

20 Million-Dollar Businesses You've Never Heard Of - thankuz
http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/05/million-dollar-businesses-youve-never-heard-of-entrepreneurs-serial-startups-10-million-dollar_slide.html

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DevX101
1\. Rent-A-Green Box Entrepreneur: Spencer Brown * Product/Service:
Environmentally friendly moving supplies, delivery and pickup Start Date: 2005
Startup Costs: $7 million Revenue: $2.6 million in 2009

2\. Mabel's Labels Entrepreneur: Julie Cole Product/Service: Personalized,
permanent labels for kids' stuff Start Date: 2002 Startup Costs: About $10,000
Revenue: $4 million in 2009

3\. Fatheadz Entrepreneur: Rico Elmore Product/Service: Sunglasses for large
people Start Date: 2004 Start-up Costs: About $500,000 Revenue: Estimated $2
million in 2010

4\. Stave Puzzles Entrepreneur: Steve Richardson Product/Service: Hand-made
wooden jigsaw puzzles. Start Date: 1974 Startup Costs: About $5,000 Revenue:
$2.5 million in 2009 Ranging in price from $125 to $5,000, these puzzles are
made of cherry wood, covered with a dry-mounted image drawn by one of 100
licensed artists, and individually hand-cut into as many as 2,500 pieces. Bill
Gates has one, and Barbara Bush gave another as a gift to Queen Elizabeth. "We
try to make them hard to put together," said 71-year-old Richardson, who calls
himself the company's chief tormentor.

5\. Texas Driving Experience Entrepreneur: Dawn Stokes Product/Service: High-
performance driving lessons and retreats Start Date: 2004 Startup Costs: About
$500,000 Revenue: Estimated $1.8 million in 2010

6\. Litecubes Entrepreneur: Carl VanderSchuit Product/Service: Fake ice cubes
that glow Start Date: 2001 Startup Costs: About $100,000 Revenue: $1.3 million
in 2009

7\. Smarter Fuel Entrepreneur: Dave Dunham Product/Service: Biodiesel fuel
from restaurant frying oil Start Date: 2004 Startup Costs: $50,000 Revenue: $3
million in 2009

8\. Sky Zone Entrepreneur: Rick Platt Product/Service: Arenas covered with
trampolines Start Date: 2009 Startup Costs: About $2 million Revenue: $3
million-plus in 2009

9\. Sanidoor Entrepreneur: Gale Lemrand. Product/Service: Sanitary, touchless
restroom-door openers Start Date: 2009. Startup Costs: About $3.5 million
Revenue: Estimated $2.2 million in 2010

10\. Geese Police Entrepreneur: Dave Marcks Product/Service: Geese abatement
using collies Start Date: 1987 Startup Costs: About $3,000 Revenue: Estimated
$2.5 million in 2010

~~~
DevX101
11\. Neuberg & Neuberg Entrepreneur: Larry Neuberg Product/Service: Importing
gold for gilding Start Date: 1962 Startup Costs: Virtually none Revenue:
Estimated $3 million in 2010

12\. Deeplocal Entrepreneur: Nathan Martin Product/Service: Promotions mixing
the digital and physical Start Date: 2006 Startup Costs: Financed out of
initial $30,000 contract Revenue: Estimated $1 million-plus in 2010

13\. BlackSocks Entrepreneur: Samuel Liechti Product/Service: Sock
subscriptions Start Date: 1999 Startup Costs: $30,000 Revenue: $5 million in
2009

14\. DNA 11 Entrepreneurs: Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed Product/Service:
DNA artwork Start Date: 2005 Start-up Costs: $2,000 Revenue: $1.4 million in
2009

15\. The Fiero Store Entrepreneur: Matthew Hartzog. Product/Service: Parts and
accessories for the Pontiac Fiero Start Date: 1991 Start-up Costs: $5,000
Revenue: $2 million in 2009

16\. Heritage Link Brands Entrepreneurs: Selena Cuffe and Khary Cuffe
Product/Service: African wine Start Date: 2005 Start-up Costs: $75,000
Revenue: $1 million in 2009

17\. Jimmy Beans Wool Entrepreneur: Laura Zander Product/Service: Knitting and
crochet supplies Start Date: 2002 Startup Costs: $30,000 Revenue: $2.8 million
in 2009

18\. PetRelocation.com Entrepreneur: Kevin O'Brien and Angie O'Brien
Product/Service: Pet travel Start Date: 2004 Start-up Costs: $97,000 Revenue:
Estimated $4 million in 2010

19\. Murray Associates Entrepreneur: Kevin D. Murray Product/Service:
Eavesdropping detection and counterespionage Start Date: 1978 Startup Costs:
$5,000 Revenue in 2009: $760,000

