started by Larry Page and Sergey Bin in 1996, started off as an idea to have a better optimized search engine. In September 1998, Google Inc. was incorporated and their first “office” was set up in their friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California. Due to rapid growth in less than one year, Google moved to a bigger office space. In 2004, about five years after being incorporated, Google’s market value was estimated at $23 billion.
- Apple – After Steve Wozniak single-handedly made the Apple 1 PC in 1976, he later partnered with Steve Jobs and they came up with the idea to sell his computer. They were first working out of Steve Job’s room, and then moved to his garage. Once they got the operation running, they started selling Apple computers for $666. Although Wozniak left Apple to pursue other ventures and the company did almost fail at one point, Apple made a comeback and grew into the multi-billion dollar enterprise that we all know of today.
- Amazon – Originally started as an online book store by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon started from scratch in Bezos’ home garage. It quickly took off; in the first two months, Amazon’s weekly sales were up to $20,000. As Amazon broadened its online store to start selling other popular items, it grew even faster and by 2001 Amazon’s profit was at $5 million with sales over $1 billion. Today Amazon is a multi-billion dollar online store that everyone is familiar with.
- HP – Hewlett-Packard, founded by William Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage, started out in 1939 with a $538 start-up investment. Today, HP is known as one of the leading computer manufacturers, but started out selling a vast assortment of electronic products. In 2013, thanks to the success of their electronics over the years, HP earned $112.3 billion dollars in revenue.
While your personal garage space may be used for storage, working on projects, or even just hanging out, it is still inspiring to hear about the ideas and dreams starting right behind that garage door, and with some hard work and dedication, dreams come true and big things happen. So be proud of your garage door Dallas! If it isn’t up to par or ready to make dreams happen, it might be time for a garage door repair, replacement, or brand-new installation, and we’d like to help with your personal dream space.