16 Paths of Billion Dollar Companies

‘A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool. A billion dollars!’

You may or may not like Facebook, you may or may not like the movie but you have to admit that the dialogue is not just cool but also relevant and a reality. That was in the past decade. Now, a billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool. A trillion dollars!

The One Billion Dollar Race was nonexistent fifty years back or even two decades back. When Yahoo made its first billion in three years after incorporation, most people did not even imagine that a dot com business can make so much money in so little time. It was not a fault of those people who did not believe or fail to imagine. After all, Nike made its first billion after being in business for twenty four years. The company that has some of the most famous and formidable sports stars as its brand ambassadors did not make a billion dollars in twenty three years of its existence. Compare that to YouTube making its first billion in one year. Sounds incredible? Well, that is just how the world changes and how things are today.

Whirlpool, a formidable brand, was not in the reckoning for a billion dollars in eighty six years. Imagine the first people to work for Whirlpool did not even see their company making its first billion. Companies like Harley Davidson, Wendy’s and Mattel took decades before they became a billion dollar enterprise. Instagram and Twitter did not even wait for half a decade. Even PayPal did not wait for a decade, a company which was pegged to have been born out of one of the worst ideas in 1999, according to a business survey.

Earlier, companies would set out on a journey to survive first and then to become huge. Today, companies start out with the target of a billion dollars. It is the One Billion Dollar Race today. Every aspiring entrepreneur wants to make a billion and every enterprise is looking at the big picture. If an idea is not big enough then it is not a worthwhile idea. That has become the mantra today.

Check out the One Billion Dollar Race info-graphic and you will be surprised to find the stark contrasts among companies which took too little or too much time to make its first billion.