Finding the key partners to work with can make or break your venture. After thousands of conversations with aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s one of the most common obstacles and risks holding folks back from pursuing their idea. So – we asked some of the smartest, most resourceful entrepreneurs in the community to share their lessons and insights to help inspire and educate the next great set of entrepreneurs.

Lucas Kastner

This is an interesting question. And, one I think about quite often. The entire process of building my professional career started a lifetime ago. Initially, I started, as most people do, by working in various service and retail industries until landing my first career role. As I was learning the art of social interaction (with customers and coworkers) it became very clear that first impressions matter. Read more>>

Devin Ershow

When we were developing the concept for Borrowed Page American Whiskey it was important to us that we worked with distilleries that we felt we understood, that we believed in and who we felt were doing things the right way and for the right reasons. This is why we only work with distilleries that we have already featured on our website. When we feature a distillery on our website we do extensive research into their history/background, process and philosophy behind production and their brand/marketing strategy. Read more>>

Rachael Wixom

Like any industry, clothing manufacturing in Los Angeles faces challenges, including rising labor costs, competition from overseas production, and the need to adapt to changing consumer preferences and technology. My first production run was conducted with a middleman (who I found through a posting on Craigslist!) who connected me with patternmakers, cut and sewing rooms, and a production house that was open to smaller production runs, I had to go this route because it was hard to find these divisions without committing to large quantities. The process is very sketchy. Read more>>

Lia & Kristina Van Note & Holman

Before we opened our business we knew that we wanted to carefully vet our vendors, or makers as we call them. We came up with a list of all the criteria that was important to us and reflected our values. Geography, such as hyper-local (our neighborhood), local, and regional was a first. Read more>>

Janelle Simpson

Finding vendors sounds like an easy task , but if you’re like me and didn’t have too many sources , it could be a struggle at first. Word of mouth is important but putting your business out there and promoting , is all on you. Facebook is definitely a great platform to find vendors. Making a post on Facebook , seeking help to find vendors helped me A-LOT! Read more>>

Saundrea Sampson

I was very fortunate to find Turn90. It is a non-profit print company that provides therapy and job placement for men formerly incarcerated. I was immediately sold and knew that would be my primary t-shirt printing company. My favorite part about working with Turn90, is each man who prints the t-shirt signs his name on the tag. That is such a great takeaway piece to see the difference that is being made by supporting a great cause like Turn90. Read more>>

YoLi De La Mora

When I needed to find key vendors like manufacturers or distributors for my business, here’s how I went about it, reflecting on the process and lessons learned: Read more>>