A dad can’t find a bakery to make a birthday cake that can accommodate his daughter’s allergy-related needs. Two freelancers realize they need a way to organize all of their client contracts and can’t find software that adequately handles their use case. Necessity is often hailed as the mother of innovation – but not all ideas come from necessity. Unfortunately, in our experience, often media coverage of the ideas that powered amazing businesses and projects often stops at a very superficial level. The founders noticed a need and boom – idea. Often the ideation process has a much longer, more complex story and so we’ve asked some entrepreneurs and creatives we admire to go into detail about their ideation stories.

Gloria Mensah

MOO. stemmed from a realization that I was placing my worth in all the wrong people and places. I had a moment to look inward and truly discover who I am outside of someone or something else. I did not want to tie my purpose to a relationship, career or the acceptance of others. There had to be more to life that could truly move my heart and true value to the world. It was then that my self-discovery led me back to my African roots. Read more>>

Mikayla Jones

I’ve never been a stranger to the kitchen. Growing up, my house was one of the gathering spots for all my friends. I was always cooking or baking something and sharing it the people I loved the most. I enjoyed learning how food worked and behaved as I explore different recipes and dietary lifestyles. When I graduated from high school, I asked my parents if I could go to culinary arts school. They told me I could once I retired. Read more>>

Leitia McHugh

The Confetti Post was started from a place of wanting more from my day to day—but the desire to find a fulfilling outlet while also remaining flexible to the care and needs of my young children. My second child was one year old when I came up with the idea to start The Confetti Post, and my oldest was just starting preschool. I had postpartum depression in that first year when my daughter was born. I was looking for a way to express myself and progress with something apart from my life as a stay-at-home mom. Read more>>

Kindale Godbee

Kindale Godbee – proud owner of The Heir Salon and Family . ‘‘Ever since giving myself my first buzz cut (don’t worry, I have improved since then!) I fell in love with hair, and the beauty in not only the transitioning process, but in myself. My mission is to help all members of The Heir Family find that beauty in all aspects of hair and life. In addition to passing all of my final tests with high scores, and being top of the class at Paul Mitchell I also received certification in coloring, natural hair, and hair extensions from all over, including Atlanta and New York. Read more>>

Jirah Wilson

I always knew that when it came to content creation almost anybody can sit in front of a camera, but not just anyone can edit and make that raw footage and turn it into a movie. I knew that there were always going to be content creators in need of an editor, so I took advantage of this and quickly monetized my skill and managed to secure 5 full-time clients under my belt in my first month of business. Read more>>

 

Nick and Amanda Tyler and Piteo

The idea started in early 2020 when Nick was teaching North Alabama and Amanda was a restaurant GM, neither one of us was happy with in our careers. Combine we both have 20 years in the restaurant business and we knew we always wanted to have something of their own. Growing up in a small town we always had the same restaurants and one chain coffee shop we didn’t really care for. We always liked coffee so having a coffee shop locally owned was something we l knew would work for our area if it was done right. Read more>>

Lyisha “Lollie: Allen

I began my career in the nightlife industry as a bottle girl, hookah attendant, and bartender. As I gained more experience, I realized that I had a talent for this line of work and decided to turn it into a part-time hustle. Together with a friend, we started a mobile bartending service in Memphis, TN. However, I eventually moved back to my hometown of New Orleans and resumed my work as a bartender and hookah attendant. Read more>>

Sathvik Vasam

The idea took root when I was still running my previous company, as it steadily and surely ran out of cash. It was hard to see past the fact that we had failed, that we couldn’t raise a follow-on round of funding before blowing through our runway. Our seed investors, of course, gave us the ability to pay ourselves, to do this full time, to invest in a full-time developer, a sales team, our own office space, and of course, imbued in us the credibility that comes with running a funded startup. There was just no comparison to what we could do funded vs what we were doing bootstrapped. Read more>>

Eurydice Johnson

Growing up I never knew what I would be in life. I come from alot of trauma and hurt but the one thing i always knew was out there was love. I wanted that feeling of having some one unconditional care and love me genuinely as well as a healthy love. I met my husband in 2015 and it was instant. The connection we shared was unmatched. He was able to love me past my trauma and pain, while still being gentle with my heart. After years of us being together, even through up’s and down the love remained. Read more>>

