Milton S. Hershey

Hershey had several failed sweet shops before a caramel business in Lancaster gave him the capital to make milk chocolate cheaply enough for everyone. The Hershey bar of 1900 was a mass-produced product at a time when chocolate was a luxury, and he built a whole town in Pennsylvania around reliable fresh milk supply. The company famously did little national advertising for decades, relying on the product and its wrapper to do the work.