{"id":43414,"date":"2020-07-01T18:22:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T18:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=43414"},"modified":"2025-03-13T06:25:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:25:40","slug":"entrepreneurship-success-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/entrepreneurship-success-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"5 entrepreneurship success stories: when the risk pays off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, entrepreneurship has become a pretty convoluted concept. If you search for the term \u201centrepreneur\u201d on LinkedIn, for example, you\u2019ll get all sorts of results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll find people who brand themselves as entrepreneurs\u2014right out of the gate after graduating college. Then there are freelancers, part-time hobbyists, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">authorpreneurs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wannapreneurs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who also roll by the title of \u201centrepreneurs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entrepreneurship, more than anything else, is a mindset. Being an entrepreneur is a high-risk, high-reward path into the world of business that could lead you to fail\u2014or fly. We&#8217;re not exaggerating either. CB Insights reports that 70% of all startups fail, usually within the second year of their inception.<sup>1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And while that sounds downright terrifying to most people, a certain group of people will look at this and say, &#8220;Yes, this makes me want to leave my cozy salaried life to start something that demands 150% of their attention 24\/7.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be an entrepreneur, you clearly have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and vice versa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s perhaps the reason why Peter Drucker, the famous business author, once said, \u201cWhenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the entrepreneurs who took a risk\u2014and made it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#our\">Our own founder&#8217;s entrepreneurship success story<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#cdbaby\">Entrepreneurial success story #1: CD Baby<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#coursera\">Entrepreneurial success story #2: Coursera<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#genius\">Entrepreneurial success story #3: Genius Foods<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#w2o\">Entrepreneurial success story #4: W2O<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#naked\">Entrepreneurial success story #5: Naked Wines<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\ud83d\udc40\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you know employees crave more connection in the workplace? Grab our <\/span><strong><i>2022 state of human connections at work <\/i><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>report<\/strong> to get the whole story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"download-form-widget standart-download-form\" data-url=\"https:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/report\/state-of-human-connections-at-work.pdf\" data-id=\"69ee48f2c1463\" id=\"69ee48f2c1463\">\n\t\t<button tabindex=\"on\"  on=\"tap:69ee48f2c1463.toggleClass(class='open')\" class=\"open-modal-download-action download-form-button\" type=\"submit\">\ud83d\udcd9 Get the report<\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"download-form-modal\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-body\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-content\">\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-title\">\ud83d\udc40 \u200a Get this free report to learn more about the state of human connections.<\/div>\n<form class=\"download-form SMB\" method=\"post\">\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"download-form-input\" aria-label=\"Full Name\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" type=\"text\" name=\"fullname\" placeholder=\"Full Name\" data-dl-events-hover=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"text\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input class=\"download-form-input\" aria-label=\"Email (please enter a work email address)\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" type=\"email\" autocomplete=\"on\" name=\"email\" placeholder=\"Email (please enter a work email address)\" data-dl-events-hover=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"email\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"popup_form\" value=\"1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"Lead_Entry_Source__c\" value=\"RC Blog\" class=\"download-form-input\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-part\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"download-form-submit\" type=\"submit\" data-dl-element=\"button\" data-no-auto-dl=\"true\" data-dl-additional-info=\"download form\" data-dl-name=\"Get it now\">Get it now<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<button on=\"tap:69ee48f2c1463.toggleClass(class='open')\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\"  class=\"download-form-modal-close\"><\/button>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"download-form-modal-thank\">Enjoy!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"our\"><\/a><br \/>\nRingCentral&#8217;s story: from startup to entrepreneurial success<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a company founded by a Ukrainian immigrant who quit a stable 9\u20135 job at a Silicon Valley tech startup, we\u2019re no stranger to successful startup stories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RingCentral would have not existed had Vlad Shmunis\u2014our founder\u2014not questioned the status quo that prevailed in the world of online communication back in 1992.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same year, Vlad launched his first company, Ring Zero\u2014a desktop software solution for business communications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After shipping over 25 million copies of software to PC manufacturers, Vlad sold off Ring Zero to Motorola (a Ring Zero customer) in 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He then launched RingCentral in 1999 to replicate his success at Ring Zero and create something even bigger and better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All this to say, RingCentral was once a startup that germinated in the mind of a dreamy-eyed immigrant who had the courage to take a risk.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, the majority of RingCentral\u2019s customers come from the small and mid-size business (SMB) segment. And while doing business with them, we\u2019ve come across great examples of startup success stories that have inspired us as a company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this post, we pay homage to five examples of inspiring entrepreneurship success stories that unpack the traits of enterprising individuals who persevered through several roadblocks to create immense value to the world around them.