There’s a common myth that starting a successful business requires a fat bank account, wealthy connections, or investors lining up to throw money at your idea. But history has proven otherwise. Many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs who started with no money built their businesses from the ground up—not with financial backing, but with resourcefulness, relentless determination, and an unshakable belief in their vision.
These aren’t just stories of rags to riches. These are stories of resilience, strategy, and sheer willpower of entrepreneurs who started with nothing, worked tirelessly, and turned their ideas into global brands. From selling handmade hats on the streets to launching billion-dollar tech companies out of a garage, each of these entrepreneurs defied the odds, proving that money isn’t the most critical factor in building a successful business—mindset, innovation, and persistence are.
See also: 20 Most Influential Entrepreneurs of All Time
The Hustle, Struggles, and Triumphs of Entrepreneurs Who Started with Nothing
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs who started with no money built their businesses from absolute scratch, relying not on capital but on resourcefulness, resilience, and an unbreakable work ethic.
These are not fairy tales. These are real-life stories of entrepreneurs who started with nothing, who struggled, hustled, failed, and fought their way to success. They had no financial backing, no wealthy connections, and no safety net. They had just their dream and the relentless drive to make it happen.
What did they do differently? How did they turn scarcity into opportunity? How did they go from zero to millions, or even billions? Let’s take an in-depth look at 10 entrepreneurs who started with no money, uncovering their early struggles, how they launched their businesses with nothing, and the strategies that propelled them to success.
1. Steve Jobs – From a Garage to Apple’s Trillion-Dollar Empire
Steve Jobs wasn’t born into wealth. His biological parents gave him up for adoption, and he was raised by a middle-class couple who struggled to make ends meet. As a college student, he couldn’t afford tuition, so he dropped out, attending only the classes that interested him. With no money, no job, and no place of his own, he slept on friends’ floors and survived on free meals at a Hare Krishna temple.
Jobs’ first business venture, Apple Inc., was born in his parents’ garage in 1976. He and his co-founder, Steve Wozniak, had no startup capital. Jobs sold his Volkswagen van, and Wozniak sold his scientific calculator to fund their first batch of computers. They started small, assembling each computer by hand and selling them to local hobbyists.
The breakthrough came when Jobs convinced a local retailer to place a bulk order. This was the validation they needed. With a focus on innovation and aesthetics, Apple computers became more than just a tech product—they became a lifestyle statement. By the time Apple launched the Macintosh, Jobs had turned a garage startup into a global brand, setting the stage for Apple’s future trillion-dollar valuation.
See also: How To Become An Entrepreneur: A Step-By-Step Guide To Kickstart Your Entrepreneurship Journey
2. Oprah Winfrey – From Poverty to a Media Empire
Oprah Winfrey’s story is one of sheer willpower. She was born into extreme poverty in rural Mississippi, raised by a teenage single mother, and grew up wearing potato sacks as dresses because her family couldn’t afford proper clothing. As a child, she faced abuse and hardship, moving between unstable homes while working odd jobs to survive.
Her first break came when she landed a job at a local radio station in high school. She had no media connections, no formal training, and no money—just a natural talent for storytelling. This talent caught the attention of television producers, and she eventually became the first Black female news anchor in Nashville.
Oprah’s turning point came when she was offered her own daytime talk show. She didn’t have financial backing, but she used her unique personality and authenticity to build an audience. The Oprah Winfrey Show became a cultural phenomenon, and she used her growing influence to launch Harpo Productions, OWN Network, and multiple business ventures.
Today, Oprah is a billionaire media mogul, making her one of the successful entrepreneurs who started with no money and built a legacy through skill, charisma, and persistence.
3. Jan Koum – From Food Stamps to WhatsApp
Jan Koum’s story is the definition of struggle. He was born in war-torn Ukraine, where his family lived without running water or electricity. Seeking a better life, they immigrated to the U.S., but life didn’t get much easier. His family relied on food stamps, and as a teenager, Koum worked as a janitor at a grocery store to help pay the bills.
Despite the hardships, Koum taught himself to code using secondhand books from a local bookstore. He became a self-taught programmer and landed a job at Yahoo. Years later, he noticed a gap in mobile communication. People needed a simple, ad-free messaging platform.
With no investors and little savings, Koum co-founded WhatsApp in 2009, focusing on a minimal, user-friendly design. He didn’t spend money on marketing, instead, he let word of mouth drive growth. WhatsApp quickly became one of the most-used messaging apps in the world.
In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, making it one of the biggest tech acquisitions in history.
4. Sara Blakely – From Door-to-Door Sales to a Billion-Dollar Brand
Sara Blakely’s journey to success was filled with rejections and struggles. She spent seven years selling fax machines door-to-door, often being turned away hundreds of times. But instead of giving up, she used her experience to identify a problem—women needed comfortable, slimming undergarments that didn’t roll up or show through clothes.
With just $5,000 in savings, she created her first prototype of SPANX. She had no investors, no business connections, and no marketing budget. Instead of relying on traditional advertising, Blakely personally demonstrated her product to women in department stores, persuading them to try it.
