Self-Made Billionaire: Warren Buffett’s $1,000 Company Turnaround

A small investment at ⁢the right ⁤time can turn ordinary people into millionaires. For Jeffrey Sprecher, ⁢founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, it took a $1,000 investment and an unconventional idea⁤ to set his business ⁤on a path to becoming a $98 billion company.

“I had this idea that you should be able to trade electric power, buy and sell it ⁤on an exchange,” Sprecher recalled at the Rotary Club Of atlanta.He admitted ‍he “had ⁤no idea how to‍ do that. I’d never worked on ⁣Wall Street,I never traded.”

Sprecher⁣ learned that Continental Power Exchange-owned ⁤by Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy-was nearing bankruptcy,⁢ despite a $35 million investment from Buffett’s company. He saw an opportunity to pursue his vision.

“I bought the company for a dollar a share, and there were a thousand shares. So I bought it for $1,000, and I used that as the basis to build Intercontinental Exchange.”

Sprecher’s net ‍worth is now $1.3 billion.⁢ But the early days weren’t easy.

Living⁤ frugally while building the⁤ business

That $1,000 investment in 1997 launched Intercontinental Exchange, officially founded ‍in 2000. A team of nine employees began building the technology in Atlanta, Georgia, determined to revive the struggling company.

Everyone pitched in, and ‍Sprecher wasn’t exempt from‍ the grunt work. He ⁢lived in a ‍small apartment and drove a used car to conserve⁢ funds.

“I bought⁤ a 500-foot, one room studio apartment in Midtown…I bought a used car that I kept and I’d go into the office from time ⁤to time,” Sprecher explained, adding that he “took the trash out, shut the lights out, answered the phone, bought the staplers ⁣and the paper for the photocopier. ⁤That was the way things ⁤worked.”