7 Innovative Large Company Entrepreneurship Examples

Do you want to know examples of large-company entrepreneurship that entrepreneurs can use for inspiration? These are the five large companies that I always reference whenever I get stuck.

Starting or taking the next step in your entrepreneurship journey can sometimes be daunting. Looking at other inspiring and attainable examples has helped me clarify how to proceed.

As an inspiring entrepreneur, I am giving you the top five examples that have helped me along the way and the lessons I learned and swear by from each.

Some of these lessons are more aimed towards beginners, while others can help leading figures in their industries. I will also cover examples in all the most critical areas of entrepreneurship, from starting up to improving sales.

This post is all about the large company entrepreneurship examples that every entrepreneur at all steps can learn something from

What Is Large Company Entrepreneurship?

When people think about large companies, they usually think of the same handful: Google, Apple, etc. While those are important, unfortunately, due to their sheer size, age, and technical expertise, I don’t think the lessons there are as relatable for most entrepreneurs in 2024.

Instead, I want to focus on less technical companies that are more recently established and attainable, as well as companies that are still entrepreneur-based. As I see it, those companies have the most relevant things we can learn from them.

For diversification, I tried to pick different companies with different strengths. That way, we can get a good overview of more factors that make companies successful in 2024.

Below, I will provide a general background of the examples of large company entrepreneurship. Later, I will discuss the lessons you can learn from them and how to apply them in your venture.

Fast Growing Large Company Entrepreneurship Examples

HeadBlade

Headblade was first designed in 1977 by Todd Greene after years of suffering trying to shave his head with traditional stick razors. The company started in 1999 after Todd noticed that he might not be the only one with the same struggle.

At the time, most companies weren’t concerned with making head-shaving-specific razors, as it was such a small market that it fell under “shaving” as a whole. Todd’s intuitive and economical design helped HeadBlade gain customer loyalty and helped establish HeadBlade as a leader in the head-shaving industry.

Headblade currently has an estimated revenue of between 5 to 10 million. Headblade’s success is mainly due to its laser focus on a niche and underserved market segment.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker found a pain point in the market: expensive prescription glasses. I remember breaking my glasses in 2016 and realizing that the cheapest frame replacement would cost $280 compared to Warby Parker’s average of $95.

Warby Parker offers high-quality, trendy, stylish glasses at a small fraction of the cost of retail stores. They did this by cutting out the middleman, retail stores and delivering directly to customers.

Other than their eyewear, another thing that stood out is that they’re trying before buying a model and allowing customers to shop online easily. While this is typical now in the Amazon Return era, the whatever you want, whenever you wish era, it wasn’t as much of a thing in 2010, primarily for custom lenses eyewear.

Cards Against Humanity

Cards Against Humanity is an adult party card game in which players use words or phrases to fill in the blank statements. It isn’t exactly the beacon of political correctness, which makes it so good. The game often uses dark, offensive, humorous twists, making it a great time with friends.

It was founded in 2011 through a Kickstarter campaign, and its success is undoubtedly due to its viral creative marketing. Utilizing their creativity, they successfully marketed to millions at a fraction of the typical cost.

It’s famous for its Black Friday stunts; in 2016, Cards Against Humanity raised over $100,000 to dig a big hole. Why, you ask? There is no reason. It was just digging a hole to dig a hole. Say what you will; it raised attention.

Side note: I wonder how much of its success was about timing, specifically the general rise In political correctness.

PaintNite

Looking at Paintnite’s website, you would never guess they generated $308,000 in revenue in August 2024 alone.

Paintnite was founded in 2012 by Dan Hermann and Sean Mcgrali, who identified a need for interactive experiences tailored to adults seeking social and creative activities.

Dan and Sean dug deeper and found a fascinating trend among their target audience with art classes. They also realized that art classes’ formal setting and time commitment weren’t as appealing to many adults and weren’t conducive to consistent customers.

Realizing this, they took structured art classes from formal institutions and combined casual painting with local bars, turning it into what their target audience sought.

PaintNite’s success is mainly attributed to transforming an ordinary activity into a highly social and scalable event. It now operates as a franchise where local artists and venues can host PaintNite events.

ButcherBox

ButcherBox is a subscription-based company that delivers high-quality meat directly to its customers. It stands out by supplying ethically sourced, premium meats to a growing niche of health-conscious consumers without the hassle of grocery stores.

Their business model focuses on subscriptions, allowing for easier scaling through predictable cash flow. Founded in 2015, Butcherbox brought in $500 million in sales in 2023 by focusing on product quality and convenience and building a long-term customer relationship focused on loyalty. This has allowed them to drive sustainable long-term growth very effectively.

Lessons for Aspiring Entrepreneurs from Both the Big and the Small

Now that you have an overview of the companies I picked, here are the most essential lessons/takeaways from each.

HeadBlade – Addressing a Niche Unmet Need

Headblade succeeded by focusing on a previously unserved market. Balding individuals need to shave their heads two to three times a week. They immediately stood out in the market by developing a product for this subgroup within the typical shaving group.

The steps to do this in 2024 might differ slightly from 1977; here is a concise list of what I would do to find a niche to target. I would analyze my pain points and filter them down based on the lack of available solutions, the likelihood that others have the same pain point, and how willing I am to pay for a solution. Then, I would use tools like Google Trends and Reddit to dig deeper and validate my analysis. Based on this, I would survey a small sample of my target audience to validate further.

I tried this exercise on myself for a day and wrote down everything that bothered me. I was unsure what I would do with “too sunny.” Would I turn off the sun?

Later that day, after I settled my beef with the sun, I started to make some frozen chicken—like the chef I am. So I used the standard scissors, which were too small for my hands, to open the bag. And then the knife, which once again was too small for my hands, to cut the chicken.