~~~
AlexC04
thank you so much. I was interested in the article, but couldn't continue
reading past the labels. I'm surprised that forbes.com (ostensibly a reputable
magazine) has gone with a "2leep" style layout.

Adsense "clickbombs" everywhere and completely unreadable.

This is 'content farm' quality at best, which is a shame because it seems an
interesting article.

~~~
taylorbuley
I'm sorry you feel that way. As a Forbes developer, I can tell you we are
trying to make the site as usable as possible. If you have any specific
feedback I can pass along drop me an email at buley.reports at gmail

~~~
seasoup
I don't care so much about the all in one page, but having to roll over the
image to see the text was too difficult. Took me a minute just to figure it
out. Have the text below the image without having to roll over it. I also had
trouble figuring out at the opening shot where to click. Took me forever to
find the next button, I found it just in time. I almost left!

Check out the design books: The Design of Every Day things Designing the
Obvious Information Dashboard Design

for a primer on UI design.

~~~
metageek
Hear, hear. Too many graphic designers know nothing about UI design.

------
rmah
These are what I call real startups. Many of them are imaginative and solve
real customer needs. I hope that many of them can grow into thriving
businesses.

One point that I think is interesting is that even though they're all
"offline" businesses, most were started with very little capital investment.

I sometimes get the feeling that the HN crowd is a bit (understandably) myopic
and focuses too much on simplistic websites. But I believe that more articles
like this, which showcase business ideas in other fields, could be very
valuable in inspiring people and getting the creative juices flowing.

There's a much bigger world out there than one might imagine!

~~~
mechanical_fish
_the HN crowd is a bit myopic and focuses way too much on simplistic
websites._

Perhaps. But we focus on websites because those are what we know. This is a
web-based community of web-based hackers. We've got that in common.

Presumably the communities of "breeders of goose-chasing dogs" spend a certain
amount of time discussing the realities of the goose-chasing dog business. I
know for a fact that communities of chicken breeders know something about the
free-range egg business, and that if you hang around with enough folk
musicians you will eventually learn something about the folk-musician
business.

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corin_
What is with the ridiculous use of "In Pictures" features now days?

If they want the page views, put each company on a seperate page, but don't
pretend that the pictures count for more than 1% of the interesting aspect of
this feature, and don't use a terrible slideshow system that makes it actually
annoying to read the text.

~~~
kilian
It racks up page views and saves them from actually writing any compelling
content. And it also means they're driving people away from their site as fast
as possible.

------
deepGem
A great bunch of ideas but hopeless presentation. Why the heck does Forbes use
this slideshow style of presenting ?

Loved the rent-a-green box idea and also the socks subscription :). Who
could've thought about socks and underwear subscription, really :). Thanks for
posting.

~~~
LargeWu
The socks idea is interesting, but the blurb says the company estimates it
will save the average customer 12 hours a year buying socks. Really? 12 hours
per year?

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dhh
Where's the justification for most of these businesses actually being worth 20
million dollars? I mean they're awesome stories, but when you have $1-2
million in revenue and have to deal with physical products, you won't exactly
have millions in profits. So if you're generating, say, $200K in profits, who
exactly is going to give you a 100 P/E and pay you $20 million for that
business?

Why does Forbes need to go the bullshit "How This Kid Made $60M" route to
rouse interest? Can't it be awesome enough in itself that someone is making a
very fine living selling labels or socks? Oh no, unless they're worth eight
digits, they're not worth talking about. Sad.

~~~
thecoffman
I read it as "here are 20 different one million dollar businesses" which seems
more in line with the numbers presented.

