Andrew Boyd's Create a Company Challenge

Create your own company it can be whatever you want. Give it a name, what it does, a history, and people involved in it. It can even be one that has come and gone.
 
For example,

GENERAL THINGS

General Things was founded by Brandon Turney in 1972 in Livermore California. Turney had the idea to sell everything in the store as their own generic brand of products whereas other stores sold name brand items. He wanted to undersell stores such as Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, and some department stores. The stores caught on for this strategy. Most other stores introduced their own store brand items such as Wal-Mart's Great Value brand. General Things eventually went in to auto parts with General Auto Parts and gas stations called General Gas. As of 2018, General Things is across most of the western United States. Just this year, they opened their first store east of the Mississippi in Orlando as well as establishing their new east coast headquarters. They are currently the Third biggest retail store in the country behind Wal-Mart and Target. Turney is still CEO and owner.
 
MIDAS GAMES
Starting as Active Entertainment, Midas Games was founded by Vince Perri. After shelving their initial plans for a multi-pack game for the game that would put them on the map, The Cheetahmen. Released in 1992, the Cheetahmen would become known as one the last good NES releases due to its late-cycle position. The game would kickstart the Cheetahmen franchise with three successful follow-up games (Cheetahmen II on the SNES/Genesis, Battletoads vs. Cheetahmen on the SNES/Genesis and Cheetahmen III on the N64/Saturn), an ongoing comic book line published by Dark Horse and animated series on Cartoon Network from 1995-2000.

While Perri had intentions to rename the company after the Cheetahmen, he was argued against it to allow for more creative freedom. Naming it after what he believed to be the company's golden touch, Active Entertainment renamed themselves in 1995 to Midas Games. Along with Cheetahmen, the company became known for the ability to rescue doomed projects such as Bubsy 3D (forgettable, but much more playable) Aliens: Colonial Marines (released in 2006 for the PS2 and Xbox), Daikatana (released in 1998), Highlander: Last of the McCleods (for the Sega Saturn) and many more.
 
MIDAS GAMES
Starting as Active Entertainment, Midas Games was founded by Vince Perri. After shelving their initial plans for a multi-pack game for the game that would put them on the map, The Cheetahmen. Released in 1992, the Cheetahmen would become known as one the last good NES releases due to its late-cycle position. The game would kickstart the Cheetahmen franchise with three successful follow-up games (Cheetahmen II on the SNES/Genesis, Battletoads vs. Cheetahmen on the SNES/Genesis and Cheetahmen III on the N64/Saturn), an ongoing comic book line published by Dark Horse and animated series on Cartoon Network from 1995-2000.

While Perri had intentions to rename the company after the Cheetahmen, he was argued against it to allow for more creative freedom. Naming it after what he believed to be the company's golden touch, Active Entertainment renamed themselves in 1995 to Midas Games. Along with Cheetahmen, the company became known for the ability to rescue doomed projects such as Bubsy 3D (forgettable, but much more playable) Aliens: Colonial Marines (released in 2006 for the PS2 and Xbox), Daikatana (released in 1998), Highlander: Last of the McCleods (for the Sega Saturn) and many more.
That's a good one!
 
Let me do another one to get people interested in contributing:

SHITECH PRODUCTS
Shitech was founded by Dylan Jacobs in 1976 in Bismarck North Dakota. The company was a mail order company that sold products such as the Grab-a-Claw, the Rippermatic 9000, and even their own coffee brand called Shitbrew and eyewear called Eyearreah. The company did well throughout the late 70's and into the 80's. Jacobs was able to launch a sports channel called KSN that eventually got to show Nascar and some Chicago Cubs games as well as being an associate sponsor with Mark Martin. In the 90's, the company began to falter. The products began to be defective and in some cases, dangerous. Lawsuits led to states banning products, prominently Maryland, Vermont and Missouri. Shitech eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. Their liquidation led to the closure of KSN.
 