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe\" id=\"new-rc-subscribe\"  style=\"background-image:url('\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ringcentral\/assets\/images\/temp\/subscribe.png')\">\n\t\t<button class=\"close js-popup-close\"><svg class=\"icon_close_mobile\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon_close_mobile\"><\/use><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__wrapper_text\">\n<h3 class=\"rc-subscribe__title h2\">Stay informed with RingCentral<\/h3>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__subtitle\">Subscribe to our emails for the latest blogs, events, and exclusive content on AI-powered communication solutions. Stay ahead with insights and tips from the leader in trusted AI communications.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/legal\/privacy-notice.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-dl-name=\"Privacy Notic\" data-dl-element=\"link\" data-dl-additional-info=\"social\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Privacy Notice<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__wrapper_form\">\n<form class=\"\" data-event-init=\"true\" novalidate data-js-form>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tname=\"email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tplaceholder=\"Email address *\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Must be valid email. example@yourdomain.com\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tminlength=\"4\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmaxlength=\"255\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttype=\"email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trequired\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpattern=\"[a-z0-9._%+\\-]+@[a-z0-9.\\-]+\\.[a-z]{2,}$\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"field__control\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tautocomplete=\"on\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-required=\"true\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-events-hover=\"true\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-element=\"email\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"LET'S WORK TOGETHER\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-label=\"Email address *\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-errormessage=\"email-subscribe-errors\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"field__errors\" id=\"email-subscribe-errors\" data-js-form-field-errors><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<select\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tname=\"Country__c\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trequired\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"field__control\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-required=\"true\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-expanded=\"false\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-label=\"Country *\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\taria-errormessage=\"country-subscribe-errors\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t><option value=\"\" disabled=\"disabled\" selected=\"selected\">Country<\/option><option value=\"Canada\">Canada<\/option><option value=\"United_States\">United States<\/option><\/select><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"field__errors\" id=\"country-subscribe-errors\" data-js-form-field-errors><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"rc-subscribe__row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<button type=\"submit\" data-event-init=\"true\">Subscribe<\/button>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"confirm-form\" role=\"status\" aria-live=\"polite\" style=\"display: none;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"confirm-form__text\">Thank you for your interest in RingCentral<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 stories of great entrepreneurship success<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s begin with the entrepreneurship success story of a company that started a year before RingCentral.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"cdbaby\"><\/a><br \/>\n1. CD Baby\u2019s origin story is music to our ears<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before he launched CD Baby, Derek Sivers\u2019 life was a circus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And we don\u2019t mean it figuratively\u2014Derek <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">actually<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> worked as a professional musician (he was more like a ringmaster, but with a guitar) in a Boston-based circus for 10 years. He made $75 to 100 per show in the circus before he launched his own music band called Hit Me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His band\u2019s songs played in radio stations across the US, but it was tough for them to sell their CDs to people throughout the country who loved their music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was 1998, and two things that we now take for granted\u2014online retail and music streaming\u2014were almost unheard of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Derek created a website\u2014CDbaby.com\u2014in order to sell his band\u2019s CDs to his audience. But the online payment gateway hadn\u2019t become mainstream yet, so he still had to rely on mail-in checks and money orders to ship CDs to his customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were a couple of big online players in the market like musicboulevard.com and CDNow.com who only partnered with major music labels\u2014not with indie bands like Derek\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But instead of complaining about it, Derek decided to learn how to make his website work so that he could sell his CDs online.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43416\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43416\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43416 size-large\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/CD-babys-website-2004-1024x1021.png\" alt=\"CD baby's website in 2004: beginning of an entrepreneurship story\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1021\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43416\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 2004 version of CDbaby.com\u2019s website that Derek created on his own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After three months of trial and error, he was finally able to embed a fully functional \u201cbuy now\u201d button on his website that allowed people all over the US to order CDs online.