Ron Shaich
He’s interest in life after high school was politics. But this all has changed when on his sophomore he was falsely accused of shoplifting got kicked out of a Worcester convenience store. Two years after he earned MBA & took a job working for a chain in Boston called the Original Cookie Co.That was when he found his second interest that led him to putting up Au Bon Pain, an East Coast bakery chain that grew from three stores into a $200 million a year company. Many thought Shaich was crazy when, in 1999, he sold Au Bon Pain to concentrate on developing Panera (Charts), its small bakery division. But today Panera is the country’s 17th largest food-service company, boasting some 1,115 U.S. locations and annual revenue of $1.9 billion.
Peter Thum
The Company Ethos water was founded by Peter Thum a 23.6-ounce bottle festooned with a map of the world. He always dreamed of providing clean drinking water to third world countries by selling expensive bottled water in the West. His idea was simple: For every bottle sold, Ethos would donate part of the profit to clean-water initiatives in developing countries such as Honduras and Kenya. After three years of bootstrapping a concept that repelled most investors, Thum sold Ethos to Starbucks for $7.7 million in 2005. Already Ethos’s per bottle donations have increased by 263%. By 2010, Ethos plans to give at least $10 million by 2010 to nonprofits that fund safe-water projects.
Bill Penzey
He spent 13 years of working at his parent’s spice shop in milwaukee. Instead of taking over his family’s business, he came into putting up his own spice company securing first orders from hand made mail order catalog. Now, its revenue ranges tens of millions of dollars. With 270 employees, 600,000 mail-order customers, and 32 retail stores (up from five in 2001, with four more opening by the end of this year), Penzey, 44, has built a fast-growing, innovative company in what was regarded as a sleepy niche of the food industry.
Tim Leatherman
Long before holstered cellphones appeared on handymen’s belts, an interesting gadget has captured everyone’s heart the Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool. Within three months of its first listing in a mail-order catalog, the multifunctional gizmo became essential for thousands of hikers, hunters, and knife enthusiasts. Since then, Leatherman tools have blasted into space with NASA astronauts, severed umbilical cords on newborns, and extracted shrapnel from American troops in Iraq. As founder Tim Leatherman tells it, the idea behind his company grew out of a routine car breakdown. With his wife,they spent most of 1975 touring Europe and Asia in a used Fiat. Its hoses leaked and the wiring failed constantly, and Leatherman’s generic pocketknife lacked the means to fix them. Inspiration struck: Why not add pliers to a pocketknife? By the time the couple returned to the U.S., Leatherman had sketched out a design. A few weeks later he was using his brother-in-law’s machining tools to construct the first prototype. Now, they have 350-employee and sells about 2.5 million units a year of 36 models in 80 countries, from Germany to Mongolia. By December the company plans to introduce five new products.
Bobby Rahal
For Bobby Rahal, the 500 has become a personal tradition he competed 20 races and won both as a driver, in 1986, and as an owner, in 2004, when his team, which he co-owns with talk-show host David Letterman, took the checkered flag. Last year Rahal Letterman entered rookie driver Danica Patrick, who became the first woman to lead the race and finished fourth. But,The team suffered a tragedy in March when Rahal’s No. 3 driver, Paul Dana, was killed in a crash during practice. “a black day for them.” Many racing fans may not realize that Rahal, 53, is an entrepreneur as well. He owns six car dealerships in Harrisburg, Pa., and the Pittsburgh area, representing 11 import brands. A lot of drivers have their names on dealerships, but Rahal, who opened his first outlet in 1989 while he was still racing, gets his hands dirty in every aspect of the business.
Source: Fortune Small Business
