Starting a business is hard because it’s a fight with yourself, an internal battle – gaining the courage to get started, etc. Scaling a business is different – the challenges you face are mostly external to yourself. Each challenge has a million mini-challenges. We wanted to create a space for conversations and stories around growth and scaling. Below, you’ll find stories and insights from successful entrepreneurs across a variety of industries and markets.

Alisa Cook

People love to glamorize success stories, but the truth is, mine was built on trial, error, and a fair amount of chaos. There’s nothing “overnight” about it. When I first started, we were doing great work for incredible clients. The problem was, they were what I call “whales”. massive, high-touch clients that took everything we had to serve. Read More>>

Kristi Adkins

We didn’t scale overnight — we scaled with intention. From the beginning, we kept our vision big, but our goals small and achievable. When we started, we focused on doing the little things with excellence: creating welcoming guest experiences, caring for our properties as if they were our own homes, and treating every homeowner partnership with trust and transparency. We grew step-by-step. Read More>>

Stephanie Idio

Hair By Akoni creates natural hair and beard care, wigs, extensions, and medical prosthetics for individuals with textured hair, medical supply distributors, and hospitals. It expands distributor portfolios with culturally competent products that boost margins and strengthen hospital partnerships, while helping hospitals elevate dignity, trust, and patient experience scores. Read More>>

Laura Sallade

I love this question because I think it’s really insightful. Artists in particular fall prey to this idea of overnight success. When I was just starting to develop my practice in my early twenties, I was often told that all I needed was my big break and then I’d be set. Read More>>