<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_43415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43415\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-43415 size-large\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cd-baby-website-2020-1024x439.png\" alt=\"cd baby's website in 2020: entrepreneurship success\" width=\"1024\" height=\"439\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CD Baby&#8217;s website today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That decision to scratch his own itch turned out to be an accidental entrepreneurship journey for Derek.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only did he begin to sell his CDs to people all across the US, Derek also started getting requests from other independent musicians to list their CDs on his website. Eventually, CDbaby.com became a popular destination for like-minded musicians to sell their CDs online.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2008, Derek sold off the company to Disc Makers for $22 million and gave the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, CDBaby is the world\u2019s largest independent music distributor with over 650,000 artists. The platform also partners with 150+ music streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the company has grown to become a team of 250+ employees, CDBaby has made it a priority to keep meetings under control. One way the team does this is by having a simple scheduling system that everyone can use to book meeting spaces and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/team-huddle-and-more\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">huddle rooms<\/a> without stepping on each other&#8217;s toes\u2014just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/whyringcentral\/casestudies\/cd-baby.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by using RingCentral Rooms\u2122 and an iPad<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Takeaway<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In entrepreneurship, every opportunity that you have to perfect your craft is a worthwhile experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As an ambitious musician, Derek didn\u2019t give up on his dreams\u2014he just waited for the right time to take the plunge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 10 years that he spent playing music in the circus gave him the confidence to get off the grid as a solo artist and prepared him for the entrepreneurship journey that he had never planned.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"coursera\"><\/a><br \/>\n2. Coursera heralded a new era of online learning by pure chance<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The founding story of Coursera perfectly fits the value creation part of entrepreneurship that we talked about earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coursera was co-founded in 2011 by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, both professors at Stanford University at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While working together to help Stanford develop a one-of-a-kind Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, the academicians realized that they both shared a common vision of wanting to make computer science degrees accessible for everyone outside of Stanford.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project received good traction among students, and both Daphne and Andrew decided to further democratize the learning of computer science for people outside of Stanford for free.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So they did what professors of their caliber typically do\u2014they put their collective efforts into creating an interactive online course that mimicked university learning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The duo created video lectures, discussion forums, multiple-choice questions, homework assignments, and grade points for students to pass a course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Until that point, Daphne and Andrew had no plans to monetize and market the courses\u2014let alone the thought of converting it into an online learning platform.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over 100,000 students enrolled in the courses despite knowing very well that they wouldn\u2019t earn any academic credit, which signaled the possibility of a profitable business. And that\u2019s when Daphne and Andrew decided to make something sustainable out of it<sup>3<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They reached out to other universities like Princeton, Penn, and Michigan to also join the fray. They built enough momentum for Coursera to attract investors at their own volition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By 2014, Coursera hired its first CEO (Rick Levin) and began charging its students $30 to $70 for a certified course. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per the latest estimates in 2020, Coursera is valued at $2.5B, boasts 43 million students, and has roped in big enterprises like Adobe and Abu Dhabi School of Government as their customers<sup>4<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To scale this growth, communication has been key. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/whyringcentral\/casestudies\/coursera.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Coursera uses one communication platform<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to send and receive calls and business text messages, and access voicemails and call logs\u2014all in one place:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation\" title=\"RingCentral app for Desktop: Message. Video. Phone.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EbIAZJd9rCU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, Daphne parted ways with Coursera to found another company called Insitro (a tech-based drug discovery and development company). Andrew founded two other companies\u2014deeplearning.ai and Landing AI\u2014and continues to serve as Chairperson at Coursera.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Takeaway<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you set out to do something good in the world, the whole universe just might conspire in helping you to achieve it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s certainly been the case for Andrew and Daphne, who thought that the world needed more computer science experts outside of prestigious Ivy League universities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And by virtue of democratizing education for all, they found wealth, fame, and their lives\u2019 second calling to start other knowledge-based businesses similar to Coursera.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"genius\"><\/a><br \/>\n3. Genius Foods\u2019 appetizing story of growth<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. And this story of a mother-turned-entrepreneur just goes on to prove that further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne was the average pie-baking English mom from Edinburgh before founding Genius Gluten-Free Foods. She decided to start the company in 2009 only after her son was diagnosed as gluten intolerant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The painful realization that her son was deprived of the simple every day joy of eating bread\u2014a staple English food\u2014pushed Lucinda to innovate a formula for inventing gluten-free bread.