Effectual Entrepreneurship, Third Edition
Practically Speaking
Billions Without Blank Checks
With a day job, this founder built his venture to be self-sustaining and simple, which was the recipe for growth.
Entrepreneur: Pierre Omidyar
Entity: eBay
Country: USA
Page 45 in
Chapter 4 The Plunge Doesn’t Have to Be a Plunge at All (pp. 41-55)
"Back when I launched eBay on Labor Day 1995, eBay wasn't my business—it was my hobby. I had to build a system that was self-sustaining ... because I had a real job to go to every morning. I was working as a software engineer from 10 to 7, and I wanted to have a life on the weekends. So I built a system that could keep working—catching complaints and capturing feedback—even when Pam and I were out mountain biking, and the only one home was our cat."
Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder
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Video Resources
References & Links
- How Starbucks Became An $80B Business—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBeH7VQaFY&t=50s
- Howard Schultz. (n.d.-a). Schultz Family Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://schultzfamilyfoundation.org/team-member/howard-schultz/
- Howard Schultz. (n.d.-b). Forbes. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.forbes.com/profile/howard-schultz/
- Howard Schultz. (2025). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Howard_Schultz&oldid=1285405168
- Howard Schultz: An Overview of the Entrepreneur’s Career - 2025. (n.d.-c). MasterClass. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/howard-schultz-life-and-career
- hpeiper. (2018, September 4). Schultz to young entrepreneurs: ‘It can happen for you’. Starbucks Stories EMEA. https://stories.starbucks.com/emea/stories/2018/bocconni-university/
- Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz: How to Be Strategic Thinkers | Inc. - YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Djl9_Xc3w
- Starbucks’ CEO Talks Business—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83yInyY1KLs&t=152s
- Starbucks’s Howard Schultz: From Coffee Entrepreneur to Three-Time CEO. (n.d.). WSJ. Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.wsj.com/story/starbuckss-howard-schultz-from-coffee-entrepreneur-to-three-time-ceo-439768fc
- Taylor, K. (2017, December 13). From Brooklyn to Billionaire: The Story of How Howard Schultz Transformed Starbucks Into an $84 Billion Business. Inc. https://www.inc.com/business-insider/howard-schultz-chairman-former-ceo-starbucks-successful-billionaire-coffee.html
- The Man Behind Starbucks Reveals How He Changed the World—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnA7n9qSB7E&t=255s
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