 91 million in venture capital to found Federal Express. In the early days of FedEx, he had to get creative to keep the company afloat. One time he took the company's last five grand to Vegas and won 27 grand playing blackjack to cover the $24,000 fuel bill. Now Fred Smith is considered one of the world's 50 greatest leaders, while FedEx's revenue in 2018 was over $65 billion.