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And although Lucinda was a trained physiologist and a chef, coming up with a gluten-free formula to bake breads wasn\u2019t exactly a cakewalk for her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She toiled for nearly two years experimenting with different baking methods. Lucinda would often bake as many as 14 types of bread loaves for her children to try on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During her many kitchen experiments, she broke her oven twice. But finally in 2009, her hard work paid off and Lucinda found the perfect recipe to bake gluten-free breads that tasted just as good as traditional breads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And just 15 months after Genius Foods hit the shelves, the company was valued at over $13 million\u2014one of the most successful launches in the gluten-free market segment in history<sup>5<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From 2013\u20132015, Genius Foods acquired four other bakeries in the UK region to expand its dominance as the market leader in the gluten-free food segment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/news\/business-consumer\/genius-bread-recipe-led-creation-1997299\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-43417\" src=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/genius-foods-entrepreneurship-success-story.jpg\" alt=\"genius foods' entrepreneurship success story\" width=\"615\" height=\"410\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the recent years, Genius Foods has grown to occupy a formidable 51% market share in the UK\u2019s gluten-free bread market and has expanded its product presence across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UAE.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a company that has grown at breakneck speed, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/whyringcentral\/casestudies\/genius-food.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Genius Foods has never lost sight of the importance of making it easy for the whole team to keep in touch with each other.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> One way the team achieves this is by keeping all of its conversations unified through a single platform, keeping their messaging, phone service, and video conferencing together in one app.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Takeaway<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fresh ideas can come from anywhere\u2014you just have to pay attention to the little voice in you that asks you to take action when a problem persists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Had it been for any other suburban mom, she would have perhaps cajoled her son and provided him with gluten-free products from other food categories. But Lucinda saw an opportunity in a crisis that proved to be a great opportunity\u2014not just for her kids but for a global market.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"w2o\"><\/a><br \/>\n4. W2O\u2019s healthy rise as a multi-million dollar company<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When an invisible virus cripples the world, every society\u2019s eyes turn to healthcare institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But who helps healthcare organizations when they need a cure for their headaches\u2014like helping them with their marketing and public relations (PR) requirements?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the best person to answer that would be Jim Weiss, who in 2001 founded W2O\u2014a PR and marketing communications that specifically caters to healthcare orgs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When he launched W2O, he was the one-person marketing consultant in his firm. He probably had no idea that one day, his company would grow so big that it would employ 1,300 people in 13 offices across the US and Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jim had a well-paying job in the PR world where he created successful PR campaigns for brands like Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, Sanofi, Campo, and Rilutek.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But inspired by an itch to do something bigger than what he was able to do at the time, Weiss decided to launch a full-scale consulting agency that was fully in his control.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the next few years, he built W2O to deliver bespoke digital marketing and analytics solutions, mostly to healthcare brands like Genentech and Roche Diagnostics.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"tip\">\n<div class=\"tip-heading\"><b>\ud83d\udcd6 Read more:\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/how-to-run-healthcare-practice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Learn how to run a remote-friendly healthcare practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, W2O partners with 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical organizations in the world\u2014including several Fortune 500 companies<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But W2O\u2019s growth wasn\u2019t immune to a founder\u2019s struggles. Right after 2008\u2019s economic downturn, Jim\u2019s business nosedived because of the deteriorating finances in the healthcare industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But instead of downsizing or folding up, he decided to diversify his services to other industry verticals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2009, W2O acquired two media agencies\u2014ODA and Common Sense Media Group\u2014and extended its marketing services to clients outside of the healthcare industry, including brands like South by Southwest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the years, W2O has acquired 12 more companies from across all industries ranging from creative and digital marketing, social media, customer relationship management (CRM), scientific and medical marketing communications, and medical education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2019, W2O reported the total annual revenue of $223M\u2014an impressive year-on-year double-digit revenue growth for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seventeenth<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> consecutive year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does it keep up with this breakneck growth? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/whyringcentral\/casestudies\/w2o.