~~~
dhh
Ha. That would make sense. And this would qualify as a terrible fucking
headline as it can be read as (20 million-dollar) businesses, (20) million-
dollar businesses, and (20 million) dollar businesses.

Forbes is terrible.

------
replicatorblog
Another good presentation like this was done by AdaFruit, the open source
hardware company. The founder and an editor at Make: pinged 13 OSH vendors and
found in aggregate they were doing $50MM a year in revenue. I'm fairly
impressed by it considering they are mostly 1-3 person operations.

[http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/05/03/million-dollar-
baby-...](http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/05/03/million-dollar-baby-
businesses-designing-and-selling-open-source-hardware-making-millions/)

------
vaksel
revenue != profit.

take the Fiero guy...sure 2 mil is impressive...but car parts are
expensive...and his profit margin is most likely only 7%(seems to be the
average for car parts)...which turns his 2 mil into $140K.

~~~
patio11
Prior to quitting my day job, I was propositioned by an Englishman living in
my town to improve his website, which he had hand-coded in PHP. There are
several million owners of vintage Japanese cars in the world, there are
several thousand places locally you can find a carburetor for a '82 Camry (I
have no clue if that actually makes sense -- work with me here), and there is
_precisely_ one man in town who can match up "Customer in England with '82
Camry" and "72 year old owner of used auto store in central Japan."

Which is a long way of saying that I have exactly one data point for the
profit margin of a particular niche auto parts business. Suffice it to say
that -- after you deduct shipping, duties, and cost of goods -- it is _still_
higher than mine, and all I do for order fulfillment is a SQL call. (Quote:
"If they don't like my prices, then they can either learn to speak Japanese or
sod off.")

~~~
vaksel
yes when you have a monopoly you can charge anything you want and people will
pay it.

The Fiero example is different, since it's an "iconic" car, which means there
are plenty of aftermarket suppliers/vendors who sell this stuff(usually other
enthusiasts), so he can't really gouge.

Plus, since its a GM product from the 80s/90s..everything is
interchangeable...which means he can't really charge a premium for Fiero
stuff, since those exact parts can be found in any number of other Chevy,
Pontiac products.

For example the 4 cylinder that came in the Fiero, also came in Chevy Astro,
Camaro, Citation, Lumina, S10 and Pontiac 6000, Phoenix, Celebrity, Grand Am,
Firebird, as well as Buick Century, Somerset, Skylark and Oldsmobile Cutlass
and Omega.

------
iisbum
Nice list, hated they way they were shown.

~~~
transition
They just got 20 times the amount of page views though. If they provided a
list that means you could have skipped through and decreased their page views.

~~~
dansingerman
Really? I stopped at the second one and decided to read this thread instead
(where the currently top voted comment is a pertinent summary)

~~~
haribilalic
That's still twice the page views that they would have received if it was all
on one page.

~~~
dansingerman
But way less user engagement / time on site / likelihood of me coming back

~~~
icefox
A data point to back this up: after reading high quality articles presented in
a good fashion I have actually typed in and gone to
<http://www.theatlantic.com/>. This was a good article presented as if it was
on aol.

------
samjohn
I love the green boxes. Last time I moved my roommate spent almost $50 on
cardboard boxes. After unpacking we immediately threw them away (with the
additional hassel of disassembling them). This is a far better solution.

I hope they become available in my state next time I have to move.

~~~
AndyIngram
I think the idea is great also. <http://frogbox.com/> is a company started
here in Vancouver who does the same thing. they also have started franchising
it. I have never used them but had a friend looked into using them and said it
was too expensive compared to regular boxes. It looks like it cost about $110
for boxes for a two bedroom rental. Guess the convenience and green benefits
are the selling factors.

------
rabbitonrails
Design of article widget makes me want to fail.

Also, not many of these are high margin businesses. Meh, you have a $2mm
revenue shipping business with 10% margins and 10 employees that takes all
your time to run. I would rather own a $100k/year web service.

