How did billionaires start their businesses with almost no money and no investors?

The common path was to start tiny, cut costs to the bone, and self-fund. Sarah Blakeley of Spanx began with $5,000 she had saved from selling fax machines door to door for seven years, and she never took an outside investor, so she self-funded the company for 21 years. Andy Frisella started his business with $12,000 and no investors or inheritance, and his first store was roughly the size of a flag. Michael Weistrach had only $15 in his bank account when he started his business. Stephen Ross built his company without any investor money. Sam Adams founder Jim Cook stripped everything down to the minimum he needed: he contracted out production to an existing brewery instead of building one, ran the business from pay phone booths and bars for a year without an office, and reinvested his money into the business for about 15 years.