Tech Startup Growth Hacking 101 - Basics on Growth Marketing
Entrepreunership
1. Take three world known entrepreneurs (all from different industries) and tell
their life story and type of business they started to the class. You should discuss
their academic and social background, the problems they face when starting and
runing their business, and the success they enjoyed.
Bill Gates
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. He is the son of William H. Gates Sr.
and Mary Maxwell Gates. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of
directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates' maternal grandfather was J.W,
Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and a younger
sister, Libby. He is the fourth of his name in his family, but is known as William Gates III or "Trey"
because his father had the "II" suffix. Early on in his life, Gates observed that his parents wanted
him to pursue a law career. When Gates was young, his family regularly attended a church of the
Congregational Christian Churches, a Protestant Reformed denomination. The family encouraged
competition; one visitor reported that "it didn't matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or
swimming to the dock ... there was always a reward for winning and there was always a penalty for
losing". Bill believed in achieving his goals through hard work. He also believes that if you are
intelligent and know how to use your intelligence, you can reach your goals and targets. From his
early days Bill was ambitious, competitive and intelligent. These qualities helped him to attain great
position in the profession he chose also Bill was deemed by his peers and his teachers as the
smartest kid on campus; Bill’s parents came to know their son’s intelligence and decided to enroll
him in a private school, known for its intense academic environment. That was the most important
decision in Bill Gate’s life where he was first introduced to computers. Bill Gates and his friends
were very much interested in computer and formed “Programmers Group” in late 1968. Being in
this group, they found a new way to apply their computer skill in university of Washington. In the
next year, they got their first opportunity in Information Sciences Inc. in which they were selected
as programmers. ISI (Information Sciences Inc.) agreed to give them royalties, whenever it made
money from any of the group’s program.
Bill Gates and his close friend Allen formed a new company of their own, Traf-O-Data. They
developed a small computer to measure traffic flow. From this project they earned around $20,000.
The era of Traf-O-Data came to an end when Gates left the college. Upon graduating from Lakeside
Bill enrolled in Harvard University in 1973, one of the best universities in the country, He didn’t
know what to do, so he enrolled his name for per-law. He took the standard freshman courses with
the exception of signing up for one of Harvard’s toughest mathematics courses. He did well over
2. there, but he couldn’t find it interesting too. He spent many long nights in front of the school’s
computer and the next day asleep in class. After leaving school, he almost lost himself from the
world of computers. Gates and his friend Paul Allen remained in close contact even though they
were away from school. They would often discuss new ideas for future projects and the possibility
of starting a business one fine day. At the end of Bill’s first year, Allen came close to him so that
they could follow some of their ideas. That summer they got job in Honeywell. Allen kept on
pushing Bill for opening a new software company. Within a year, Bill Gates dropped out from
Harvard. Then he formed Microsoft. Microsoft’s vision is “A computer on every desk and Microsoft
software on every computer”. Bill is a visionary person and works very hard to achieve his vision.
His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in
mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Bill’s Microsoft is good
competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp out (challenge) the
competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of Risk and the game of world domination. His
beliefs are so powerful, which have helped him increase his wealth and his monopoly in the
industry. Bill Gates is not a greedy person. In fact, he is quite giving person when it comes to
computers, internet and any kind of funding. Some years back, he visited Chicago’s Einstein
Elementary School and announced grants benefiting Chicago’s schools and museums where he
donated a total of $110,000, a bunch of computers, and provided internet connectivity to number of
schools. Secondly, Bill Gates donated 38 million dollars for the building of a computer institute at
Stanford University.
In 1987, a 23-year-old Microsoft product manager named Melinda French caught the eye of Bill
Gates, then 32. The very bright and organized Melinda was a perfect match for Gates. In time, their
relationship grew as they discovered an intimate and intellectual connection. On January 1, 1994,
Melinda and Bill were married in Hawaii. Following the devastating death of his mother to breast
cancer just a few months after their wedding, Bill and Melinda took some time off in 1995 to travel
and get a new perspective on life and the world. In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer, was born.
Their son, Rory, was born in 1999, and a second daughter, Phoebe, arrived in 2002.
