Coming up with an idea for a business or creative project can feel exhilarating. Inspiration for a new idea can come from so many places and we’ve asked some great folks from the community to share their stories of how they came up with their ideas.

Julian Tcherassi

10 years ago I was in a rock band and I randomly told the singer that I had a urinary pain and he told me to drink this tea that is used as a natural remedy for UTIs in Mexico. He said he had used it to pass a kidney stone and that the tea turns blue in the light. Read more>>

Makhaya Shea

The whole idea of becoming a food blogger was a foreign concept to me until January 2021 during the peak of covid. I was a mother of two little people and we were stuck home all day long everyday with nowhere to go. Read more>>

Diane Reynolds

My husband and I began volunteering to help people living in extreme poverty with our church in upstate NY in 2013. We were moved by the families and their stories. We soon became the outreach leaders and expanded to work with the homeless population too. Read more>>

Cindy Liu

Drawing used to serve as a cathartic outlet for me, allowing me to externalize my thoughts and feelings. I’ve always been intrigued by the intricacies of the human psyche, yet at times, delving into its depths can feel overwhelming. Read more>>

Ashley Childress

I have always had a passion for event planning and decor and was eager to put my skills to use. My mom, cousin, grandma and I were encouraged to find an event space to rent out for events after planning countless parties and struggling to find a place to host them. Read more>>

Ramses Soto

Although it was just a spark at the time, the idea began when I visited my first music festival. Inspired by the bright lights, crowd, and musical performances, I began creating custom pieces that were bold and eye catching, meant to be seen on the main stage. Read more>>

Karin Hoyle

Owl’s Nest Publishers came out of many years of dreaming and struggling, failing and succeeding. But it also came out of friendship. To understand how we got here, we need to trace my publishing journey back to the beginning. Read more>>

Oksana Tademy

The start of my business traces back to a pivotal moment in 2014 when I witnessed the relentless tragedy of unemployment, financial struggles, and the daunting quest for direction that engulfed several of my family members, friends, and associates. Read more>>

Philip Atta Sarkodie

The origins of this narrative trace back to 2017 in Kumasi, a city in Ghana, West Africa. I discovered a hidden talent that would permanently alter my life. Read more>>

Michael Lynch

‘Imperfects’ started as a simple life mantra between two friends. The whole idea was that my best pal and I could find some sort of confidence and strength by leading with our imperfections. Read more>>

Carolyn Clare Givens

The story of Bandersnatch Books is one of many streams coming together at the right time. I had been interested in publishing from the time I entered graduate school, but when I finished in 2009, the publishing industry had just been decimated by the economic downturn and there was no work there. Read more>>

Mark Hofmann

Sure thing. My latest book, “Good Mourning! A Guide to Biting the Big One…and Dying, Too”, is my first book for the publishing company, Starlit Waters Publishing, and was released in October 2023. Read more>>

Hayley + Stephanie Painter

We have always dreamed of bringing light to our family’s 4th generation farm. During our college years, we recognized the disconnect between people and their food, which motivated us to return to the farm with a mission; connecting people with the source of their food. Read more>>

Amberle Kurkowski

The Palomino is a family friendly pub and beer garden in Georgetown, TX. As a mom of two kids, I have taken my kids to many different restaurants and food establishments in the area, but I always felt they were not very kid or family friendly. Read more>>

Cristina Gamarnik

It’s a journey that’s deeply personal to me. After giving birth, I found myself stuck in a whirlwind of emotions, feeling overwhelmed and isolated. It wasn’t until later that I realized I was battling postpartum depression and anxiety. Read more>>

Alondra Roland

I came up with the idea of our business mid pandemic. A lot of us were spending time at home and doing things we never had time to do. Many of those things were taking care of our plants. Read more>>

Joshlyn Davis

I moved to Dallas in December of 2017 and like most folks struggled to adjust and make friends in the large city. I had been doing social media for about 7 years and my personal media invites for my influencer page @Joshlynphotography started picking up in 2018 but I didn’t have any friends or community who understood content creator speak, or that I could invite that I knew would enjoy the opportunity and not look at me crazy while I took photos of food. Read more>>

Brittany Hampton

In 2016, when I was getting married the chalkboard trend was really starting to gain momentum. After realizing how many signs I actually needed to make for my wedding, the thought of what to do with them afterward came up. Read more>>

Valorie Evans

I started The Brown Explorers, a travel group for Black youth with the mission of exposing black youth to the world through travel, because our culture is underrepresented in travel and overrepresented in negative areas such as poverty, single parent households, substance misuse, etc. Read more>>

Shonnika Denise

How did this all begin? Well, as a child i wanted to be a music teacher. I even started college to study music education after graduating high school, but that dream wasn’t happening fast enough for me! so after considering 5 different careers my older sister asked me “What could you do every day for the rest of your life?” Read more>>

Micah LaCerte

I was one of the pioneers in the space of Online Personal Training, starting in 2006 on Myspace. I came up with the idea from a lady in Canada that asked me a simple question. Read more>>

Breeanna Farmer

So, picture this: a home office where my cat and dog are always coming in to sunbathe and then chasing each other back out of the room again and an eager entrepreneur sipping on her homemade latte. Read more>>

