For consumers shopping for a Samsung wall mount for their Samsung HDTV, it can be hard to imagine a time when this South Korean conglomerate wasn’t a household name. However, the fact is that the brand has been around for less than a hundred years. While we might not think twice about seeing products as diverse as a Samsung DLP color wheel in stores, Samsung started out as a small business with only 40 employees. It was founded by a man named Lee Byung-Chull as a modest trading company in Daegu. However, the 1950 Communist invasion forced him to flee Seoul and restart the company in the Busan area. In the 1950s and 1960s, the company flourished, thanks in part to the support of President Park Chung-hee and his policies for economic development. That Samsung water filter you’re shopping for is only one of countless products the brand now sells.