The Best Idea Yet

It started with a souped-up bicycle inspired by a vaudeville show, and the need for speed. The dream – shared by four Harley brothers and one Davidson – came true, and became one of America’s most iconic companies. But their real innovation? Myth-building.

These machines roared through death-defying races and two world wars to start an entire subculture built around the open road…and became a symbol of freedom, defiance, an...

Who wouldn’t want to visit the happiest place on Earth? Well — at the start of the 1950s, it seemed like no one did, at least not when Walt Disney pitched the idea. Sure, Walt had revolutionized animation with Steamboat Willie. And he'd had critical successes with classics like Snow White and Bambi. But his studio was nearly bibbidi-bobbidi-bankrupt,. Even so, Walt just wouldn't Let It Go. 

Then, after Cinderella (anot...

It’s postwar Japan, and entrepreneur Momofuku Ando has lost everything—his business, his home, and his savings. In fact, the whole country has been ravaged by air raids, and people are hungry. But when he stops at a black-market noodle stall and watches desperate people line up for a simple bowl of ramen, something clicks. What if they didn't have to wait? What if comfort could come from a packet? This moment of inspiratio...

A wounded Irish soldier crawls from a blood-soaked battlefield in the French countryside. He survives, but his fighting days are over. So he settles in the Cognac region, and in 1765, starts a modest brandy business. Richard Hennessy could never dream that 260 years later, his name would ring out—not just in the world of fine spirits, but in the universe of hip-hop. No liquor brand in existence has more musical name-drops ...

Imagine yourself on a sandy SoCal beach, surfboard in hand. But the ocean’s too calm: not a single wave in sight. What do you do? Well, if you’re a kid in the early 60s, you throw some wheels on a plank of wood and go “sidewalk surfing.” This one simple innovation can’t be traced back to a single inventor; it evolved more like a language than a product. Even so, the skateboard caused a revolution in sports, fashion, and cu...

What do you get when you mix a passion for collecting bugs with an obsession for video games? For Satoshi Tajiri, the answer is the world's largest media franchise (over $92 billion revenue — more than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined). Tajiri dreamed up a new kind of video game: one built not just on battling monsters, but trading them. What followed was a full-blown cultural takeover with TV shows, trading cards (glob...

André and Édouard Michelin were desperately seeking a way to save their family rubber business, when a hapless cyclist with a flat came staggering into their workshop. The brothers saw an opportunity…a revolutionary, easy-fix, easy-replace tire. But their real genius was how they promoted this new product: a guidebook to get people exploring in their cars (more road miles = more tire sales). As the guide grew, readers want...

What do you do for fun if you’re a bored college kid? For students across New England in the early 1900s, the answer was simple: toss around empty pie tins (obviously). Soon, shouts of “Frisbee!” echoed across campus quads — and a local recreational sensation was born. But it took a WWII pilot with an eye for aerodynamics and a beachside side hustle to give the Frisbee its wings — and a toy company with a nose for viral hi...

In 2008, Lin-Manuel Miranda badly needed a vacation. He’d just won the Tony for his musical “In The Heights,” he’d been going nonstop. So he took a break, bringing a book with him for poolside lounging: the 800-page biography of America’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. But what started as a light beach read soon became an obsession. Lin HAD to bring this man’s incredible life to the stage. Thus began an epic...

Born in a sweltering Texas drugstore in 1885 - this indescribable, 23 (secret) ingredient concoction broke the first rule of marketing: never sell something you can't explain. Behind this mystery brew was Charles Alderton, a flavor-obsessed pharmacist who sold his recipe and walked away, and a big-footed CEO who turned Dr Pepper's greatest weakness into its ultimate strength by making "different" feel rebellious. From dodg...

Enzo Ferrari was 10 years old when he fell in love with racing… and soon, he would make it his life’s mission. After almost dying in an infirmary during WWI, Enzo schmoozed his way into the driving world. He built an unstoppable racing team for Alfa Romeo… until he got fired, and had to strike out on his own. But thanks to his grit, stubbornness, and engineering instincts, he created a legendary brand that would rise to th...

Beanie Babies — the unassuming critters with birthdates and bios — are designed to tug on your heartstrings (and your wallet). But for a moment in the late-90s, they burst out of gift shops and into investment portfolios as America went crazy over Legs the Frog, Pinchers the Lobster, and the rest of the plushie pals.Behind this bean-stuffed market bubble hid a mysterious salesman with a chip on his shoulder named Ty Warner...

Tommy Bahama (spoiler) wasn’t founded by a man named Thomas with a Caribbean address. Rather, this classic lifestyle brand began with two longtime friends and coworkers at a failing apparel company. Facing unemployment at age 50, they channeled their inner Hemingways to invent a fictional hero of the leisure class: Tommy Bahama, purveyor of roomy, flowered silk shirts—and a series of surprisingly good restaurants. Weatheri...

When entrepreneur Henry J. Heinz went bankrupt after his first venture, he nearly lost it all—his farmland, his parents' home, and his own reputation. But then, he launched a stunning comeback that changed everything about the meaning of the name “Heinz.” This Master of Tomatoes built a condiment empire on super fresh produce and, by pioneering food safety standards decades before regulations existed. (Hint: it involved un...

This sexy seltzer started out more than 40 years ago as a Wisconsin brewery’s quiet, nonalcoholic spinoff. Throughout the 80s and early 90s, LaCroix remained the low-key, low-cal fave of Midwestern Little League coaches and soccer moms. But then, LaCroix hit its stride—and its second act, reborn as the trendy choice of Hollywood writers, Instagram influencers, and diet gurus. So, what caused this gobsmacking glow-up? Would...

When out-of-work coder Jens Rasmussen couldn’t find directions to a cafe in Copenhagen, he wound up changing navigation forever. Alongside his brother Lars (also an out-of-work coder), Jens developed a radical vision—not just for a faster map, but a vibrant, multi-dimensional platform to help plan your entire life. With maxed-out credit cards, these Danish brothers built a prototype that caught Google co-founder Larry Page...

In a high-end boutique between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor met as fashion-obsessed shopgirls with dreams of entrepreneurship. But they had no obvious path to get there… until Gela became pregnant – with nothing to wear. What came next was a history-making business venture started with only $200 and a pile of smelly used denim. From a successful maternity jeans line, to soft fitted T...

The cream-topped, dome-lidded Frappuccino is the caffeinated crown jewel of the Starbucks empire. It helped the company break out from regional coffee chain to global lifestyle brand, made cold drinks into 75% of Starbucks’ beverage sales, and created a whole new language of filibuster-length orders (“Can I get a grande vanilla bean frappe, in a venti cup, extra whip on top and a mocha drizzle?”). But the original Frappucc...

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were just trying to get work. These two broke illustrators were scraping by on side hustles and instant ramen… until, one fateful night, Kevin drew a doodle to get Peter to laugh: a nunchuck-wielding turtle in a ninja mask. But this one “dumb” drawing would launch the most successful self-published, creator-owned comic in history. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles— crime-fighting reptiles named...