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SORCERER STUDIOS

In 2011, a group of indie developers who started out making mods for popular games on Steam grouped together to form a studio, Sorcerer Studios. Starting out with small indie titles like Witchcraft and Underground, the studio slowly but surely gained popularity throughout the 2010s, earning praise for their uniquely fantastical games. Although they made only PC-titles, they wanted to expand into the console market, and began development on a new game: Mystic, which was to be released alongside the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Two in 2021. When the game was released, it earned praise, however it was overshadowed by other AAA titles such as Elder Scrolls 6. With declining sales the game's price was halved to make it more appealing, and the Studio suffered because of this. It seemed that Sorcerer was nearing it's premature end, but then 2022 rolled around. In 2022, the Second Video Game Crash occurred, causing even the most prolific of developers such as Bethesda to collapse under the weight of declining sales and debt. Sorcerer, being smaller and more closely knit, weathered the Crash, and when the dust cleared, they emerged stronger than they had been before. Mystic was re-released to further acclaim, and with the release of Mystic 2 in 2025, Sorcerer had established themselves as one of the prime studios of the post-Crash period, and continues to be a juggernaut in the gaming industry today.
 
UNITED STATES RUGBY LEAGUE LLC

Founded in 1982 as a reaction to the NFL players’ strike, the USRL (Stars Rugby to fans) introduced an alternative for both fans and players. The season runs concurrently with the NFL and approaches the NFL’s popularity today, with the Stars Cup drawing 85.2 million viewers the week before the Super Bowl.

Former Stars Rugby champions include Bo Jackson, who signed with the Oakland Sharks after the NFL’s Buccaneers drafted him and he refused to report to the team. Jackson led the Sharks to four titles, first in 1990 over Herschel Walker and the Philadelphia Soul in the infamous 87-0 destruction in which Jackson scored six tries and most recently prior to his retirement in 1996 with that barnburner over the Miami Thunder.

Stars Rugby boasts 24 teams, all of which have made the playoffs at least once in the past four seasons despite the league having only eight playoff spots. Most notably, seven of the franchises, including the Sharks, are owned by shareholders or players; Bo Jackson owns a 25% share in the Sharks but is largely considered an absentee owner.

The most interesting development is Vontae Davis, who retired from the NFL at the half of a Buffalo Bills game, signing the following week with the Minnesota Blizzard, owned by Target Corporation, and instantly becoming a difference maker. It’s not the first time a player has made the leap from the NFL to Stars Rugby but is the most interesting - most who do so are football players who can’t get signed or stay healthy in the NFL.

Stars Rugby has no plans to expand, although fans in St. Louis badly want a franchise.
 
Lévis Weapon Manufactory

Founded in 1890 by weaponsmith Joseph Garand and entrepreneur Charles Ross in Lévis near Québec city when the Canadian republic was unable to secure a license to produce the newest M1885 Remington-Lee rifle already arming the US army. Their first weapon was the M1 Ross-Garand, a trap-door loading single shot rifle. While finely crafted and a good precision, its loading mechanism was archaic and the government refused it.
In order to turn a profit, they sold the rifle to the civilian market and also produced the Ross-Theuliot shotgun, a lever-action weapon for small games. The good craftsmanship and quality of the weapons helped the company to make a good name for itself. But in never abandonned the military market, they tried a second time with the M2 Ross-Garand which was using a very modern magazine-fed, straight-bolt action system. While the government was interested, the testing revealed a few problems, especially with the straight-bolt having issue with locking. The M3 Ross-Garand was the evolution of the precedent rifle with most of its problems fixed and mechanism redesigned for mass-production. It was found satisfactory and distributed to the military. The M3 was appreciated for its good marksmanship and fast-firing, while the mechanism was known to have a poor tolerence to dirt, it was issued with a cleaning kit and further modifications helped with it.
The M3 became the main produce of the Lévis Weapon Manufactory, mainly for the Canadian army but also for other countries military, but it still issued the .45 Theuliot lever hunting rifle for the civilian market.

While MAL (Manufacture d'Arme Lévis/Lévis Weapon Manufactory) produced the M3 Ross-Garand until 1958, in 1944 Canada issued a tender for a new weapon but this time it was open to foreign producer. MAL had plans for a semi-automatic Ross-Garand but it became clear that the competition would be proposing similar design. Engineer and head of project Robert Deneuville chose to be bold... and ignore almost all the requirements. First was the demand to keep the 7mm cartridge, they designed a new round, the 7x33mm. Smaller, it helped with controlable automatic fire and allowed the use of the reliable roller-delayed rollback automatic firing mechanism instead of a selector. Then they used the bullpup architecture to keep the same canon lenght but shorten the complete rifle size, this caused problem for the bayonet usage (while they provided a bayonet attachment, most military officers considered it useless) but seduced many in the military by providing a weapon that could both replace the service rifle and submachine gun (the latter were not built by MAL). Despite (or maybe because) not respecting the demands, they were able to exceed expectations set up and clearly demarked themselves from the competition. The new weapon, the CA-Lévis (Carabine Automatic/Automatic Carbine), looked very modern and proved to be very reliable (much more than the M3), soldiers who tested it were excited and full of praise. It was without surprise that the CA-Lévis was chosen as new main weapon for the Canadian army.

