Gordon Moore (San Francisco, 1929) is known as the founding father of Silicon Valley. Moore is an American entrepreneur and co-founder of computer giant Intel. At age 86 he has taken a well-earned retirement, although he could have stopped working long ago. Forbes estimates his worth at six million euros. He is most famous for formulating ‘Moore’s Law’. In 1965 Moore predicted that the number of components on computer chips would double every year. The number would reach about 65,000 by 1975. Now, 50 years later, his prediction still holds up.
Fail, fail again, fail better. The American Sara Blakely (Florida, 1971) often failed to realize her plans. Until, that is, she hit on her million-dollar idea. She worked for a year at Disney World clipping tickets and sold fax machines as a door-to-door salesperson. In the evenings she worked comedy clubs as a stand-up comedian. Nothing was really working for her until, at age 29, she decided to invest all her savings ($5,000) in the development of body-shaping underwear: Spanx. Six months later, Oprah Winfrey mentioned Spanx in one of her famous Favourite Things episodes. In 2012, at age 41, Blakely became the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
Russell Wendell Simmons (New York, 1957) is an American business magnate. He c-founded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, Tantris and American Classics.
In 1994, David Filo (Wisconsin, 1966) started a website together with Jerry Yang called Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web. That probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but the name they chose to continue under a year later, is more familiar: Yahoo! The website began as a ‘web directory’ pointing to other websites and has grown to become one of the biggest internet brands. This has made Filo the 854th richest man in the world, with an estimated worth of 2.8 billion dollars.
Markus Alexej Persson, also known as Notch or xNotch, is a Swedish video game programmer and designer who founded the video game company Mojang alongside Carl Manneh and Jakob Porser in late 2010.
After visiting ‘The Body Shop,’ a 1970 California garage selling natural soaps and lotions while employing female immigrants, Dame Anita Lucia Roddick opened a similar UK shop in 1976 and purchased the name in 1987 — making it one of the first companies to prohibit animal testing and promote fair trade with developing countries.
The corporation that built Japan’s first tape recorder became Sony in 1958. Amid a 1980s recession, electronics sales dropped, forcing price cuts. “It’s over for Sony,” one analyst concluded. While encouraging
Compact Disc and PlayStation production, Norio Ohga purchased CBS Records and Columbia Pictures, largely expanding Sony’s media presence. As CEO, he grew the company aggressively.
Lamborghini’s tractor factory earned massive wealth. Amidst mechanical difficulties with his Ferrari, Ferruccio Lamborghini decided to create his own luxury sports car. Enzo Ferrari was blindsided at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show when a new prototype stole the show: the Lamborghini 350 GTV. Today, the Lamborghini bull still measures the Ferrari horse.
Shawn Corey Carter, better known as Jay-Z, is an American rapper and businessman. With the most #1 solo artist albums, he was Billboard’s 10th most successful 2000s artist in 2009. Rapping aside, Carter owns a sports bar, clothing line and founded record label Roc-A-Fella Records, entertainment company Roc Nation and sports agency Roc Nation Sports.
The American actress and businesswoman Jessica Marie Alba (born 1981) rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of televisions series Dark Angel. In 2012, she founded The Honest Company and released her book, The Honest Life, one year later. The NY Times bestseller tells her story of creating a non-toxic life for her family.
This room is a celebration of Joanne Rowling (born 1965), author of the much-loved Harry Potter series. The young Jo grew up surrounded by books and dreamt of being a writer from an early age. Today she’s the world’s first billionaire author but said goodbye to that status by giving the bulk of her earnings to charity.
Model, businesswoman and always in the media with a story. Kylie Jenner (born 1997) is young and beautiful, which explains her influence as a celebrity. Her Kylie Cosmetics is valued at $900 million which made Forbes not only declare her cosmetics queen but also the youngest-ever self-made billionaire.
The Swedish tech entrepreneur Daniel Ek (born 1983) decided to retire at the age of 23 after selling his online advertising company Advertigo. After only three months, Daniel grew bored and founded Spotify – the world’s biggest music streaming platform.