Famous Entrepreneurs

Horizontal integration

Buying out or merging with ones competitors to create a monopoly.

Liability

A company's debt, or risk, that arises during the course of doing business.

Jeff Bezos

Amazon; revolutionized distribution with drones and set the industry standard for e-commerce

Jobs & Wozniak

Apple; innovated personal computers, music, and apps, smart phone to blend technology into our lives, not just our work.

J.P. Morgan

Bank Founder who's invested to help launch start up industries like Edison Electric. Also took risky investments on failing companies or struggling governments to reshape industries.

Levi Strauss

Created the first pair of bluejeans for the gold rush miners. This helped usher in the 'ready to wear' line garment industry and capitalized on America's low cost cotton.

Larry Sanger

Creator or Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, that is written and edited by volunteers around the world. The business is a nonprofit 'foundation'.

Walt Disney

Disney; advanced the idea of 'family entertainment' in movies, theme parks, and vacations.

Richard Branson

Founded his first business, Virgin Records, at 16. Virgin Corp now controls over 400 companies including airlines, telecommunication and multimedia.

Oprah

Founder of Harpo, and OWN; this media mogul created a branded based on a positive image of African Americans as part of mainstream America.

Roy Kroc

Founder of McDonalds. Took a basic hamburger stand and turned it into the world's most successful franchise making fast food part of the modern diet.

John D. Rockefeller

Founder of Standard Oil. Focused on standardizing a safe and efficient refining process of kerosene and, later, gasoline. Created a monopoly through horizontal integration of all refineries. Caused the Panic of 1873 and the collapse of the rail industry buy building his own pipelines.

William Rahdolph Hearst

Hearst Publishing; American newspaper publisher who built the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company Hearst Communications and whose flamboyant methods of yellow journalism.

Ethical

Rules of behavior based on societies ideas about what is morally good or bad.

Mark Zuckerburg

Facebook; the first major social media website.

Fred Smith

Federal Express; developed the efficient hub system to bring down the cost of distribution.

Coco Chanel

Feminist French designer who's personality and designs empowered and liberated women.

Madame CJ Walker

First black women entrepreneur who invented a line of hair care products exclusively for African Americans shortly after the Civil War.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Formed both the largest shipping fleet and used hostile take over to take over the majority of the railroads. Built the Grand Central Station in New York City and expanded infrastructure to rebuild the country after the Civil War.

Page & Brin

Google; search engine that helped people access information from the world wide web

Patent

Government grants the exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention. Protects the intellectual property rights of the inventor.

Muhammad Yunnus

Grameen Bank; invented micro-financing to empower people out of poverty.

Elon Musk

Tesla, Solar City, SpaceX founder. Innovation for a future world.

Innovation

The act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods.

Andrew Carnegie

Utilized a more efficient processing method to make steel more affordable for large scale modern construction projects; bridges, sky scrappers, ships, and rail. Didn't take responsibility for the unethical behavior of his partner, Mr. Fink, which lead to major conflicts.

Sam Walton

Wal-Mart's success as a low-price leader depends on 'economies of scale'; reducing operational costs and selling millions of units around the world.

Capital (in the context of finance)

Wealth (money or assets) used to invest in the start up or expansion of a company.

Hostile Take Over

When one company buys another against the wishes of its management.

Commodity

a raw material that is refined into a commercial product such as; oil, steel, electricity, or water.

Monopoly

the exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.