Morgan Defilippis

When I was 12 years old, I did a project in school about a career I thought would be enjoyable; I chose photography. That’s when my fascination with this form of art began. Read more>>

Iliriana Balaj

10 years ago I was working as a personal trainer at an elite gym in New York’s Rockefeller Center. I obtained my NASM certification and continued education in order to train people and give basic nutrition help. Read more>>

Suzy and Clark Neal

Clark and I live in the mountains of northeast Georgia, and the wine industry was a small but growing industry in our area, The Unicoi Wine Trail was established in our area, with about 6 local wineries, and I saw an opportunity to get involved. Read more>>

Obie Anthony

I was once wrongfully imprisoned and suffer 17 years behind bars for a crime I did not commit. In 1994, I was accused of murder, despite a lack of physical evidence linking me to the crime. I was only 19 years old at the time. Read more>>

Stephanie Allen-Tunsil

In the Summer of ’23, our Co-Founder Lauren N’namdi introduced me to Pickleball. I had never played or really heard of it. We took a clinic together and I was instantly hooked! Lauren then says, “You should start a group to get more people of color together playing Pickleball!” Read more>>

Lysa Allman-Baldwin

Authenticity & Purpose LLC came about as the result of my life bottoming out. The short version is that at the beginning of 2015, I experienced a string of mishaps—to put it lightly—that happened one, after the next, after the next, after the next…boom, boom, boom – all within a 6-month period of time. Read more>>

Jodie Schrier

In my previous job, I spent a lot of time with older adults, who were over the age of 65. I loved listening to their stories, which were really interesting and full of wisdom. Read more>>

Naomi Heckman

How it all began making candy. my husband’s late mother made candy. When His dad decided to go through and divide stuff for his 3 sons 20 years ago he asked me if I would like the candy molds. Read more>>

Charles Johnson

What started as an attempt to come up with an all natural laundry detergent quickly became an obsession. We continue to strive to provide our customers with simple yet effective natural home, bath and beauty products while striving to reduce our carbon footprint! Read more>>

Arvis Coleman

Ten to fifteen years ago brainstorming on different business ideas with a close family member of mine. One of the ideas was a tee shirt company. We never went through on that particular idea. Read more>>

Patrice Chappelle

My son Bron Echols is the inspiration behind our company MelanBrand Skin, LLC. He is also the Co-founder and Co-CEO. When Bron was much younger, I struggled to find adequate skincare products for his skin; for children especially kids with melanated skin. Read more>>

Sydney Shadbolt

I have always been someone who likes to be busy. I am currently a special education teacher as well as a photographer. I first started taking an interest in photography when I was in college. Read more>>

Jeffrey Gordon

Starting a business was never a dream of mine. When I was a kid, I once thought I wanted to have my own restaurant. However, after working in restaurants for years in my early 20’s, I realized I definitely didn’t want that, most specifically the evening and weekend hours. Read more>>

Tom Van Dessel

In 2010 I launched the US arm of BuzziSpace (acoustic treatments and furniture for offices) in the US. One of our main products was an acoustical felt wallpaper made from polyester. Read more>>

Clare Koppang

During my teens and early 20’s, I worked in retail stores from gift shops to shoe stores and then finally clothing boutiques. I loved interacting with clients and asking what they were shopping for; we would talk about trips they were planning or their children’s graduation, a bridesmaid lunch or just a wardrobe glow up with a new career. Read more>>

Joshua Culp

Hammerdubs originally called Culp Solutions was developed to solve a problem we had in a previous business. We owned a retail store called Hemline Monroe, which was the 14th franchise in a growing women’s brand in the US. Read more>>

Raj Thaker

My Co-Founder and I had been doing a lot of outreach to potential customers via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social channels. To track this information, we had been using a CRM and manually pasting these results over which was extremely repetitive and time-consuming. Read more>>

Tommy Vowles

Oh it was a long time coming. I grew up in the goth scene in London, I spent my nights dancing in foggy nightclubs and my days making less than minimum wage selling bondage trousers in Camden Town. Read more>>

Paul Garcia

My co-host Matt and I have been friends since we were 15. We met in 1996 in Ontario, Ca. and have been friends ever since. However, in the last 13 years, we have been separated by distance, and circumstance. Read more>>

Kimboley Parkinson Poyser

Starting Kimboley Kollection was a dream that began with a passion for beauty and self-care. During my first pregnancy, I had made a deal with my husband that if I have birth to a girl, I would do the big chop and go back to my natural hair. Has faith would have it, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Read more>>

Anika Simmons

The journey to becoming an entrepreneur was an unexpected twist in my career path. Initially, I had envisioned myself climbing the corporate ladder, thriving in a traditional professional environment. However, God had other plans in store for me. Read more>>

Zoë Roché

Blue Barn City Farm was an idea that came to us as we stood in our enormous, empty front yard in Tarzana. I had just finished up treatment for Breast Cancer and wouldn’t be returning to my 17 yearlong office job. Read more>>

Aaron Sizemore

My wife and I were working musicians who recognized a major flaw in the traditional approach to private music lessons. These lessons usually occur in a little room in the back of a sheet music store, or maybe in someone’s home. Read more>>