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Iridium Satellite LLC
Iridium
In the late 1990s, Motorola provided the initial funding and technology for the first consumer satellite-phone network. Iridium service launched in 1998 but filed for bankruptcy in 1999. Relaunched in 2001 and funded by private investors, Iridium now targets industries whose workers need phone service far from cellular towers: the military, aviation, forestry and utilities, among others. And it's profitable. In 2006, the private company saw $54 million in profits and saw the number of subscribers grow 26% (to 180,000).
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Friendster
Friendster
Friendster, an American social networking site that predates industry leader MySpace, was so popular that the company had trouble keeping up with scale. Friendster would regularly crash, turning off users. Today, Friendster is technically up to speed, garnering patents on its social networking software, and now targeting urban adults, alumni groups, and Asian audiences. In the last four months, unique page views jumped 20%.
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Segway
In 2001, the Segway Human Transporter debuted and appeared in countless news stories. But when the product was made available to consumers in 2002, it never quite caught on as an alternative to walking or driving among urban commuters. Two years ago, the company began more targeted marketing to police and security guards for fast transportation—the Miami Police used them to patrol crowds at the Super Bowl. Today that's the fastest growing sales segment, and accounts for 20% of sales.
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Active Worlds
Active Worlds
Less well known than Second Life, Active Worlds predates it by nearly a decade. Because broadband Internet connections weren't widespread in the 1990s, Active Worlds' online, user-built community of avatars was ahead of its time. When it didn't catch on widely, the company began concentrating on making customized virtual worlds for corporations. Today, Active Worlds attracts clients, including Wells Fargo, away from Second Life.
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Paul Sakuma, AP
PayPal
In 1999, a Silicon Valley startup called Confinity introduced PayPal, initially intended to allow financial transactions between mobile phones and handheld organizers such as Palm Pilots. The market was slow to develop. By refocusing on electronic payments in the early 2000s, PayPal remade itself and was acquired by eBay in 2002 in a deal valued at $1.5 billion.
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Andreas Rentz, Getty Images
Botox
Botox, or botulinum toxin A, is just one high-profile example of a drug that doctors discovered had side effects offering unintended cosmetic benefits, which was later remarketed (after FDA approval) by pharmaceutical companies to reap increased profits. Allergan reported in 2006 that annual sales of Botox -- initially used to treat a neurological movement disorder and approved in 2003 to smooth brow wrinkles -- jumped 18.2%, to $982.2 million.
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