Andrew Martin

I lead a peer advisory group called Six Figure Dinners, in which eight Houston business owners from diverse industries lean in together to help solve business problems and support each other through business and personal challenges. We have a three-hour “board meeting” each month where each member shares for 30 minutes about a strategic issue or problem that he or she would like to discuss with the group. Read more>>

Marla Truitt

As with any parent, we all worry about our children and their future. But when you have one with a disability that concern magnifies. I wanted to create opportunities to help our special community live a happy, healthy, strong independent life for themselves. By creating a system that trains, teaches, and encourages them to create a life with purpose and to give them the independence these awesome people deserve. Read more>>

Wengsi Chiu

Back in May 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, it was difficult for any single business to take on an entire storefront alone so we decided to divide up the space and offer 6′ x 8′ stalls to local vendors to have their own little shops (hence the name 6×8 Market). However, we quickly discovered that there was very little interest even in these smaller stalls we were offering especially with many small businesses being just a side hustle or hobby for vendors. Read more>>

Jasmine List

OC Pom Rescue initially started with the notion to save more dogs from euthanasia. I have worked in rescue for several years, but with the limited resources, it felt more like an afterthought to save a dog when time permitted. I, like most of the volunteers, would show up to monthly adoption events, eat a few cupcakes, maybe adopt out a dog or two that we didn’t know much about and be on our way. Read more>>

Shreena Shah

I moved to USA after my marriage in 2008. I was working in multiple fields to get job satisfaction which took a whole three years, much later i had a baby girl and with no family around I had to take care of the child. As much as i was fully aware that i wanted to start my own business and wanted to become an entrepreneur,with my mother duties kept me in running with multiple idea of starting one. As my child went to school I got sometime to explore my ideas and thoughts on starting a business. Read more>>

Nick & Anthony Payne

Growing up, we always loved cooking with our parents. Our mom would make her buffalo chicken dip from time to time, and we became obsessed with it. That is where our love for all things buffalo chicken and cooking began. After we both finished playing D1 college football, we started working at a digital marketing company together in 2018. We would make our mom’s buffalo chicken dip recipe for our friends and co-workers, and they were all blown away. It became more and more popular and got to the point where we had co-workers asking us to make it frequently. Read more>>

Eric Meyer

I had a home studio and was in a band that we were trying to get off of the ground. My wife played bass in the band and she saw first hand what I was trying to do. The band progressed and eventually disbanded. One night my wife and I were standing outside of the house looking at things around the house from the garage and Angelica said, “If you’re going to have a studio then we need to do it right”. Read more>>

Jody Ehler

My family and I spent a lot of time in Costa Rica. Over the years, I noticed more and more plastic in the ocean and all over the beaches. Seeing this made feel that I had to be way more mindful about my choices of any kind of product that was in plastic. If I didn’t buy plastic, I wasn’t contributing to this overwhelming burden. Read more>>

Sophia Williams

I always love candles and on Mother’s Day 2019 my husband bought me my first candle-making kit. So, I got into candle-making as a Hobbie, then I wanted to share to the world my talent. So, Earth Goddess Shop was born in May 2020. I really wanted to make intention candles and charka candles. So my first candles I made was charka candles. I want people to get in tune with balancing and healing energy. Read more>>

D’Authentic Purpose

D’Authentic Purpose, it’s all in the name. I wanted something authentic, something that would describe me and what I do. I knew I wanted to give people the real purpose of me and that is exactly what I started doing. Since 2021, I’ve been rocking with the name, it stuck with me and fit perfectly. I knew I had a calling, a purpose, that I had to fulfill. Helping others and making a difference in others lives was a big step forward in the right direction. I am a walking miracle and I know God kept me here for a reason. Read more>>

Madelyn Bass

2011 when I woke up with pain in my back and chest. Shortly after the ambulance had taken me to the emergency room, I was completely paralyzed from the neck down. I had so many thoughts running through my head as a single mother would. I couldn’t answer any questions or confirm with even a nod or a blink. I was treated for a stroke, but that was not the problem. The next day I was sent to Tyler, Texas Trauma Center where I spent 23 days learning to walk, talk and dress/feed myself. Read more>>