While the factories of Lévis and Montréal started producing the new weapons, the abandoned semi-automatic Ross-Garand was redesigned as a civilian weapon, simplifying the mechanism for every-day use and installing optic rack. The Ross-Garand M4 was finnaly created but sold this time on the civilian market. MAL notably opened new factories for civilian production in the USA and England, just in time for the newest Ross-Theuliot M2 shotgun.
 
any more requirements rather then just 'a company, any company'? From the forum I assume that the company must have been around after 1900, but other than that? Any size requirements? Any significance or impact? Any minimum years of existence?
 
any more requirements rather then just 'a company, any company'? From the forum I assume that the company must have been around after 1900, but other than that? Any size requirements? Any significance or impact? Any minimum years of existence?
No, it can be whatever you wanna create. The company can start pre 1900, but if it goes under, it has to be either in the 20th century or any of the years that have already happened in the 21st
 
Westland Reynard Automobiles

Established: May 15, 1921 (as Durant Motors), September 22, 1931 (as Westland-Reynard)
Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Born from a less-than-promising beginning as the remains of a car company that was failing as a result of the Great Depression, Westland Reynard would go on to be one of the pillars of Canada's 20th Century transformation from a largely-agrarian producer of vast quantities of energy, minerals, timber and food into a genuine industrial power, buying the remains of William Durant's Durant Motors and the failing Auburn and Pierce-Arrow car brands and forging it, helped by Canada's vast developments during the 'Canada of Tomorrow' projects during the Great Depression and during World War II and the revival of fortunes that came as a result of the efforts.

Westland Reynard, named for founders Cameron Westland and David Reynard, used funds gathered from the Trillium Fund (Ontario's natural resources fund) to create a new company and then used the need for cars and trucks as demand returned to grow the company, before the making of trucks, tanks and armored vehicles made the company a fortune during World War II. After the war, Westland Reynard took advantage of the shakeout in the American car industry to gain valuable resources and manufacturing capacity, ending up as one of the five big North American automobile manufacturers, joining General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and American Motors. The company joined the other Canadian heavy vehicle manufacturing firms - Robinson, Russell-Evans, Massey-Harris, Prevost and Sterling Western - in providing the vast majority of Canadian trucks and vehicles, as well as taking advantage of opportunities abroad and in the United States. The Auburn name fell out of use in the 1950s as the company focused its bread-and-butter models on the Westland marque, its sportier models on Reynard and its luxury cars on Pierce-Arrow, but as the wealth of the world grew the company advanced its development both in Canada and around the world, focusing particular effort on the Commonwealth of Nations market, including splitting with General Motors the ownership of Holden in Australia on its founding in 1948. (Westland Reynard to this day retains half-ownership of Holden.)

Westland Reynard followed the beliefs of its founders through the post-war era, with them and General Motors being proud advancers of the idea that the way to sell more cars was to give customers the best that they could buy from anyone in terms of engineering, and the company as a result introducing double wishbone suspension to their cars in 1959, radial tires and disc brakes in 1962-63, the first road-going car with a turbocharged diesel engine in 1969 and one of the first cars with anti-lock brakes in 1970. The Reynard Phoenix, introduced at the Toronto Auto Show in February 1963, became the second of the 'Pony Cars' (following the American Motors Javelin, and before the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro/Pontiac Firebird twins and the Dodge Challenger) that revolutionized sporty cars in the 1960s, and the Pierce-Arrow luxury cars were among the standard of the world, taking on a handsome, edged style in the 1960s and proving to be far better cars over the road than many of its Detroit rivals. The leadership of GM and Westland Reynard led to the other three North American automakers following themselves, and it also manifested in the companies all remaining active in international motorsports.

