At the bottom of the recession, Alan Guy, along with two other partners, Richard Leider and HT Tran, started a construction company called Anvil Builders. The three of them began to bidding work in a cramped hotel room in downtown San Francisco and took whatever they could to make a dollar.

Less than a decade later, Anvil was leading disaster cleanups after wildfires swept through Santa Rosa, Malibu, and Paradise.

"I'm employee number 35 at Anvil, which means that there were 34 people at this company that we hired before we even dreamt of getting a paycheck. That was three years before we ever paid ourselves a dime. It was a tough time, but I wouldn't trade it for anything."

Learn more about Anvil Builders at https://anvilbuilders.com/ and follow Alan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-guy/!