Three Fortune 500 Companies that Started with Next to Nothing (WFMI, AAPL, DELL)

Who makes the cut?  The top three are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), and Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFMI). 

DORM ROOM DREAMS
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)
While attending the University of Texas in 1984, Michael Dell founded the company as PCs Limited. Initial operations of Dell’s company ran from Dell’s dorm room, until he decided to drop out of college to run his company full time. In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, and by 1988 had an initial public offering that valued the company at nearly $80 million.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Apple started in the garage of a young man by the name of Steve Wozniack. Wozniack was an electronics hacker, and he and his long time friend Steve Jobs had this idea to create a personal computer. In 1976, the two approached a local electronics store to see if they would be interested in buying a personal computer that Wozniack had built. The owner of the store became interested and said he wanted 50 units.

Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFMI)
In 1978, twenty-five year old college dropout John Mackey and twenty-one year old Rene Lawson Hardy, saved and borrowed money from family and friends to open the doors of a small natural foods store in Austin, Texas. Within a year of opening the store, the couple was evicted from their home for using their apartment storage for the store. Homeless and with no place to go they decided to save costs by moving and living at their store full time.

Read the full list at http://www.businesspundit.com/fortune-500-rags-to-riches/

Taken from 10 Fortune 500 Companies That Started With Next to Nothing