Jack Ma founded Alibaba Group Holding Limited.
Ma recounted Alibaba’s origin story in a 2008 Inc. profile. “I gathered 18 people in my apartment and spoke to them for two hours about my vision. Everyone put their money on the table, and that got us $60,000 to start Alibaba. I wanted to have a global company, so I chose a global name. Alibaba is easy to spell, and people everywhere associate that with ‘Open, Sesame,’ the command that Ali Baba used to open doors to hidden treasures in One Thousand and One Nights.”