------
jamesbressi
As any great entrepreneur or hacker or opportunist would say... Who wants to
copy one with me?

~~~
jamesbressi
Up votes but no replies to actually take do it. I am no where near the ability
of most of you on the coding side but can take care of any other aspect of the
business.

------
iqster
I must be really sleepy. I clicked on the article thinking ... 20 million
"dollar businesses" ... wtf? Parse Error. Need more caffeine.

~~~
bmelton
Join the club. I read it as "$20 million dollar businesses" ...

------
thankuz
I feel I must apologize for not pointing out the UI issues on the page right
after I posted the piece - I should know better. I almost didn't submit it,
but couldn't find an alternative on any blogs. Thanks to DevX101 for taking
the time to post the "meat-n-potatoes" of the story! Thanks to everyone for
chiming in w/ your opinions.

Thought it was pretty good rep management for the Forbes dev to stop by and
leave an address for feedback - props to taylorbuley for that!

------
LiveTheDream
Another one not listed: Cheeseheads (from old sofa cushions)

[http://www.smartbrief.com/news/entrepreneurs/storyDetails.js...](http://www.smartbrief.com/news/entrepreneurs/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=0ACD01EB-0AB6-43C6-9D6C-EB8071F724EC&copyid=38CB323C-F612-432F-A1B9-771628B36775&campaign=twitter&ref=twitter38CB323C-F612-432F-A1B9-771628B36775)

------
macov
However we are here aiming for billions, Sir.

------
arethuza
Sock subscriptions - what an awesome idea!

~~~
replicatorblog
There is another startup like that in Boston called "ManPacks". A subscription
service for socks, tshirts, etc. I thought it was a kind of dumb idea, but if
that sock revenue number is real they are onto something big!

<http://www.manpacks.com/>

~~~
kmfrk
Subscription services for regular, physical goods are a blessing. They may
seem gimmicky and lazy at first, but once you realize the benefit of
delegating and automating a part of your life, you'll jump right on it.

Of course, it takes the customers to realize that they do in fact tend to run
out of boxers, socks and other supplies regularly, but people in their
twenties should already have had that epiphany.

In my country, there's currently an online (e-)grocer where I can buy a week's
worth of groceries (with no risk of buying snacks when I shop with the
munchies!) and use that half-to-one-hour time for each trip on something else.

They even accept return deposit bottles so I don't have to go down to the
grocer and redeem them.

What's gimmicky laziness to one is optimization, delegation and automation to
someone else. :)

------
hernan7
If you don't mind me being a bit of a contrarian, I notice that apart from the
green boxes and the biofuel ones, none of these companies seem to be "saving
customers money". And many are selling straight novelty items (puzzles, racing
car school... glowing icecubes?) Am I missing anything here?

------
imr
Last one is impressive. At $7000 a day the guy only has to work 143 days to
reach a million per year.

~~~
arethuza
I've met people who are kept very busy at a somewhat higher daily rate -
nothing to do with technology though. They do have to dress _very_ oddly.

------
trimski
It's worth checking out Nathan Martin's talk given at TEDxPSU in 2010 (CEO of
Deeplocal, #12).

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju9ZJSSP2h8>

------
jorkos
springwise.com is a good site for seeing interesting businesses; check it out

------
klbarry
I interviewed Spencer Brown of Rent-A-Green-Box almost two years ago via
phone. He is a really cool guy and was happy to talk to a student for about
half an hour. His strategy for marketing was mostly what he calls the Gorp
cloud - the interconnected world of green media which can mention him to all
prospective customers. He spent a fortune on R&D in the beginning
(<http://changingclothing.recojeans.com/introduction-2/>) but was profitable
cashflow wise in the first week.

------
tastybites
Fatheadz - awesome idea. I probably couldn't be described as 'big' or 'fat',
but my head is wider than normal, which means 90% of sunglasses look
absolutely ridiculous on me. I can only wear 150mm+ lenses, such as 'large'
Ray-ban Aviators, which are 150mm exactly hinge to hinge (I've measured).

Fatheadz is one of the only sunglass websites that explicitly states the
width, in mm, of their frames.

