[timr]

Unfortunately, the story behind Starbucks is a bit more complicated than it seems from this -- the original Starbucks was a humble enterprise.

The Starbucks that launched wasn't really intended to be a coffeehouse, so much as a local boutique bean retailer. The grandiose plans for world domination didn't form until Howard Schultz took over, years later. By then, the founders were long gone. That's not meant to take away from the whole "humble beginning" motif, but the Starbucks story is more realistically told as that of a savvy businessman buying a moderately successful local business from his former bosses, and making the brand much bigger than the founders could manage.

[ynniv]

Like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and QDOS (Microsoft), the real riches came when a savvy businessman took an entrepreneurial effort and scaled it into a latent market. Unfortunate for those of us who like the cultural minutia of "local" business, but important to remember when building your startup.