In our view, far too many ideas die at the imagination stage. It’s not because people are lazy, we think the primary reason is because many people don’t know where or how to start. So, we connected with some sharp and generous entrepreneurs who’ve agreed to share their stories of how they went from idea to execution.

Zaskia Villa

I still remember the first time I verbalized what my purpose was. It was my second year of college and I was sitting in an interview at a local production company with a sore throat so awful it had nearly wiped out my entire voice. I looked my future boss in the eyes and used whatever voice I had left to tell him, “in a world that is becoming more technological, I want to remind people what it means to be human.” Read more>>

Terrance Thames

Terenzio Hospitality LLC started the year of 2019. The process was pretty broad on my end. I didn’t know anything about opening a business let alone knowing the concepts and formations of one. I started the process at the time of Covid-19. This made it more complex and less information that was given due to shut downs of companies and limitations of information. My first step was starting an LLC basically becoming legit, building a consistent brand, making myself known. I had to get out of the employee mindset and get into the CEO/Business Owner mindset, “why” because i was programed as a worker, not a CEO. Read more>>

Tony Patterson

My love as a creator started at an early age. I have been involved in various entities in the entertainment industry, Artist Management, Production, Models Management, Producers management, along with Short Film Directing, special Event Sponsoring and charity Fund raising. Launched in July 2010, the magazine has quickly become a premier industry publication. It is written by industry professionals for industry professionals includes the newest information on artist, urban music, tech, sports and business. The magazine’s mix of fashion, music, sport, film, art and politics  appeals to young, educated and affluent readers who demand to be the first to know about what’s hot and what’s important in entertainment and around the world. Read more>>

Tommy “Tee” Chanthavong

I entertained the idea that I wanted to be a Food Blogger on New Years Eve. At first, it was taken as a joke and I wasn’t going to take it seriously since I didn’t know what the outcome would be. I realized when I first started my Instagram page, it was going to be a long term investment/project that I would need to keep working on. Once the initial start of buying my own food, and posting on my feed consistently, doors slowly started opening and opportunities presented itself for me. Looking back at it, there are certain things I would have done better, but I realized slow and steady wins the race to be honest. Read more>>

Dena Lyons

A passerby on the street of Monaco where I was painting asked me if I would be interested in printing my paintings onto pillows and porcelain. The start of this project was sourcing a manufacturer. Being the holiday gifting season we focused on finding a scarf manufacturer instead of pillows and porcelain.. Christmas Eve 2014, my first shipment of silk scarves arrived! Having product to sell is the first step. The next step was finding distribution channels. I started out doing a trunk show on Worth Avenue and then doing local fashion shows. Read more>>

Jay Resh

As a kid, I spent most of my time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. My love of art grew with every visit, and I knew that I wanted to do something with my life that allowed me to be creative. I couldn’t bear the idea of doing anything else. Since I also shared a passion for science and everything tech related, photography seemed to be the perfect balance of the two. I could create, and I could do so by using the beautiful machines known as cameras.  Read more>>

Victoria Cartagena

To launch my business actually came with my drive to not ignore my intuition this time around. I say that because I was going through so many transitions that would just fall through within a short amount of time. I was fed up, nervous & scared to even think of entrepreneurship. But I just knew I had to do something different at 28 years old. I kept taking interviews, working at jobs I hated, getting laid off back to back again, I knew I never wanted to rely on corporate America ever again and be my own boss! I knew it would be hard work but all you really have to do to get started is just to start. Read more>>

Jas Kirk

Idea to execution takes belief, process, consistency, patience, and probably a lot more but we will just start with that. There are parts of the process you won’t love and that is okay, but you keep going and keep building. I’m 1 year in business, but it took 5 months of planning, focusing, getting clear, and finding stillness in order to really establish what I have today. A lot of people don’t know this was a hobby for me for almost 4 years so it was a lot of passion work that I then had to consider how does this really translate to business and have people want to be apart and then be able to grow it. Read more>>

Nakita Gee

Starting was hard at first, because it took me weeks to come up with even a business name. Once I did, I immediately began researching my market and what all I needed to do to actually make a candle. The next step was diving into making them, and at that moment I felt like I had gotten in over my head, ha! I had not one clue what I was doing and to see others do it I thought it would be simple. That was far from the truth! Read more>>

Sabriyah Richardson

So I have self- published two books, both have completely different themes and vibes, so it was two totally different experiences with going from idea to execution with both. When I began writing my first book i didn’t even know it was gonna become my first book, as it started as a therapy assignment. I began grief counseling when I was 16 years old after I unexpectedly and tragically lost a close friend of mine to suicide the summer before my junior year of high school. As I began my journey in therapy eventually my therapist gave me 2 assignments, Read more>>

Madeline Cook

I initially began my business on Etsy selling festival fashion creations which I did from 2016-2018. I knew I was meant to create fashion designs to make women feel empowered, but I somehow still felt slightly off my path or like I was on a parallel path to my truest one. In 2018 I began focusing more on sustainable fashion and fabrics, leading me to find the yummiest and softest bamboo jersey. The fabric itself inspired me to try and make myself a pair of underwear out of it because it was so deliciously soft and stretchy, and I was sick of wearing uncomfortable or unflattering underwear. Read more>>

Ashton Blaha

The idea of starting my own apothecary came to me after learning that my classmates had really cool herbalist jobs and some even owned their own herbal farms. They gave me inspiration and I have never looked back since. I had a mission of bringing people back to their roots, products that I already loved making for people, now to put it all in motion was the next step. Little did I know how much I’d have to learn about sourcing ingredients, testing, and packaging. Read more>>

Larry Thompson Sr

At 13 I woke up and decided that I wanted to be the most influential person on earth. I started doing things that would interject me into the limelight aka find my lane. I dabbled in many lanes seeking how I’d become this person I envisioned myself. I was invoked in real estate, college, financial education, politics, music, sports, and you can name it. As I grew and continued to get involved in these many different lanes, I slowly started seeing the vision of how my bigger picture started coming together. Read more>>

Jeff Scaman

When we started out we had an idea for a dashcam app using dual camera technology. In order to execute on this we had to figure out how to develop a great app, so we started searching for a developer. We were able to connect with an old fiend of one of our co-founders and we hired his firm to develop our initial app. As a former app developer for a major tech company, our developer was highly qualified to build us a fantastic app and then several new iterations since launch. After one year we had developed three apps named DUBL, DUBL PRO and DUBL DRIVE and our downloads are increasing by the day. Read more>>

Cassie Gifford

We relocated to Colorado and with that we left our favorite home town kombucha. Since we had been brewing our own kombucha and it was different than what we could find here we decided we should try to make a business of it. So we worked towards finalizing some recipes while looking into the legal and business side. It took a lot of research, learning and phone calls to learn what was needed. We shared with our friends who shared with their friends. We were able to start producing commercially via a local commissary, and with that the word spread and we nailed our first partner placing kombucha on tap at their restaraunt. Read more>>