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">W2O uses video conferencing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> strategically to connect its agency network across 13 global offices, collaborate seamlessly, and keep its communications unified:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-presentation\" title=\"Introducing RingCentral Video\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r09vPFM0RVM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Takeaway<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t underestimate the power of one person\u2019s thinking to change the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you first think of starting a business, it might sound like an audacious goal to people around you. But a company\u2019s journey to becoming a million-dollar organization starts with a simple imagination.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entrepreneurship is like building a ship that doesn\u2019t just create wealth for the captain, it creates opportunities and access to upward social mobility for people who join the entrepreneur in the sail.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a id=\"naked\"><\/a><br \/>\n5. Naked Wines\u2019 founder finds a new spirit in the face of failure<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the story of Naked Wines\u2019 founder Rowan Gormley who took one of the world\u2019s oldest products\u2014wines\u2014and turned it into a online business empire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And like other accidental entrepreneurs in the list, Rowan would have never founded Naked Wines had he not been let go by Virgin Wines, his former employer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It began when Rowan, a South African native who moved to the UK to work as an accountant in private equity, landed an opportunity to work for Richard Branson\u2014the British business magnate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the first few years, Rowan helped Branson grow Virgin Money\u2014a financial services business\u2014and later took the role of growing another business from the ground up: Virgin Wines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But just when he grew Virgin Wines to become a profitable online venture, Direct Wines acquired Branson\u2019s wine subsidiary in 2005 and handed Rowan a dismissal letter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, Rowan decided to set up a business to rival Virgin Wines. He launched Naked Wines three years later, in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike its other counterparts, Naked Wines introduced an innovative idea of crowdfunding the online wine business. The company asked its customers to become \u201cangels\u201d\u2014subscribers who paid a recurring amount of money to buy their choice of wine brands for a discounted price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naked Wines paid the subscription money to independent wine producers in advance after taking their pay cut\u2014allowing the vineyards to focus on the craft of making good quality wines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the recent estimates, Naked Wines today has more than 200,000 customers, out of which over 100,000 are angels.<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In course of its global expansion, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/whyringcentral\/casestudies\/nakedwines.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naked Wines adopted RingCentral<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to connect its UK and US offices for better communication and collaboration. The company uses RingCentral\u2019s tailored solutions to offer prompt services to its angels and manage its busy phone lines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Takeaway<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t let others validate your worth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rowan took Tony Laithwaite\u2019s\u2014Direct Wines\u2019 owner\u2014decision to fire him personally, but he didn\u2019t let that incident define his destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, he channeled his energy into building something bigger and better that wine connoisseurs and manufacturers around the world love.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which of these entrepreneurship success stories is your favorite?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the above-mentioned entrepreneurship success stories are different in nature, the gist of all these stories is the same\u2014every great business was once an idea in someone\u2019s head.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only difference between an aspiring entrepreneur and a successful entrepreneur is that the latter goes all out to execute on their ideas, often at the risk of losing it all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And most importantly, hardships are part and parcel of an entrepreneurial journey. Real entrepreneurs see those obstacles as a stepping stone to their success and overcome them as a way to grow their business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which entrepreneur\u2019s story will inspire you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 <\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cbinsights.com\/research\/startup-failure-post-mortem<\/span><\/p>\n<p><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> businessofsoftware.org\/2015\/02\/derek-sivers-philosophy-customer-service\/<\/span><\/p>\n<p><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> blog.coursera.org\/a-new-challenge<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><sup>4<\/sup> forbes.com\/sites\/susanadams\/2020\/07\/17\/online-learning-platform-coursera-raises-130-million-at-reported-25-billion-valuation\/#2472e9bf688f<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><sup>5<\/sup> foodmanufacture.co.uk\/Article\/2010\/09\/13\/Genius-gluten-free-brand-is-worth-10m-reveals-Finsbury-Food-Group<\/span><\/p>\n<p><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20200520005127\/en\/W2O-Reports-18th-Consecutive-Year-Double-Digit-Growth<\/span><\/p>\n<p><sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> us.nakedwines.com\/angels<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, entrepreneurship has become a pretty convoluted concept. If you search for the term \u201centrepreneur\u201d on LinkedIn, for example, you\u2019ll get all sorts of results. You\u2019ll find people who brand themselves as entrepreneurs\u2014right out of the gate after graduating college. Then there are freelancers, part-time hobbyists, authorpreneurs, and wannapreneurs who also roll by the title &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":43025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17901],"tags":[299,18708,18709],"class_list":["post-43414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-leadership","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-entrepreneurship-success","tag-entrepreneurship-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.3 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>5 entrepreneurship success stories: when the risk pays off | RingCentral Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about entrepreneurship success stories with these 5 case studies in a variety of industries including 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