The company spent the 1970s improving their products' fuel emissions and emissions, and the 1980s saw the company shift into other new technologies - electronic fuel injection with integral cylinder deactivation systems, an ever-increasing use of plastic and aluminum in the bodies and structures of the cars, and the introduction of 'FourTrack' full-time all-wheel-drive in 1985. The company earned itself some problems in Ottawa by remaining active in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s even as sanctions against apartheid got ever tighter, but the persistence proved beneficial in the 1990s as the company was able to establish themselves as a major player in Africa after Pretoria finally changed horses and the company's proud support of the Perana and Laraki companies established in South Africa in the 1990s added to the support. (Both marques were sold in Canada and the United States starting in 1996 for Laraki and 1998 for Perana). The company's Asian positions grew better after the company bought into Subaru in 1994 (buying the share that had been owned by Nissan since 1968) and the firm's advanced designs and reputation for quality engineering made sure the company stayed prosperous. GM's selling of the Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Hummer divisions to Magna in 2007 made a sixth North American automaker and Tesla made it seven in 2011, even as the long list of smaller and medium-sized car makers that exploded into North America starting in the 1970s (DeLorean, Vector, Panoz, Saleen, Fisker) grew into major efforts themselves, the car market in North America proved highly lucrative for Westland Reynard.
 

Deleted member 92195

Intriguing idea... off the wall thinking, I like off the wall thinking, because I am 'off the wall'. x'D

Let me do some meta-thinking... The company which I like the most is Krupp industries, it is within the Rhine, which has the some of the best coal in the world and trading is only equal to a few places around the world, the Rhine has the best ports in the world because of its coastal geography and area of expansion would be WWI. I'll base on this and create an entirely new company. Let me some hypothesising and I'll get back to you.
 
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Kiln Arsenal:
Founded in 1890 from a bequest of significant value to then-serving naval officer and engineer Adrian Potter, Kiln Arsenal has become a shadowy multi-faceted organisation with more control over the British Imperial Commonwealth than any individual nation.

Initially used as the vessel with which to float a series of innovations in small arms, small-calibre naval artillery, torpedoes and sea mines, the acquisition of Milford Haven Naval Base and the Parsons turbine company allowed the venture construction of the Royal Navy's first ocean-going fleet destroyers. Large armoured turbine cruisers, new land artillery, steam and petrol cars followed. At the end of the 19th century, the company was involved in a hush-up when a Spanish merchant laid Kiln Arsenal mines in Hong Kong Harbour and sank several British ships and Admiral Dewey's squadron in near its entirety. A squadron of the new large armoured turbine cruisers and the fleet destroyers responded with a shattering assault on Manila - ending with the Spanish fleet shattered and several forts rent asunder.

After the Boxer Rebellion, encounters with Jezails and Mausers, new long-range rifles were produced with a more powerful .308 bullet - the 'Levi' Lee-Enfield High Velocity and an accompanying series of repeater pistols and squad machine-guns.

The company was responsible for the design of the Royal Navy's series of fleet cruisers, battleships and battlecruisers, as well as their new face-hardened cemented armour, turrets, optics, mechanical computation, guns and propulsion. The immense naval race was primarily funded by an Admiralty-Arsenal conspiracy where warships were constructed as a tax offset against Kiln Arsenal's exploitation of natural resources in the Caribbean, Canada, South Africa, India and Australia.

The first modern, uniform-battery, oil-fired turbine battleship, Dreadnought, gained notoriety during her working up. With a well-trained crew made up of the crews of two Kiln Arsenal Destroyers and the crew of a large armoured turbine cruiser, she was doing maneuvre trials when she was attacked by the Russian Baltic Fleet. Within a few dozen rounds of her magazines being empty, she broke off action when Admiral Lord Charles Beresford's Channel Squadron arrived on scene to dispatch the cripples, rescue crews and run down a few cruisers.

New artillery, mortars, other equipment and training for the Royal Marines and eventually the Army led to a degree of great preparedness when the World War broke out. Training after the Massacre at Dogger Bank in the Royal Navy had grown even more intense. Fisher and Beresford - the latter lacking an arm and gaining a grimmer outlook on life - had driven fleet gunnery and battle training to a degree of unusual intensity. Kiln Arsenal equipped every major fleet station with the Capital Ship, Cruiser and Destroyer models of the Major Battle Damage Simulator.

Cruiser fleets scoured the oceans clean of German vessels prior to Rear-Admiral Potter, Vice-Admiral Beatty and Admiral Jellicoe savaging the Hochseeflotte in a series of actions on a dark night in December 1914, with no ship larger than a destroyer returning to Wilhelmshaven. The loss of the Hochseeflotte, the devestating Adriatic Ambush, the successful Suez Trap and the self-destruction of the Turkish minefields protecting Constantinople (a feature built in after the Hong Kong Fiasco) and the naval assault that followed, and the loss of Heligoland and its intact gun batteries directly leading to the 1916 Mutinies.

