When husband and wife team Mark and Tracy Jarvis set out to launch their own company, they had listened to numerous suggestions for the name until “zurvita” was proposed and immediately touched and won them over.

The midyear economic outlook for 2016 is mixed for the largest publicly traded direct selling companies in the U.S., with some posting better-than-expected second quarter results while others saw decline.

Joni Rogers-Kante lives an intentional life. Her resolve to do so happened upon her by accident—literally.

In the year 1855, Reverend J.R. Graves started a mail order company selling books, religious tracts and Bibles.

It’s an oft-told sidebar in the retelling of the Scentsy story: How the multimillion-dollar international party plan company began in a 40-foot metal shipping container on a sheep farm in Meridian, Idaho.

Founder and CEO Jack Fallon, COO John Licari and CMO Scott Bania have turned years of friendship into a company that recently achieved an important milestone.

North American Power brought its direct selling operations to an unexpected halt last week.

“Life’s a bit like mountaineering,” said Sir Edmund Hillary. “Never look down.” It’s what direct sellers do, too—never look down.

MonaVie is looking to grow its business in one of direct selling’s billion-dollar markets. Last week the nutrition brand officially launched operations in Italy, its 39th market worldwide.

Equal access to equal justice—it’s nearly unimaginable in many countries, and it’s what attracted new chief executive Jeff Bell to LegalShield.

Like the history of the universe, the story of direct selling reveals paradigm-shifting events and thresholds that have fundamentally changed the industry and helped to shape today’s direct seller.

Find out more about the DSN Global 100 companies, including an overview of the companies as well as products, number of markets and number of salespeople.