Her breakthrough came when Oprah named SPANX one of her “Favourite Things”, giving the brand instant credibility. Today, SPANX is worth over $1 billion, and Blakely is one of the richest self-made female entrepreneurs in the world.
See also: What Is Entrepreneurship? Definitions And Steps To Take Before Becoming An Entrepreneur
5. Howard Schultz – From Poverty to Building a Coffee Empire
Howard Schultz grew up in the Brooklyn projects, where his father worked low-wage jobs without health insurance. His family struggled to make ends meet, and he saw firsthand how financial hardship could limit opportunities. Determined to break the cycle, Schultz was the first in his family to attend college, but he had to take out loans and work as a bartender to support himself.
After graduating, Schultz worked in sales before discovering a small coffee bean company called Starbucks. Fascinated by its potential, he joined the company as the Director of Marketing. But Schultz had a bigger vision—he wanted to turn Starbucks into a café-style experience like those in Italy, where people could gather, work, and connect over coffee.
Starbucks’ owners weren’t interested in expansion, so Schultz left and started his own coffee company, Il Giornale, with no money of his own. He spent months pitching investors, facing rejection after rejection, until he finally raised enough to open his first store. A year later, he bought Starbucks for $3.8 million and implemented his café-style concept.
Through strategic branding and customer experience, Starbucks expanded globally. Today, the brand is worth over $100 billion, and Schultz went from a struggling kid in Brooklyn to the CEO of one of the world’s most iconic companies.
6. Richard Branson – From a Basement Business to the Virgin Empire
Richard Branson’s early years were filled with struggles. He suffered from severe dyslexia, making school incredibly difficult for him. He failed multiple subjects, struggled to keep up with his peers, and eventually dropped out at the age of 16. With no money, no degree, and no job prospects, his future seemed uncertain.
But Branson had a sharp business instinct and a fearless approach to risk-taking. Instead of feeling defeated, he saw an opportunity in publishing a student magazine. Operating out of a church basement, he started Student Magazine, covering topics that young people cared about—music, politics, and social issues. With no capital to fund printing and distribution, he convinced local businesses to advertise in his magazine, securing enough money to print and distribute his first issue.
Branson’s next big move came when he noticed an opportunity in the music industry. He saw that records were overpriced, so he started a mail-order record business, Virgin Records, offering discounted music by mail. With zero marketing budget, he personally called music lovers and convinced them to buy records from his service. Soon, his business outgrew his mail-order model, and he opened his first Virgin Records store.
Branson’s breakthrough moment came when he took an even bigger risk—starting his own record label. He had no experience in music production, but he believed in signing unique and unconventional artists. His first major signing was Mike Oldfield, whose album Tubular Bells became a massive success. Virgin Records became one of the most influential labels of the 1970s and 80s, signing legendary artists like The Rolling Stones and Sex Pistols.
But Branson didn’t stop there. He reinvested profits and expanded Virgin into multiple industries—airlines, mobile phones, and even space travel. Despite facing multiple failures along the way, including near bankruptcy, he always found a way to reinvent himself and his brand. Today, Virgin Group owns over 400 companies, and Branson, once a struggling school dropout, is now a billionaire entrepreneur.
7. Daymond John – The Hustler Who Built FUBU from $40
Daymond John’s entrepreneurial journey began out of pure necessity. Raised in a working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, his single mother worked multiple jobs to support him. Money was always tight, and as he got older, he realized that if he wanted a better life, he would have to create opportunities for himself.
With no financial backing and no formal education in business, he took a minimum-wage job at Red Lobster to support himself while brainstorming ways to break into entrepreneurship. One day, he noticed that urban streetwear was becoming popular, but mainstream brands weren’t catering to the culture. Seeing an opportunity, he decided to create his own clothing line—FUBU (For Us, By Us).
With just $40 to his name, Daymond bought fabric and started sewing handmade hats. He went door-to-door and sold them on the streets of Queens, making a small profit and reinvesting everything into producing more pieces. The business started gaining traction, and he moved on to selling t-shirts and jackets.
But running a clothing business required more than just creativity—it needed capital and exposure. Knowing he couldn’t afford traditional advertising, he took a bold and unconventional approach. He befriended LL Cool J, one of the biggest rappers of the time, and convinced him to wear a FUBU hat in a national Gap commercial. The brand got massive exposure overnight, and retailers started calling.
Realizing they needed to scale quickly, Daymond’s mother mortgaged their home to provide seed money for mass production. That risk paid off—FUBU exploded into a global fashion brand, generating over $6 billion in revenue.
8. Sophia Amoruso – From Dumpster Diving to Building Nasty Gal
Sophia Amoruso’s life was a series of dead ends and disappointments before she became a successful entrepreneur. She dropped out of school, bounced between low-paying jobs, and at one point, was so broke that she was dumpster-diving for food. With no money, no formal education, and no career prospects, she was simply trying to survive.
One day, she stumbled upon a way to make money—selling vintage clothing online. She went to thrift stores, carefully handpicked unique, stylish items, and started listing them on eBay under the name Nasty Gal Vintage. She didn’t just sell clothes—she styled them beautifully, took high-quality photos, and wrote engaging descriptions that made her listings stand out.