In 1994, Bill and Melinda Gates established the William H. Gates Foundation, which was dedicated
to supporting education, world health and investment in low-income communities. With Melinda's
influence, Bill had taken an interest in becoming a civic leader in the footsteps of his mother,
studying the philanthropic work of American industrial titans Andrew Carnegie and John D.
Rockefeller. He realized that he had an obligation to give more of his wealth to charity.
Although Bill Gates did not take too many risks, he had many obstacles that stood in his way of his
3. dream, even before he even had the dream of Microsoft. One such obstacle would be that his private
elementary school did not have the money for the computers during the time that they were very
expensive. To overcome this, his school had a fundraiser and was able to rent a year’s worth of time
on the general electric computers. Although, within a few weeks, the year’s worth of time on the
computers was up. Gate’s school then made a deal with Seattle-based Computer Center Corporation
(CCC) for more time on the computers. Gates then got himself into trouble by hacking into the
security of the computers and resetting the meters for the computers, and crashing them just for fun.
He was banned from using the computer for some weeks. After the ban was lifted, the CCC was
beginning to suffer due to the weak security system, so they made a deal with Gate’s “gang” of
hackers that if they found the bugs and report weaknesses of the system, that they could have
unlimited use of the computers. In 1970 the CCC was run out of business by financial trouble.
Thus the software market was born. Bill waited till his junior year of high school to take a leave of
absence from Harvard and went to create Microsoft. Another challenge Bill Gates faced was that
Bill Gates parents were not happy when he said that he wanted to drop out of college so he could
start his company, but his parents said no.
In 2000, the couple combined several family foundations and made a $28 billion contribution to
form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates continues to devote much of his time and energy
to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization tackles international and
domestic issues, such as health and education and helping students in the United States become
college-ready. In addition to being one of the richest and most successful businessmen in the history
of the world, Bill Gates has also received numerous awards for philanthropic work. Time magazine
named Gates one of the most influential people of the 20th century. According to the magazine’s
annual list, Gates is worth $77 billion with Microsoft accounting for just one-fifth of that.
Wang Jianlin
Wang Jianlin, the eldest son in his family, was born in Sichuan province on 24
October 1954. His father was a member of the Red Army and took part in the Long
March. When he was 15, Wang Jianlin entered the military and became a soldier in
a northern China border garrison. Wang Jianlin, of a competitive nature, always
remembered how his mother impressed upon him the need to be a good soldier. He
persevered with the 1,000-kilometer march and upon arriving at the Snowy Forest
4. with the troops, he became one of only a small number of soldiers to complete this
arduous task. The 17-year military career had a profound impact on Wang Jianlin’s
life. After his military career, Wanda was often likened to the military because of its
invincibility in battle and execution in business. He was eager for more challenges
and for a better life. A newly established Xigang district real estate company was on
the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management. In order to save the company, the
district government looked to the community to recruit someone. Wang Jianlin
volunteered; he resigned from his government position and became the general
manager of the company. This company was the predecessor of today’s Wanda
Group. In China, Wang Jianlin is known widely as a philanthropist. He
made“creating wealth together, sharing with society” a corporate mission and is the
first in China to have proposed pursuing a social enterprise. Because he adheres to
this philosophy, Wang Jianlin has contributed more than four billion yuan to poverty
alleviation, education, disaster relief and other areas. He is one of the largest
contributing entrepreneurs in China, and is honored because of this.
To keep the company alive, Wang Jianlin looked everywhere he could for
development projects, but at that time policy restrictions made it very difficult to
find a good project. In 1989 Wang Jianlin decided to accept the government-
recommended “Dalian Beijing Street Urban Renewal Project.” Because this project
was not expected to be profitable, other powerful enterprises refused to take it, but
Wang Jianlin decided to take the gamble. He shattered the existing housing
construction conventions and designed bigger and better units, using aluminum
windows instead of the traditional wooden ones and installing security doors on
each household. Against all objections, Wang Jianlin announced that Wanda would
make the transition from residential to commercial real estate. However, a lack of
experience made it difficult for Wanda. Media criticism, litigation from investors,
and internal skepticism ensued. Under tremendous pressure, Wang Jianlin went
through 222 lawsuits, of which one project had to be demolished and reconstructed,
5. as it could not be saved due to design reasons. Wang Jianlin is now China’s most
successful entrepreneur. To achieve this, 61-year-old Wang Jianlin knows no rest.
