Steve Jobs acquired the studio that became Pixar in 1986 and returned to Apple in 1997, later leading the creation of the iPhone under the codename Project Purple.

Spanx, founded by Sara Blakely in 2000, began as footless pantyhose to eliminate lines under clothes and became the first billion-dollar shapewear brand bootstrapped without investors.

Madame C.J. Walker invented a scalp treatment and hair growth system for Black women suffering from hair loss due to harsh conditions, building a multimillion-dollar empire through door-to-door sales and agent training.

The name BackRub referred to the algorithm's use of backlinks to rank pages. Google is a play on googol, the term for the number one followed by 100 zeros.

Bezos chose the name Amazon because it started with the letter A to appear first in alphabetical web directories and referenced the world's largest river.

Estée Lauder introduced the "gift with purchase" tactic in 1948 at Saks Fifth Avenue, offering free lipstick samples to encourage cosmetics sales and build customer loyalty.

Moore originally predicted a yearly doubling in 1965, but in 1975 he revised the observation to a doubling of transistors every two years.

In 2007, Arianna Huffington collapsed from exhaustion and sleep deprivation while working at her desk, inspiring her to launch Thrive Global in 2016 to combat burnout.