Who`s your favourite entrepreneur(s)?

I have a few in mind, but among my top ones are the co-founders of Google:-

Quote:Google began as a research project in early 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. candidates at Stanford who developed the hypothesis that a search engine based on analysis of the relationships between Web sites would produce better results than the basic techniques then in use. It was originally nicknamed BackRub because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.

Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant ones, Page and Brin decided to test their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. The domain http://www.google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally founded their company, Google, Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. In February 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home of a number of other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. Google quickly outgrew the University Avenue site. After further outgrowing two other sites, the company settled on a complex of buildings (known by some as "The Googleplex") in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, in 2003.

The Google search engine gained a following among Internet users for its simple, clean design and relevant search results. In 2000, Google had begun selling advertisements by the keyword so that they would be more relevant to the end user. The ads were text-based in order to keep page design uncluttered and fast-loading. The concept of selling keyword advertising was originally pioneered by Overture[1] (http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ab...le.jhtml), formerly Goto.com. While many of its dot-com siblings went under, Google quietly rose in stature while turning a profit.

U.S. Patent 6,285,999 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parse...6,285,999) describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.

In February 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger, a pioneering and leading weblog-hosting Web site. The acquisition seemed inconsistent with the general mission of Google. However, the move secured the company's ability to use information gleaned from blog postings to improve the speed and relevance of articles contained in Google News.

At its peak in early 2004, Google handled upwards of 80 percent of all search requests on the world wide web through its Web site and clients like Yahoo!, AOL, and CNN.[2] (http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox21.html) Google's share fell in February 2004 when Yahoo! dropped Google's search technology in order to deliver independent results. As further evidence of Google's popularity, the word "Google" has entered North American slang as a verb meaning, "to perform a web search (using Google's search engine)".

Google's declared code of conduct is "Don't Be Evil". Their site includes humorous features such as cartoon modifications [3] (http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html) of their logo for special occasions, the option to display the site in fictional or humorous languages such as Klingon[4] (http://www.google.com/intl/xx-klingon/) and Leet[5] (http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/), and April Fool's jokes [6] (http://www.google.com/googlegulp/) about the company.

It is conjectured that Google's response to Yahoo will be personalized searches, using the personal data that is gathering from Orkut, Gmail, and Froogle to give results based on the individual. In fact, there is a Personalized Google Search (http://labs.google.com/personalized) Beta in Google Labs (http://labs.google.com/), the experimental section of Google.com.

William H. Gates
Chairman and Chief Software Architect
Microsoft Corporation

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$39.79 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2005, and employs more than 61,000 people in 102 countries and regions.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates' foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft's mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $6.2 billion on research and development in the 2005 fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.
The Albuquerque Group, 1978
Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information - a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Quote:Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

I seem to recall that it was Gates who went through a very messy divorce and the "ex" came away a very wealthy woman, and Bill was not a happy guy. Wonder if the present Mrs. Gates has a prenup?


grateful

I have some friends who went out to work in California on a 2 year contract. The story goes that when they called into a cafe close by where his company is (is it in California or Washington?) the owner told my friends that Bill Gates calls in there sometimes and they`d just missed him. From what I can gather he`s not afraid to mix with the `ordinary folk.`

Anyway, here`s another self-made millionaire, not that I particularly like him, but I do admire his tenacity in striving for success from a fairly poor beginning in life. He`s also the `big boss` in The Apprentice TV show which has just finished another series here.

Alan Sugar

Alan Michael Sugar was born on 24 March 1947, the son of a tailor.

Alan Sugar went to Brooke House School in London but left at 16 and was briefly a civil service statistician.

It wasn't long before Alan Sugar went into business selling products such as cigarette lighters, intercoms and TV aerials. Sugar founded the home electronics group Amstrad in 1968, the same year that he married his wife, Ann.

In 1985 Sugar had a major breakthrough with the launch of the PCW8256 word processor which, although made of very cheap components, retailed at over £300.

At its peak Amstrad achieved a stock market valuation of £1.2 billion, but the nineties proved a troubled time. In 1997 Amstrad divided into Betacom and Viglen.

Sir Alan Sugar's wealth was estimated to be £790 million and he was 71st on The Sunday Times Richlist in 2006.

An interesting episode in Alan Sugar's life was when he and Terry Venables got together to buy Tottenham Hotspur Football Club on June 21st 1991.

They beat off a late bid from Robert Maxwell for Spurs. In an interview with Channel 4's High Interest programme, Alan Sugar said:

"The only dialogue I had with Rupert Murdoch was when that clown Maxwell came on the scene and knowing that they were in the past arch enemies I think Rupert rang me up one day and said 'what's going on with this football club you're trying to buy and this clown Maxwell is trying to buy also', and I think I might have said to him at the time 'he's got the power of his newspaper to hype up the thing, I haven't got a newspaper so perhaps one of your journalists could put in a good word for me on The Sun, but that was about it"

A Sun headline appeared "20 things you never knew about Tel's Sugar Daddy".

Alan Sugar's relationship with Venables turned acrimonious and court battles ensued. Our Teddy Sheringham biography provides an example of the claims that Sugar made of the footballing world. Alan Sugar has stated that his time at Spurs was "a waste of my life".

In 2005 Sir Alan Sugar entered the world of reality TV when he tested 14 apprentices in a new BBC TV series based on Donald Trump's successful US show The Apprentice.

For biographies of the candidates in series 2 see our Apprentice section.

Alan Sugar was knighted in 2000.