company

  • Primed for Success

    Amazon.com is the largest Internet-based retail company in the United States, and the 6th-most-visited website in the world, but it hasn’t gotten to that lofty position without some growing pains. Amazon in one of the newest companies we’ll be covering in Garage Greatness, since they made their first sale in 1995, a mere twenty years ago. In those twenty years, Jeff Bezos, the manically-driven mastermind behind Amazon’s record-shattering success, has moved his business from a garage-based bookseller to a household name and competitor in nearly every industry and country around the globe. At the beginning, however, it began in a garage.

  • Your Garage’s Curb Appeal

    Whenever you consider making a large change to your home, it is a good idea to keep resale value in mind. Unless you plan on owning your home for the rest of your life, you will need to put it back on the market at some point. If you make undesirable changes to your home in order to make it more appropriate for your living situation, you might find yourself regretting the choice when your house languishes, unsold, for months. Many homeowners wonder if converting their garage to a living space would give them a leg up against the competition, and others don’t know if they can expect to recoup the cost of a new garage door when they sell. We’ve done the research and can pass our findings on to you, so that you can be an informed consumer.

  • The Google Garage

    Google is the most omnipresent and omnipotent power that people interact with on a daily basis, which has given some geeks the idea to argue that Googlism – that is, worship of Google as God – is the closest that humans will ever come to interacting with something omnipotent. The farcical religion is more joke than theology, but the believers of Googlism are right about Google’s power over every part of our lives. Google is the most-visited website in the world and handles over half of all internet searches, but Google Inc is also involved in Email, cloud storage, an office software suite, and a host of cutting-edge technologies like self-driving cars and augmented reality headsets. The company is a very big deal, and vying with Apple (another garage startup!) for the coveted position of most valuable brand.

  • 13 Garage Doors Myths, Debunked

    People say things that aren’t true all of the time. Sometimes, they don’t know better. Sometimes, they’re trying to sell you things that you don’t really need. This sort of misinformation has led to a bunch of rumors and myths about garage doors that aren’t true. Today, we’ll dispel 13 of the most common myths so that you can have the right answers to these important questions. Feel free to check these for yourself if you don’t believe us, but we’d much rather educate a customer than charge someone for services or upgrades they don’t need.

  • Holding a Candle to Yankee Candle

    The Kittredge family may just have a little wax in their blood. Michael Kittredge II started making candles when he was just 16, starting The Yankee Candle Company in his parent’s garage. Forty years later, his son Michael III founded Kringle Candle, establishing the company just 20 miles from Yankee Candle’s flagship store. Michael III is intent on following in his father’s footsteps to greatness, although of course having a multimillionaire father means that he has plenty of help beginning his journey. Michael Kittredge the II, his father, only had three things – a dream, a garage, and a single candle.

  • Dream House DIY: Building a Toy Empire

    Did you know that Mattel got their start in a garage? Mattel is the Fortune-500 toy manufacturing company responsible for several of the biggest names in toys; Fisher-Price, Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Matchbox, and several other household names are produced entirely by this American powerhouse. Want to read all about how newlyweds Ruth and Elliot Handler began Mattel in two different garages, over a decade of their lives? We’ve got you covered.

  • Blogging for Apples

    Did you know that Apple got their start in a garage? You’ve probably heard of Apple Inc., but just in case you get your news through smoke signals and rely upon carrier pigeons for your texting, we’ll summarize: Apple sells a range of personal computers, consumer electronics, computer software, and digital media. They are the largest traded corporation in the world in terms of market capitalization, with 182.8 billion dollars of revenue in 2014 alone. In short, Apple is a huge deal in the world of technology. Want to read all about how they started from the ground up inside Steve Job’s parent’s garage? We’ve got you covered.