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Defying Gravity

Some of America's iconic companies took flight in gloomy times.

1873

A stock market crash, the collapse of a major bank, and a credit crisis lead to the Panic of 1873 and a deep six-year recession.

Coors Seeing that the country desperately needs a drink, a 26-year-old Prussian immigrant named Adolph Coors opens what he calls the Golden Brewery near Denver. The area is growing fast as rail lines open the West, buoying the start-up. And Coors is able to persevere despite fierce competition -- with $20,000 (in 1873 dollars) on hand, he is extremely well capitalized.

1891

Wrigley With just $32 to his name, a 29-year-old Chicago entrepreneur named William Wrigley Jr. starts a business to manufacture soap. When it sells poorly, he tries baking powder. As a gimmick, he includes free chewing gum in every package. Customers seem more taken with the gum than with the goods it is meant to promote, so Wrigley drops the other products and starts developing new brands, including Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint.

1896

William Jennings Bryan delivers his famous Cross of Gold speech, in which he assigns blame for the weak economy to corporate greed.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) Herman Hollerith is working at the U.S. Census Bureau when he invents a device that can tabulate and sort census data recorded on punch cards. The innovation makes it possible for the government to process population data in months rather than years. Hollerith quits his government job and starts a business named the Tabulating Machine Company; it will be renamed International Business Machines in 1924.

1907

J.P. Morgan bails out a number of banks following a major stock market crash.

United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) Amid a spike in interest rates and a sagging stock market, James Casey, 19, borrows $100 to start UPS, in Seattle, in 1907. His timing is great: The Klondike Gold Rush has flooded the town with thousands of transient new residents, many of whom send and receive notes by messenger. Most services are unreliable and seedy. Casey succeeds by insisting that his delivery boys show up on time, wear tidy (though not yet dark brown) uniforms, and treat customers with courtesy.

1908

General Motors William Crapo Durant, an entrepreneur who has been kicking around the nascent car industry for a few years, uses the occasion of a volatile stock market to go on an acquisition spree. As company values drop, Durant buys Buick and several other manufacturers of horseless carriages and combines them into a new company called General Motors to take on then-dominant automaker Ford.

1913

In a bid to bring greater stability to the economy, Congress establishes the Federal Reserve System.

1923

Herman Miller In the same year that a currency crisis in Germany spurs a recession in the U.S., D.J. De Pree orchestrates a buyout of the furniture business he runs. The deal is funded by his wealthy father-in-law, Herman Miller. De Pree renames the company after his patron and begins experimenting with the sleek modern designs for which the company is now famous.

Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) Brothers Walt and Roy Disney come to Hollywood from Kansas City, Missouri, in 1923 to start fresh. Their previous company, Laugh-O-Gram Films, went bankrupt after financing fell through for a series of cartoons based on Alice in Wonderland. Luckily, the slump of 1923 is mild, and the Roaring '20s quickly resume. Industrywide, box-office ticket sales grow rapidly. In 1928, Disney releases Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse. The first cartoon to feature sound, it is a smash hit.

1929

The great stock market crash commences on October 24.

1932

Zippo Desperate to bring stability to his family's fortunes, which are tied to the sagging oil industry, George Blaisdell decides to sell fancy Austrian-style lighters that cost $1.95 -- or $30 in today's money. Manufacturing in a rented room over a garage in Bradford, Pennsylvania, he comes up with a lighter that is elegant and easy to use. The company survives the '30s and then thrives during World War II, when the military becomes Zippo's largest customer.

1938

In the final year of the Great Depression, Congress establishes a federal minimum wage of 25 cents an hour.

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard launch a company that is in many ways impervious to the struggles of the economy: They bootstrap it, starting with just $538 in capital and working from that now-famous garage in Palo Alto, California. At launch, they have an order in hand for their first product, an audio oscillator, ensuring cash flow. And their first client is itself a growing business: Disney uses HP's products to test sound for Fantasia.

Read more:

How to Pitch a Banker

I Broke These 'Rules.' You Can, Too

He's Just Not That Into You: VC Edition

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