Her business started gaining traction, and she quickly realized she had a knack for spotting fashion trends. She reinvested every single dollar back into the business, expanding her inventory and hiring a small team. Within a few years, Nasty Gal grew from a one-woman operation in her bedroom to a multimillion-dollar fashion brand.
However, success came with challenges. Nasty Gal grew too fast, struggled with financial mismanagement, and eventually filed for bankruptcy. But instead of giving up, Sophia pivoted. She used her experience to build Girlboss, a thriving media company that empowers female entrepreneurs.
9. John Paul DeJoria – From Homeless to Billionaire
John Paul DeJoria’s journey is one of true resilience. As a child, his family struggled financially, and he started working at the age of nine, selling newspapers to help with household expenses. By the time he was in his twenties, he was homeless, sleeping in his car, and barely surviving.
Despite his circumstances, he refused to give up. He found a job selling shampoo door-to-door, but he wasn’t making much money. Instead of settling for low wages, he decided to start his own haircare company—Paul Mitchell.
With just $700 in startup capital, he and his business partner, Paul Mitchell, created a high-quality shampoo line and went salon to salon, giving away free samples. He faced constant rejection, but he kept knocking on doors, eventually convincing salons to stock his products.
Through relentless persistence, Paul Mitchell became a billion-dollar haircare brand. DeJoria later launched Patrón Tequila, which became another billion-dollar empire.
10. Ralph Lauren – From Sales Man to a Global Fashion Icon
Ralph Lauren was not born into wealth or luxury—he was the son of immigrant parents who worked as house painters. Raised in the Bronx, New York, he had no formal training in fashion design and no financial backing. Instead, he had a keen eye for style and a vision of bringing timeless elegance to everyday wear.
After high school, Lauren worked as a sales assistant at a tie company, where he noticed an opportunity in men’s fashion. At the time, ties were narrow and conventional, but Lauren envisioned wide, stylish ties with a luxurious feel. With no money to manufacture them, he handmade prototypes and pitched them to high-end stores.
His big break came when Neiman Marcus placed an order for 1,200 ties. With no production facility of his own, he convinced a local manufacturer to produce them on credit. The success of his tie collection led him to launch his brand, Polo Ralph Lauren, starting from a small drawer in a showroom.
Lauren reinvested every dollar into expanding his product line, eventually introducing his signature polo shirts, blazers, and fragrances. What started as a humble tie business became a multi-billion-dollar global fashion empire, known for its classic, aspirational style.
Key Takeaways from Successful Entrepreneurs Who Started with No Money
- Lack of money is not an excuse – These entrepreneurs built their businesses with nothing, proving that resourcefulness matters more than financial backing.
- Start small and reinvest profits – Instead of waiting for big investors, they used bootstrapping strategies to scale their businesses gradually.
- Persistence is everything – Every one of these successful entrepreneurs who started with nothing faced rejections, failures, and hardships but never gave up.
- Solve a real problem – Businesses thrive when they offer products or services that fill a gap in the market.
- Use what you have – Whether it’s skills, networking, or personal branding, these entrepreneurs leveraged what they had access to instead of focusing on what they lacked.
- Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive – Word-of-mouth, guerrilla marketing, and social media can be just as powerful as million-dollar ad campaigns.
- Failure is not the end – Some of these entrepreneurs, like Sophia Amoruso, faced bankruptcy but used their experience to rebuild and thrive in new ventures.
- Think long-term – The biggest brands today started from the ground up, and their founders stayed focused on sustainable growth and long-term vision.
Conclusion
The successful entrepreneurs who started with no money didn’t let their circumstances define them. They had every reason to give up, make excuses, or wait for the “right” moment—but they didn’t.
They started small, hustled relentlessly, and built their success step by step. Some had to sleep in cars, sell door-to-door, or convince strangers to take a chance on them, but what they lacked in money, they made up for in strategy, persistence, and risk-taking.
Their journeys prove a powerful truth: You don’t need money to start—you need resourcefulness, vision, and the courage to act.
So, what’s stopping you? You don’t need a perfect plan or a big bank account. Start with what you have. Take the first step today.
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FAQs on Successful Entrepreneurs Who Started with No Money
Can you really start a business with no money?
Yes. Many successful entrepreneurs who started with no money used bootstrapping, free marketing strategies, and reinvested profits to grow their businesses. The key is to start lean and focus on providing value.
What’s the best way to start when you have no money?
Identify a low-cost business idea, leverage your skills or available resources, and focus on solving a real problem. Offer services, freelancing, dropshipping, content creation, or consulting—businesses that require little to no capital.
How do you overcome challenges when starting a business with no money?
Many entrepreneurs who started with nothing overcame these challenges by offering services before products, reinvesting revenue, and using free marketing strategies like social media and word-of-mouth.
Do you need investors to succeed?
No. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs who started with no money self-funded their businesses, grew them organically, and only sought investors later. While investors can help scale a business, they are not required for success.
What’s the biggest lesson from these entrepreneurs?
Success isn’t about how much money you start with—it’s about persistence, problem-solving, and taking action even when the odds are against you.
