Lessons in Funding

Ben & Jerry's
Funding: Personal Savings and Loans
How It Started: Friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield wanted a job they considered fun. They moved to Burlington, Vt. and completed a five dollar correspondence course in ice cream making from Pennsylvania State University. They borrowed $4000 and came up with a total of $12,000 start up money.

Google
Funding: Credit Cards and Investors
How It Started: Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin maxed out their credit cards for computers and office equipment, building Google's first data center in Larry's dorm. But since they needed more cash to move out of the dorm, the duo turned to an investor. Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems and friend of a Stanford faculty member, wrote a check for $100,000 to Google after only seeing a short demo.

Apple
Funding: Sold Personal Possessions
How It Started: Co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, both college dropouts, began their partnership by selling boxes they built that allowed for free long-distance phone calls. In 1976, they started working on another box, the Apple I computer. Jobs and Wozniak sold their most valuable possessions, a van and two calculators, raising $1,300 to fund the company.

Mrs. Fields
Funding: Business Loan
How It Started: Despite numerous warnings of certain failure, Debbi Fields wanted to start a cookie business. Debbi and her husband, Randy, turned their home mortgage lender for financial backing. Debbi wrote in her book that the bank "trusted us, not cookies." Although he expected the cookie business to fail, their banker Ed Sullivan trusted the young couple to pay back a business loan.

Under Armour
Funding: Credit Card and Personal Savings
How It Started: Kevin Plank had about $20,000 in the bank when Under Armour started. For more funding, he accumulated over $40,000 in credit card debt spread across five cards. In the summer of 1997, he was so broke that he went to his mom's house for dinners.

Pink's Famous Hotdogs
Funding: Loan
How It Started: Paul and Betty Pink borrowed $50 to buy a hotdog cart. They sold 10-cent chilli dogs at the corner of Brea and Melrose. Sixty years later, daughter-in-law Gloria Pink, decided to market Pink's Los Angeles roots and raise the eatery?s profile. This family business, affectionately called "the little hot dog stand that could," now sells 1,500 hotdogs a day, in addition to burgers, Grape Crush and fries, bringing in $2.5 million per year in revenue.

Calvin Klein
Funding: Loans and Awards
How It Started: When Calvin Klein's childhood friend loaned him $10,000 in start-up money, Klein rented a dingy showroom to exhibit a small line of samples. The vice-president of Bonwit Teller stopped at the wrong floor of the building, liked what he saw and invited Klein to bring his samples to the president's office. Klein wheeled the rack of clothes uptown personally, winning $50,000 on the spot.

Meebo
Funding: Credit Cards and Venture Capitalists
How It Started: Instead of looking for venture capitalists, Seth Sternberg, Sandy Jen and Elaine Wherry funded Meebo in 2005 with credit cards. They each accumulated $2,000 in credit card debt, which was enough to cover their biggest expenses -- a few computer servers at $120 a month each. Later, they received funding by Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Crate & Barrel
Funding: Personal Savings and Family Loan
How It Started: Rumor has it that while admiring inexpensive dishes purchased on a European vacation, Gordon Segal was inspired to open Crate and Barrel. Gordon and Carole Segal went into business with their life savings of $12,000, plus $5,000 borrowed from Gordon's father. From humble beginnings, the chain is now a household name.

Nantucket Nectars
Funding: Working Odd Jobs
How It Started: Tom First and Tom Scott funded their first large production with personal savings and a family loan. They mass produced 1,400 cases of their beverages at a cost of $9,000. Shortly after starting their company, the Toms found themselves short on cash. To keep the business running, the two juggled odd jobs such as delivering bread, shucking and shipping scallops and pumping waste.

1-800-Flowers
Funding: Loans From Family and Friends
How It Started: James McCann was involved in social work as the administrator of a youth home in Rockaway, NY. In order to supplement his income, he procured $10,000 in loans from family and friends to purchase Flora Plenty, a small flower shop. He transformed this small struggling business into an international operation.

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