Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head of Vodka

Daniel Edward Aykroyd is a Canadian actor, producer, comedian, musician, and filmmaker who is best known for being one of the original cast members of “Saturday Night Live”. The actor-musician decided to turn his passion into a business venture. In 1992, he and Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett established the House of Blues, now a chain of music venues. Their mission was to promote the African-American contributions to folk art and blues music.

Other investors saw the potential of the venture and went on to support it by pouring in their investment money. That single location venue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, slowly became two, then four, then seven venues with 22 amphitheaters in the US and Canada. Seeing his success as motivation, Dan founded another company, Crystal Head Vodka, a high-end vodka with its trademark skull-shaped bottle. The vodka, in true class, is filtered through diamond crystals. Today, the company is doing more than $100 million in annual revenue.