For this week's top 5 Friday, we decided to celebrate the hard work and innovation of top of the world individuals that had very humble beginnings. Their businesses below are now multi-million (a couple are even multi-billion) companies, but they all have one common denominator: They were started in a basement.

1. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak - Believe it or not, Apple, the world's second most valuable company (they only have oh about $110 Billion cash reserves) was started in Jobs basement with nothing more than $1,250. This is where they invented the first Apple computer and the duo released the device on April Fool's Day, 1976. Today, Apple is now a leading technology company and makes superb gadgets including the iPhone, the iPod, the MacBook and more. The iPhone, which is arguably the most innovative device of our time has transformed industries, created ecosystems, and has generally changed the way we live.

2. Kevin O'Leary - A lot of us here in the States know him as "Mr. Wonderful", the outspoken entrepreneur in the hit show Shark Tank. O'Leary founded the company SoftKey in the basement of a small house in Toronto. SoftKey is a software publisher and is consisted of programs intended for home audiences and include compilation discs of various freeware or shareware game software. After several years and a couple of acquisitions, SoftKey (by then it was called The Learning Company) was bought by toy company Mattel for a $3.8 billion stock swap.

3. Richard Branson - We've all seen the hip products of Virgin, a company that's in various industries including airlines, music, bridalwear, vodka, cars, bank accounts, cell phones, make up, gyms, and more. However, few people know that founder Richard Branson actually started the company in his basement in 1968. Back then, he created a youth-culture magazine called Student. Back then though, Branson wasn't really planning on building a huge empire. "I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills", he told Entrepreneur.com.

4. Voltage Security - Voltage provides data-centric security solutions for companies that want to safeguard their data and information. The products and services include Payment Data Encryption, Email Encryption, Cloud Data Encryption and more. Not a lot of people are aware though, that before it became a big high-tech firm, Voltage was actually operating out of an office in the basement of the Packard building at Stanford.

5. Daymond John - This guy goes by a lot of titles, including entrepreneur, investor, television personality, author and motivational speaker. He's mostly known for creating the FUBU, a clothing company that he started from his mother's basement in 1992. John actually mortgaged his home for $100,000 and used that to start the business.

Image credit: aloshbennett on Flickr