Kareem Pinkston

My origin story of how I came about creating EATINGOCEANSIDE LLC is one of service & sacrifice. Back in 2020 when we were facing the pandemic, I was living in the city of Oceanside. As a behavioral specialist to kids with disabilities in the public school system, I was unemployed and spent many hours online. I also had a longtime hobby of taking photos of food. While online, I came to find out that many local eateries were in dire need of online promotions & marketing on social media. Read more>>

Sharonda Harris

Fabulous Winks and Jewels provides affordable, quality beauty supplies and accessories via our local vending machine or via our website for customers not local. At first it always crossed my mind to get into the vending machine business to vend snacks and drinks. When I worked for local hospitals mostly night shift, I would always use the vending machine and spend a good bit of money. Usually after certain hours you can’t purchase beauty products or accessories I always worked a 9 to 5 and wanted something I could call my own, something different that was necessary. Read more>>

George Garro

In 2015-2016 I had really taken a liking to a show called “forged in fire” where people compete in making blades and then having them tested. One day while watching knife making videos I started looking for axe making videos. Going down that rabbit hole I stumbled upon some videos of people doing competitive axe throwing in. Canada. I was very intrigued by the sport and saw the potential in it although at the time it looked a little rough around the edges. Read more>>

Brooke Scott

I guess I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. My best friend and I sold handmade jewelry and hair clips out of the back of our Volvo station wagon as teenagers in the ‘90s. From there, I sold handmade greeting cards in coffee shops when scrapbooking was a thing – remember that? Thinking about it now, I have always had a side hustle. I need that creative outlet. Something that is totally my own and not for someone else in whatever 9-5 I was working at the time. Read more>>

Grace Stidham

The idea to start Stidham Sweets and Treats came from a passion of mine to have a hobby that I could turn into a small business. When I was in high school, I had a friend who had 3 small businesses that were doing very well and I wanted to do the same. I would not consider myself the most artistic person, but cookies take a different type of creativity. I decided to a cookie class to learn the basics and came home to try and teach my mother-in-law. In teaching her, I realized I did not know as much as I thought and this hobby was going to take a lot more practice. Read more>>

Andre Coleman

Me and my family live in a up and coming cities named North Port / Port Charlotte Florida which is located between Sarasota and fort Myers. We seen a problem that the cities were growing and was lacking a place where people can have their special events. The idea for business came when we put together a event for a family friend in our backyard and we said to ourselves “ we can do this and get paid.” Read more>>

Chelsey Zawadzki

My search for what is now The Hive began from childhood. Growing up I struggled to find “my people”. I was always bouncing around from friend group to friend group, never feeling like I quite belonged anywhere. Fast forward to college and then eventually my career as a Veterinary Technician, the trend carried on. I always felt like Cinderella’s ugly stepsister trying to shove my foot into a shoe that was never meant for me. Eventually this led to me leaving my career to become a full time mom to our 2 babes, Alivia who is now 11 and Beau 4. Read more>>

Alanna Roberts

Growing up, my grandpa would always tell me stories about the time he was an astronaut, a princess, a ballerina, or that time he was a cowboy… He would tell me tall tales, but deep within my soul, he planted the seed of a deep love of storytelling. From the time I could type I was writing. (I also wrote a little bit before then, but I’ve always had terrible handwriting, so nobody could ever read what I had written and that’s just frustrating!) I remember writing short stories about princesses and pageantry, and children in foster care. If it spoke to my soul, I would come up with a story about it. Read more>>

Eboney Singleton

I have always been a creative, even as a child. So, one day an idea popped into my head to start a business. So, that’s what I did! I started my small business during the wave of startup small businesses. However, I had the thought to cater to my creativity and showcase my skills through my crafts. Honestly, I had no idea how to start a business nor where to look, but I knew I wanted to start as soon as possible. So, again that’s what I did. Read more>>

Kate Morgan

I dub Morgan Publicity the ‘Accidental PR Firm’. I was so burned out from my previous PR role, that after making the decision to leave – I just wanted a client or two to ‘keep the lights on’ and allow for a little (read: much needed!) rest bite. But I killed it for them ‘keep the lights on’ clients – haha! And they recommended clients. And these clients recommended clients. Before I knew it, I had a boutique firm that steamrolled fairly quickly. Read more>>

