Many places in the world are famous for something special. Silicon Valley is famously known as a center for numerous businesses relevant to technology. It is home to some of the biggest and most innovative tech companies, including Apple, Meta, Uber, and many others. San Francisco has made it easy for small businesses to grow, and many entrepreneurs who started small businesses in San Francisco are now world-famous.
In fact, several Silicon Valley businesses have completely changed the way we live. Below we highlight some of the biggest entrepreneurs and the companies they began in San Francisco. Hopefully this blog will motivate you to start a small business of your own in San Francisco – and see it thrive.
I’ll wager that every third person around you owns an Apple product. Apple, the renowned maker of tech accessories and devices, needs no introduction. Entrepreneur, inventor, and designer Steve Jobs, Apple’s founding father, was one of the world’s greatest tech visionaries.
Apple has given us not only smart devices, but also many innovative products used in everyday life. Steve Jobs started out in San Francisco. He left Apple in 1985 and purchased an animation company from George Lucas. Jobs then invested almost $50 million in this company, Pixar Animation Studios, whose famous films include Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and the Toy Story series. These and other films have made almost $4 billion overall. When Steve Jobs died from cancer in 2011, his net worth was almost $10.2 billion.
Anne Wojcicki is a famous entrepreneur, chief executive officer and co-founder of 23andMe, a personal genomics company founded in 2016. Yet in 2013, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that its products were not “analytically or clinically validated.”
Two years later, however, the company again received the authorization to market the genetic reports and to identify the risk to users of a handful of diseases. The company has now partnered with Celmatix and is involved in the study of fertility and genetics. In addition, 23andMe is now also authorized to market testing kits for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These are also linked to testing ovarian, breast, and prostate cancer.
The company’s net worth is $440 million. According to CEO Anne Wojcicki, you can accomplish anything you want to if you have two things: vision and Internet access.
Daniel Ek is an entrepreneur, billionaire, and technologist. He is the creator and CEO of Spotify, the largest music-streaming platform. It has over 180 million users and almost 75 million premium subscriptions. Spotify aims to discourage online music piracy by providing users with low-cost alternatives. It can be used as a legal option by the almost half a billion people who listen to music online and illegally.
Formed in 2006, the company’s value had increased by $4 billion only two years later. In April 2018, Spotify filed for an initial public offering. After first trading in 2018, it earned almost $27 billion in market value. Spotify is now worth almost $800 million.
Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms, and everyone knows about it. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are now commonly known as META. Mark Zuckerberg started what is now Facebook in his college dorm room.
Zuckerberg left Harvard to focus on Facebook. And while incriminating messages revealed that he may have stolen intellectual property belonging to Harvard Connection, an initiative built by fellow students, the two parties reached an initial settlement of $65 million. In May 2012, Zuckerberg filed for a public offering (IPO) and raised $16 billion. He has recently come under fire for disclosing sensitive user data to Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign; a total of 87 million user profiles were exposed. As a result, Zuckerberg issued a series of statements outlining how the company intends to limit third-party developers’ access to user data, and also revealed how Facebook plans to combat the rise of any kind of misinformation.
Despite all these issues, however, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth is almost $81.6 billion.
Airbnb was launched Brian Chesky in 2007. Airbnb, the successful web service for booking travel accommodation facilities, arose from a need. Short on cash, Chesky and his roommates rented out their apartment, and this eventually led to the establishment of Airbnb. In 2008, the team accepted a seed-funding programme with Y Combinator and soon opened European offices. In March 2015, Airbnb was valued at $20 billion. Forbes named Brian Chesky one of America’s Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40. In 2015, he was named one of TIME’s 100 Top World Famous Influential People. His company’s net worth is almost $3.8 billion.
Stitch Fix is a fashion-based subscription service founded in 2011 by Katrina Lake, the only woman ever to file for an initial public offering (IPO). She did so in 2017 and in February that year her company was valued at $2 billion.
Her company’s net worth is now almost $500 million.
To start a business of your own, all you need is a little motivation – and of course lots of hard work. With those two things, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. San Francisco is the hub of countless businesses both large and small, and many people in and around the city have worked long and hard and achieved their goals. With the proper guidance, you, too, can set up a business in San Francisco and achieve your professional goals.
What’s the first step? Finding the right Internet and tech support!
Get to know San Francisco’s available Internet plans for your company San Francisco business internet (wiresurfer.com)
July 12th, 2022
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