However, even as Europe was thrashed into something resembling peace, tensions flared in the West. Gun running booze smugglers around the Great Lakes, a personal/business relationship with Mexican populist revolutionary Pancho Villa, protectionary tariffs, fisheries policing, some patents, the fact that Thomas Edison was wanted in every British nation and the reinstatement of the Hawaiin government by Kiln Arsenal forces caused a limited war with America after the Canadians started hanging Chicago gangsters as pirates.

Unfortunately, this coincided with Spithead Fleet Review, and the Royal Navy's immense battle line declined to attend the war. Instead, cruiser screens patrolled the seaways and four heavy cruiser strike squadrons were dispatched. In vile weather, a night action at close range was opened by the USN's entire light cruiser force being converted into scrap metal.

As a result, Kiln Arsenal's museum administrative quarters may be visited aboard the battleship Colorado.

I'mrambling at this point. Basically Britain trolls through this shadowy military-industrial company.
 
CODE ZERO/OCRP
Code Zero was another company founded by Brandon Turney in conjunction with AIRFAV owner and ceo Jeff Favignano in 1992. The company was an insurance company for first responders, mainly police, as well as providing refresher training to departments. The company was able to expand into geographic locations within the USA and Canada.

CODE ZERO WEST: The original headquarters in Livermore California located in the old Turney Business Complex along with General Things.

CODE ZERO CENTRAL: Headquartered in St. Louis. Run by Jeff Favignano. Shut down during 2008 recession. Favignano is now with CODE ZERO SOUTH.

CODE ZERO EAST: Headquartered in Philadelphia. Emergency lighting magnate Zachary Houseknecht partnered with CODE ZERO to provide their services in the East. He now runs this division as his own company independent form CODE ZERO.

CODE ZERO SOUTH: Turney sold CODE ZERO WEST to Jordan Polecat and his DOJ company (explained below) and moved to Orlando to set this up along with General Things new eastern headquarters. Renamed to OCRP with Favignano in full control.

CODE ZERO CANADA: Headquartered in Edmonton and run by a conservatory of firefighters, this division is now independent as well.

The company merged with rival company DOJ but the merger had lots of controversy. Jordan Polecat wanted full control of the company to expand DOJ. This caused Favignano to convince Turney to move to Florida and sell the western division. He then decided to solely focus on General Things and let Favignano run the company.

The company is seen as the USAA of first responders. The company now has banking and financial services for its members
 
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PEOPLES' MOTORS

Peoples' Motors is an American-owned and run co-op, specializing in the creation of automobiles before branching out into other various parts and machinery. The co-op was started when a platoon of left-leaning soldiers acquired the rights to a strange German car known as the Volkswagon through a series of accidents. Through careful hiring, the G.I bill and luck, Peoples' Motors became a growing success and as a strong alternate to the entrepenuer model that have dominated economics thus far. Selling the car as a simple and reliable car, it gained them popularity and followed the philosophy since. They would become associated with the Hippie movement when the vans became popular among them. This would also renew interest in biofuel for them while various veteras and soldiers supplemented the hippie movement, making it become much more powerful and influential, especially with the failures of the Vietnam War.

The company's leaning toward biofuel would help make it become much more popular during the Oil Crunch and they became more influential when some higher-ups mentioned how soldiers like them could be sent to fight in wars for oil, even noting the "suspicious" behavior that was happening in Persia as such. Peoples' Motors was seen as a reliable maker of cars, but their consistent left-leaning ideals meant various companies have tried to beat them ot get them out, but to little avail. Peoples' Motors was initially hamstrung by their refusal to truly get involved in the growth of consumerism in the 80s, but maintained loyal customers and remained in business. However they also did end up branching out to Mexico and the Volkswagon did become popular abroad due to the co-op policies, the robust and simple design and the philosophy.

Peoples' Motors would reach major news as the only major car company unaffected by the 08' Recession and they would truly come to dominate and spread their influence. Having purchased General Motors and Ford, they would dominate the American part with new varieties and would reach international headlines when massive fights with former lobbyists revealed the toxic influence of fossil fuel companies and car companies in government politics. This along with the Iraq War have led to the end of the gas-powered car, with Peoples' Motors leading the way for green and or electric cars. Research in biofuel became massive, with Peoples' Motors investing heavily in algae based fuel and in making long-lasting cars. They also branched out into other motor vehicles and other car-related lines, such as motor repair co-ops associated with them.
 
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