Trans-Pacific Aerospace Company Inc. (fka TPAC)

[JonnyBGood]

5 Successful Companies That Didn't Make a Dollar for 5 Years:

The folowing are excerpted from this article link:

http://www.inc.com/drew-hendricks/5-successful-companies-that-didn-8217-t-make-a-dollar-for-5-years.html

Startup expert John Rampton said, "While that may seem like a lost cause--not to mention the stress of sticking with a company that is losing money--it's not uncommon for a company to wait years before making money. For example, even Tupperware wasn't exactly an overnight success."

1.) Tupperware
After working at the manufacturing division for DuPont, Earl Tupper introduced his Tupperware "wonderbowl" in 1946. Despite advertising and a showroom on Fifth Avenue, Tupper wasn't faring very well financially. That all changed when Brownie Wise began hosting the Tupperware Home Party in 1948. By 1951, Tupper realized that the Tupperware Home Demonstration system was more effective financially than continuing to sell his product in stores. Tupper sold his company for a cool $16 million to the Rexall Drug Company in 1957. And the rest is history.

2.) FedEx
Frederick W. Smith first came up with an overnight-delivery company back in 1962 that he outlined in a paper while attending Yale University. Smith went on to become a successful businessman who took his personal wealth of $4 million, along with another $90 million from investors, to found his delivery company in 1971.

However, Federal Express failed to take off initially and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Smith took the company's last $5,000, flew to Vegas, and played blackjack. The gamble literally paid off. Smith made $24,000, which was enough to cover the cost of fuel and keep the company afloat for another week.

With a little more time, Smith raised another $11 million to keep Federal Express running. The company made its first profit in July 1975. Today, the Memphis-based company enjoys total revenue of more than $3 billion.

3.) Turner Broadcasting System
Ted Turner definitely came a long way after purchasing his first TV station, UHF channel 17, in 1970. Within a decade, Turner purchased the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Braves, and Superstation 17.

In 1979, Turner changed the name of his company from Turner Communications Group to Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and launched the world's first all-news network--Cable News Network, or CNN. CNN premiered on June 1, 1980, with 1.7 million subscribers, which was enough to keep the channel afloat. In 1982, Turner launched CNN2 and merged with MGM Entertainment after a $1.5 billion deal in 1985, which gave Turner access to MGM's film vaults which created even more channels.

Unfortunately, the merger put Turner Broadcasting in financial strain, and the company wouldn't record an annual net profit until 1991. Thanks to the coverage that CNN provided throughout Operation Desert Storm the channel gained a worldwide audience of one billion viewers. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting merged with Time Warner, and the company enjoyed $7.4 billion in revenue by 2010.

4.) ESPN
A father-and-son team, Bill and Scott Rasmussen, teamed up with Aetna insurance agent Ed Eagan to create an all-sports network in 1978. On September 7, 1979, at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, the first-ever Sportscenter aired.

There was some drama behind the scenes. In 1980, Bill Rasmussen was no longer in a decision-making role in the company and completely left the board of directors in 1981. Whether that was of his own accord or he was forced out is debatable. What isn't debatable is the network was losing money.

To help keep ESPN going, Michael Roarty (vice president and director of marketing for Anheuser-Busch) persuaded the brewing company to financially support the struggling network. In 1994, Roarty told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "We gave them $1 million that first year. And if we hadn't, they'd have gone under." The following year, Anheuser-Busch gave ESPN an additional $5 million. By the mid-1980s, ESPN was able to turn a profit thanks to the support of Anheuser-Busch. ESPN has become the most dominating sports network; it earned $11 billion in revenue in 2013.

5.) Tesla Motors
What a strange road Tesla Motors has been on. The idea was simple: to create the world's first electric sports car. Tesla was incorporated in June 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. One year later, Elon Musk invested in Silicon Valley's first automobile company and became chairman. In 2009, Tesla received a "$465 million USD loan from the United States Department of Energy" and went public the following year.

However, it wasn't until 2013 (a decade after its launch) that Tesla experienced its first profitable quarter. Wired reported that "Tesla recorded sales of $562 million, a gain of over 80 percent from the last quarter, with 4,900 Model S sedans delivered." Though some of that revenue was from cutting production costs, Tesla also made money by selling development services for the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric and Toyota RAV4 EV.

Though profits did decline, the future is looking bright for Tesla. Forbes reported that revenue has risen from $620.5 million, up from $615.2 million in the fourth quarter, and that the company will make its quota. Furthermore, research analyst Adam Jonas recently stated: "Not even two years after the delivery of the first Model S, Tesla Motors has transformed from fledgling start-up to arguably the most important car company in the world. We are not joking. Tesla is also emerging as an emblematic force in America's effort to foster high tech manufacturing job growth."

Tesla may not be as established as FedEx, Amazon, Turner Broadcasting, or ESPN, but it appears that things are finally turning around for the innovative automaker.