ENTERTAINERS IN BUSINESS 10 Entrepreneurs' Success Stories
JIMMY BUFFETT
Opened his first Margaritaville café in Key West, Florida in 1985, the first of his 45+ restaurants Today the Margaritaville brand merchandises everything from apparel to frozen food and grew to over $1 billion in sales in 2015
MARY KATE & ASHLEY OLSEN Co-founded luxury fashion design house, 'The Row', in 2006 Awarded womenswear designers of the year in both 2012 and 2015 by CFDA Collectively named the 11th richest women in entertainment Former Full House child stars by Forbes in 2007
LENNY KRAVITZ Launched commercial, residential, and product design company, Kravitz Design, in 2003 Has sinced worked with several high profile clients including Swarovski, Rolex, CB2, and Morgan Hotel Group
GEORGE CLOONEY Developed tequila company Casamigos in 2003 Gaining popularity, Casamigos was sold to Smirnoff's parent company, Diageo, in a deal worth up to $1 billion DR. DRE
Released headphones line Beats by Dr. Dre, in 2008 Following immense demand, Beats by Dr. Dre was bought by Apple for a reported $3 billion Sale to Apple made Dre "the richest man in Hip-Hop"
OPRAH WINFREY Opened her production studio, Harpo Studios, in 1988, making her the 3rd woman in history to do so Under production of Harpo Studios, her talk show exceeded 40 million weekly viewers in the U.S. Launched O, The Oprah Magazine, in 2000, which would go on to generate over 2 million readers monthly.
VICTORIA BECKHAM
Launched her clothing company, Victoria Beckham, at Saks Fifth Avenue in 2007 Victoria Beckham went on to win FoDrmeseirg Fnuelrl HBoruasned cohfi ltdh set aYresar at the 2011 British Fashion Awards Brought her business to over $50 million in sales by 2013
ASHTON KUTCHER Co-founded A-Grade investments in 2010, successfully investing in several tech ventures, including Skype, Uber, and Airbnb By 2016, A-Grade investments' portfolio reached $250 million, representing an 8x investment multiple. Co-founded a social content website, A-Plus, in 2015, which now generates over 50 million unique visitors each month. ROBERT DENIRO
Opened first "Nobu" restaurant in New York in 1994. Today, there are over 35 Nobu locations worldwide. Co-founded TriBeCa Productions film studio in 1989, and later the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2002 In its first 10 years, the film festival generated an estimated $600 million in economic activity for New York City
BONO Co-founded Elevation Partners in 2004, a Private Equity firm specializing in media and intellectual property Today, the firm has over $1.9 billion in assets under management and notable investments include Forbes and video game developers BioWare and Pandemic Studios