The history of the Porsche automobile brand began in 1948 with the Type 356, but the groundwork for the company was laid in the design office of Professor Ferdinand Porsche.  

It sits unremarkably in a gray safe in a climate-controlled room: the first ledger of the Porsche design office, stored in a fireproof room in the archive of the Porsche Museum. In the timeworn ledger one can find order number 1, placed on August 21, 1930. The job involved manufacturing individual components for a “Hesselmann engine,” a cross between a diesel and a gas engine—a sign of the company’s innovative spirit since its inception. Order number 7 was of another dimension altogether. “Small-car project,” reads the description in the ledger. 

https://www.porsche.com/international/aboutporsche/christophorusmagazine/archive/379/articleoverview/article14/