And then I lit up with excitement…big hands…that is my problem…yes, I am sane.

Most tools are made for average hand sizes, which has always made them uncomfortable or even painful for me, depending on the item. In this case, I would start a company that creates regular household items with ergonomically designed tools for men with larger hands.

HeadBlade – Find Room for Innovating the Basics

If you go to Headblade.com and go to their shop section, you will notice that their head shaver isn’t some next-gen, world-changing design with incomprehensible tech. They took a regular stick shaver and changed the handle to fit their target demographic.

Not everything is the wheel; some things need to be reinvented. For instance, consider the recent craze surrounding the Hydroflask; it is just a water bottle. However, Hydroflash reinvented the water bottle by adding vacuum-insulated tech that keeps the water colder or warmer for longer.

Do I know what vacuum-insulated tech means? Nope. As someone with too many water bottles, do I agree they took a basic concept and made it better? Yes.

Warby Parker – Find Inefficiencies and Simplify

A big part of Warby Parker’s success is its identified inefficiencies in an already established industry.

By eliminating the middleman, they could streamline the process for their customers at a lower cost, making them the obvious choice in an industry entirely composed of expensive, monopolized products.

Look for industries with outdated models, identify inefficiencies, and create a more simplified consumer experience. You can deliver a better product at a better price by eliminating the fluff.

An excellent example is the number of new online mattress stores that have abandoned the mattress store model and gone direct to consumers.

Cards Against Humanity – Bold Unconventional Marketing

The success of Cards Against Humanity shows that bold, creative marketing can generate a lot of attention toward your business, even as a simple product.

Not to throw any shade, but how do you market a card game effectively? There are like a million and one card games in the market. They had an uphill battle and found a way to come up on top.

Here are some more examples of what Cards Against Humanity did for marketing

Pay-what-you-want sale: They had a pay-what-you-want promotion for their game.
Buy nothing sale: For 2015’s black Friday, they sold absolutely nothing…and made over $70,000
Removing Christmas: They ran a campaign to save America from Christmas, raising money for charity.

These are just some of their marketing stunts, which created buzz and engaged their audience in memorable ways. They proved that creative marketing can turn a simple card game into a cultural sensation.

PaintNite- Scalability and Simplicity

Paintnite leveraged a simple and scalable model by combining painting with a social environment. Targeting an underserved demographic by hosting events at local bars and restaurants allowed Paintnite to tap into an existing social event without high upfront costs.

In addition, their partnership with local artists allowed them to expand to new cities very quickly.

The main lesson here is that, if done right, business models rooted in simplicity and partnership can scale quickly without colossal investment or effort.

ButcherBox- Subscription Model

Butcherbox’es use of subscription models created a steady and predictable revenue stream.

Both are essential. A steady revenue stream allowed them to scale effectively, and predictable revenue helped them gauge how and when to grow.

Plus, the subscription model allowed them to grow without having to worry as much about finding new customers or customer retention.

ButcherBox – Combining Consistent High Quality with Convenience

When doing my research at ButcherBox, I thought, “These people must be going to the grocery store anyway, so delivering it to their doorstep doesn’t change much.”

But then I went shopping at my local grocery store. All I am saying is that the premium meat didn’t look super-premium, cough, cough. And the ones that looked decent didn’t have information on how they were sourced.

By consistently delivering high-quality meat conveniently to its customers, Butcherbox differentiated itself and cultivated strong customer loyalty. Combine that with the subscription model, and it’s no wonder they have become so successful.

How You Can Apply The Large Company’s Entrepreneurship Examples Strategies to Your Own Business Ventures.

Now that we’ve covered a few examples of entrepreneurship in large companies, it’s time to turn those lessons and insights into actionable tasks for your current or next business.

1. Find and Validate an Underserved Niche

Step 1: Identify your pains, then filter them down to ones you feel would be relevant to others and are not yet addressed in the market.
Step 2: Use Google Trends, Quora, and Reddit to confirm that others face the same problem daily. It is also essential to ensure that no apparent solutions already exist in the market.
Step 3: Talk to a small subset of your target market to better shape the product/service.
Step 4: Develop an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and test it to see the feedback you get. If you get a positive response, you have found your niche.

2. Streamline & Simplify

Step 1: Find a complicated, expensive, outdated business model or process you can streamline in your industry. Look for middlemen and extra steps that add unneeded cost and complexity.
Step 2: Remove what you found in step 1. In most cases, this means going directly to the customer.
Step 3: Introduce try before you buy or refund, especially if your niche has a lot of customization.
Step 4: Introduce Automation in place of the redundancies you eliminated. Focus on removing friction and increasing efficiency at every point.

3. Leverage Creative Marketing To Grow Buzz and Gain Attention

Step 1: Brainstorm a list of unconventional, bold marketing stunts within your budget. Consider amplifying what makes your product unique or quirky.
Step 2: Test, test, test, and start small. Getting initial feedback from a small group will help you decide which idea to pursue.
Step 3: Track increased engagement very carefully. Scale up only if it gets people talking about or sharing your product.

4. Turn a High Demand Ordinary Experience into a Scalable Service

Step 1: Find a trending activity or service that people are already doing.
Step 2: Add a social or interactive element to make it more unique and memorable.
Step 3: Find a local partner to help support/create the added social/interactive element.
Step 4: Focus on finding easily scalable elements for the activity, service, and local partners.

5. Introduce a Subscription Option to your Model

Step 1: Evaluate whether your service or product is something your customers can benefit from regularly.
Step 2: Start a low-cost subscription option to gauge initial reactions and encourage people to sign up.
Step 3: Grow your subscription model and use it to create predictable revenue.
Step 4: Focus on customer retention by consistently supplying high-quality products without hassle.