Just as in the Dalian venture, provided he is not travelling for business, each day he
is on time in the office at 7 a.m. to begin a busy day’s work.
The first transformation made Wanda, originally a local company, into a nationwide
enterprise. Obtaining success in one city was not enough to satisfy Wang Jianlin. He
wanted Wanda to become a famous national enterprise. He started the third
transformation by heavily investing in the cultural tourism industry. Because Wanda
Plazas needed cinemas,Wanda entered the cinematic world, and luckily enough
benefited from the explosion of the Chinese film market. He and his company have
already won the country’s highest philanthropic honour, the China Charity Award,
seven times. By 2020, Wanda’s enterprise market value and assets are required to
reach US$200 billion with revenue of US$100 billion and a net profit of US$10
billion. Wang Jianlin’s long-term desire is the eradication of poverty, and many of
his contributions are to help poor farmers.
Sara Blakely
Born on February 27, 1971, Sara Sara Treleaven Blakely, an American billionaire businesswoman,
is the creator and founder of Spanx, a hugely successful line of shapewear. She grew up in
Clearwater, Florida, with her younger brother, Ford. Their father worked as a lawyer and their
mother was an artist. Blakely later credited her father with helping her develop the courage to be an
entrepreneur. Although she initially planned to become an attorney, she reconsidered after placing
very low on the Law School Admission Test; she instead accepted a job at Walt Disney World in
Orlando, Florida, where she worked for three months. She also occasionally worked as a stand-up
comedian during this period. After her short stint at Disney, Blakely accepted a job with office
supply company Danka, where she sold fax machines door-to-door.
She couldn't become a lawyer like her dad because she failed the LSAT — twice. And she hadn’t
enough credit to start her hope. She was quite successful in sales and was promoted to national sales
trainer at the age of 25. Forced to wear pantyhose in the hot Floridian climate for her sales role,
Blakely disliked the appearance of the seamed foot while wearing open-toed shoes, but liked the
6. way that the control-top model eliminated panty lines and made her body appear firmer. For her
attendance at a private party, she experimented by cutting off the feet of her pantyhose while
wearing them under a new pair of slacks and found that the pantyhose continuously rolled up her
legs, but she also achieved the desired result.
Blakely managed to arrange a meeting with a representative of the Neiman Marcus Group, at which
she changed into the product in the ladies restroom in the presence of the Neiman Marcus buyer to
prove the benefits of her innovation. Blakely's product was sold in seven Neiman Marcus stores as a
result of the meeting; Bloomingdales, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman soon followed. At around this
time, Blakely sent a basket of products to Oprah Winfrey's television program, with a gift card that
explained what she was attempting to develop.
In 2006, Blakely launched the Sara Blakely Foundation to help women through education and
entrepreneurial training Blakely had considered the establishment of a non-profit foundation prior to
the founding of Spanx. Richard Branson acted as a mentor to Blakely and, at the conclusion of The
Rebel Billionaire, surprised Blakely with a US$750,000 check to start the Foundation. Since its
launch, The Sara Blakely Foundation has funded scholarships for young women at the Community
and Individual Development Association City Campus in South Africa[19] and Blakely appeared on
The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, donating US$1 million to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership
Academy for Girls. Sara Blakely’s invention was an answer to the prayers of millions of women
worldwide. Her invention was authentic and with her only 5000 dollars she appealed to the masses
because of her unique and outstanding idea. She achieved her dream of becoming a successful
entrepreneur. She married Jesse Itzler, an American Rapper in 2008. They have a son Lazer Blake
Itzler. In 2013 Blakely became the first female billionaire to join the "Giving Pledge", Bill Gates
and Warren Buffett's pledge, whereby the world's richest people donate at least half of their wealth
to charity.
