Business History

Finance

The Yankee Candle Company was founded by Michael Kittredge in 1969 in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He started by making candles as gifts for his mother, and the idea grew into a...

Finance

Kate Spade, born Katherine Noel Brosnahan, was an American fashion designer who cofounded the Kate Spade brand with her husband Andy Spade in 1993. The company grew into a globa...

Finance

Apple Inc. was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The core duo of Jobs and Wozniak built the company from a garage into a public company in 1980. By...

Finance

Arthur Guinness founded Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland, in 1759, when he signed a 9,000-year lease at the St. James's Gate Brewery for a rent of 45 pounds per year, accordi...

Finance

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield met in a seventh grade gym class in Merrick, New York. In 1978, they used a $5 correspondence course to learn ice cream making and opened their fi...

Finance

Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership composed of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. They created some of the most widely performed musical t...

Finance

The name Wendy's comes from the nickname of founder Dave Thomas's daughter, Melinda Lou Thomas, who was called Wendy by her family. Dave Thomas named the restaurant after her be...

Finance

Ruth Handler co-founded Mattel and created Barbie, a brand that later inspired films, documentaries, and corporate media projects. Mattel is a publicly traded company on the Nas...