Melissa Smith

My oldest child was incredibly sensitive to light when he was a baby/toddler and we soon found that blackout curtain options that completely darkened a room were nowhere to be found. He was up with the sunrise at 5 am and would have trouble falling asleep when the sun was still out during Seattle’s long summer evenings. This often led us to tape garbage bags and aluminum foil to the windows in order to block all of the light leaks that came in around the curtains to create a better sleep environment. Read more>>

Maddie Dunhoff

I came up with the idea for Taeko-san Takeout at a very rough time in my life. I had some major life changes happen after 2020 as most of us did and found myself working 3-4 jobs 7 days a week just to keep my head above water with bills/life. I was so exhausted and unhappy putting in 20 hour days sometimes and never taking a day off in between. I was working random jobs and doing gig work like door dash to pay my bills but one of the jobs was helping my mom with her mushroom grow. Read more>>

Erin Fogg

When I was planning my wedding, I realized that there weren’t many options for decor, other than the super corporate style. So, I lived on Craigslist (it was totally still a thing back then), looking for other brides who were selling their wedding stuff. After a couple of months of doing this, I heard about a business that had more unique items to rent for your wedding as opposed to buying…by that time, I had purchased almost everything that I needed, but it gave me an idea! Read more>>

Shauna Wright

Well 2013, I was laid off from my job and I was getting my nails done every 2 weeks, and then I couldn’t afford it anymore. This was around the time where the at home gel systems had just come out, so I bought one, did my nails, my moms nails and realized…oh…this was fun. I practiced on my roommate at the time, and realized well in order for me to make money, I’ll need to get my license. So I found a nail technology school near me, In Virginia it’s 150 hours to sit for the state board. Read more>>

Clifton Pickett Sr

The idea was created from a character that I drew some years back in my teens so I decided to take partial of the logo of the character that I drew and create a clothing brand. That way the clothing brand starts off with history of that I drew over 30 years ago and I changed the spelling of the word Swanky to Swanqee which means being positive discipline, and having fun to start my own clothing brand that represents positive fashion Read more>>

Ashley Valentine

Being inside of a bookstore, hugged by books and exploring the world as viewed through the eyes of the characters between the pages of books has always brought me great joy and helped expose to me life outside of my city and neighborhood. As I worked through my final semester of graduate school, majoring in Special Education and Reading, I began to truly envision myself outside of the traditional classroom and instead as a business owner supporting families and connecting the urban youth to stories that resonate with their lived experiences. Read more>>

Chereé Robinson

I had a vision of what i wanted my life to look like after going through different life lessons(blessings) at a very young age. My idea for my business is to creative a scared space to break generational excuses, and beat the odds. Show young girls/woman/young men/men to be the love that you seek (And the rest will follow). LTSGR YOGA MINDFULNESS w/Reé (Let That Shit Go RESPECTFULLY) yoga meditation healing , along with positive affirmation and poetry , I came up with my business name because when we get hurt and never try to heal ourselves, we get stuck in that time frame of hurt..you will never heal..( the old baggage is shh Read more>>

Mindy Keegan

I came up with this idea after starting and growing a successful product-based business of my own. I was able to build a supportive community of raving fans around the mugs I designed and sold, all through social media. As I networked through that business and met other business owners, I received a lot of questions about how I was building a community, how I knew what to post about, how I was selling on social media and getting so much involvement. Read more>>

Elijah Carter

I came up with the idea for my business Flame of the Soul LLC after seeing a lot of Youtube videos of my favorite tarot reader Shonetta Divine Tarot. At the time I was working a boring 9 to 5 job at a hospital doing office management. At work, my coworkers would come to my office and tell me their problems. I always had this ability to intuitively guide my coworkers with my life coaching skills. I loved that they felt lighter after talking to me and changed their life with the guidance I gave them. Read more>>

Kendall Drozda

The word “Nous” in French means us and what Emma and I believe is that mental health is an “us” issue when it comes to checking in on our youth.  We grew up in a time where no one really talked about mental health and we wish so much that we had someone older to sit us down and talk about ways to combat anxiety, depression, and the importance of self care. As former athletes it’s been an Incredible opportunity to witness and pour into these college athletes and get to talk to them about the pressures they face on a daily basis. Read more>>