The original garage geeks, Bill Hewlett and David Packard flipped a coin in 1939 to determine whose name would come first in their nascent technology company. Back then, Hewlett-Packard specialized in oscilloscopes, electrical testing devices for audio and signal generators. Then in 1968, the Silicon Valley duo produced the HP 9100A, a desktop scientific calculator that is widely seen as a precursor to the personal computer. The clunky machine was expensive, costing $5,000 .
When William Colgate left England in 1804 to seek his fortune in America, he planned to start a small soap company. “Someone will soon be the leading soap maker in New York,” he was reportedly told. “You can be that person.” Two years later, Colgate launched his own soap and candle business, before eventually adding a starch factory. In 1873, sixteen years after his father’s death, Samuel Colgate finally introduced the product for which the brand is best-known today: toothpaste.
The soap business also proved lucrative for William Wrigley, who arrived in Chicago in 1891 with just $32 to his name. As a way to promote his baking powder, Wrigley began giving away chewing gum with every purchase. Like David McConnell and Avon, Wrigley soon discovered that his freebie offering was more popular than his core product and began producing gum instead.
Founded Buffalo, New York, in 1850 by Henry Wells, William Fargo and John Butterfield, American Express was originally a mail delivery service with an emphasis on speed. With a headquarters located in Manhattan’s Financial District, American Express enjoyed a relative monopoly on private shipments and by 1857, the company expanded to financial services to compete with the Post Office’s money order business.
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