About How They Began

Our Mission

We believe that behind every successful company lies a story of struggle, perseverance, and breakthrough moments that can inspire and guide the next generation of entrepreneurs. Our mission is to uncover these authentic origin stories and share the real lessons that matter.

What We Do

How They Began goes beyond the polished success stories you read in mainstream media. We dig deep to reveal:

  • The Real Starting Point: Not the IPO moment, but the cramped apartment, tiny booth, or garage where it all began
  • The Pivotal Struggles: The near-failures, betrayals, and crises that almost ended everything
  • The Key Decisions: The counterintuitive choices that separated winners from everyone else
  • The Practical Lessons: Actionable insights you can apply to your own entrepreneurial journey
  • The Human Side: The personal costs, sacrifices, and moments of doubt that shaped these founders

Why These Stories Matter

Learn from Real Experience

Every story is researched and verified, focusing on the messy, unglamorous early days that most success stories skip over. These are the moments where real learning happens.

Understand What Actually Works

We analyze the patterns behind breakthrough decisions—why Liu Qiangdong chose authenticity over profits, why certain founders succeeded where others failed in similar circumstances.

Get Inspired by Authenticity

These aren't fairy tales. They're real stories of real people who faced impossible odds and found ways to overcome them. If they could do it, so can you.

Apply Lessons to Your Journey

Each story ends with concrete takeaways you can implement in your own startup, whether you're in a 4-square-meter booth or a Silicon Valley garage.

Our Approach

We don't just retell Wikipedia entries or repeat press releases. Our research process involves:

  • Primary Source Research: We dig into early interviews, archived articles, and firsthand accounts from the founding years
  • Pattern Recognition: We identify the common threads and unique factors that led to breakthrough moments
  • Practical Analysis: We extract actionable insights that apply to modern entrepreneurs
  • Authentic Storytelling: We present these stories in their full complexity, including the failures and setbacks

Our Story

How They Began started with a simple observation: most entrepreneur "success stories" focus on the end result, not the beginning. We were tired of reading sanitized versions that skipped over the real struggles and hard-won lessons.

As entrepreneurs ourselves, we knew that the most valuable insights come from understanding how someone went from zero to one—not from one billion to two billion. The early days are where the real magic happens, where constraints breed innovation, and where character defines destiny.

We created this platform to preserve these authentic origin stories and make them accessible to anyone who needs inspiration, guidance, or simply the reminder that every empire started with a single, often desperate, first step.

Join Our Community

Every founder's journey is unique, but the patterns of breakthrough are universal. By studying how the most successful entrepreneurs began, you can avoid their mistakes and accelerate your own path to success.

Ready to learn from the masters? Start with our founder stories and discover what it really takes to build something extraordinary from nothing.