An Online Home for Bargain Hunters

Steve Duncan was giving a speech, and the news wasn't good. His industry was down $12 billion in 2009, and he needed to drive the point home. "I thought there would be a website out there with good quotes," says Duncan, director of market intelligence for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, in Milwaukee. "But there wasn't."

So he built one, launching NumberQuotes.com in February. Type $12 billion--or any other number--in its search box and get a list of equivalencies. For instance, $12 billion is roughly the GDP of Jamaica. Or enough to buy everyone in Huntington Beach, Calif., a Cadillac Escalade. Or every single person on the planet a cup of Starbucks coffee.

In just the first month, NumberQuotes got more than 21,400 unique visitors. Not bad, when you consider that's greater than the number of college history teachers employed in the United States.

This article was originally published in the August 2010 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Um, That's How Much?.