One of the challenges we’ve seen to true equality of opportunity is that schools and books often can’t (or choose not) offer access to one of the most equalizing resources – first hand stories of how successful entrepreneurs made their ideas a reality. If you grew up in a family or community that had many successful entrepreneurs you may have been lucky to hear many conversations and stories about starting and executing on an idea, but there are millions of people across the country who haven’t had the same advantage and so our hope here is to create a space where those stories can be told in a more public forum for the benefit of any and every aspiring entrepreneur.

Heather Hans

As a child, I especially loved to do puzzles, math, and read, but I also loved to act out my wishes and daydreams, wear costumes, do comedy skits, and draw. By my teens, I was figuring out the world through film, photography, psychology, and philosophy. I found my love of teaching as a university professor during my 20s, planning lectures, paying close attention to students, and using creativity to support their growth. Becoming a mother inspired me to make my teaching about self-love. Read more>>

Jamie Paris

I’ve always wanted to start my own business – it was just a matter of how and when. During my time at San Diego State University, I met many successful entrepreneurs that became my inspiration for taking the leap and starting Luxuria Public Relations. I found my passion in PR after joining the public relations program and gaining hands-on experience through PR internships and eventually employment. From there, I knew I wanted to be in the PR business. Read more>>

Bonnie Heath

I’ve been a professional photographer since the mid 90s. I worked as a photojournalist for many years, and like most newspaper photographers, I also shot freelance assignments. After I left the newspaper industry, it was a challenge to figure out how to get leads for paying clients. In the early 2010s, Yelp was a big deal. I asked several happy clients to write reviews for me there. That got the ball rolling for my business. Read more>>

Patrick Ellefson

The start was the easy part, it was my dream since I was a little kid to have a car dealership where all you see are cool cars. The execution was the hard part, coming from a foreign country 10 years ago with no money and sub-par english. I started buying and selling cars at the age of 18 in the good-ol’ craigslist days. I was scouring the website hours per day looking for anything I could afford and flip for a profit of only a few hundred dollars. Started at 1 car per 2 weeks, to a car a week, to 2-3 per week. Read more>>

Brandon Church

It all started when I realized my testosterone was deficient and struggled to find a medical professional to help. It seemed like each of the practitioners I visited, knew less about male hormones than I was able to learn online. I decided to start a Facebook group, TRT Community, for support. It grew slowly over the years. I was convinced about 4 years in to start a podcast – All Things Testosterone. Since we already had the largest social media based support group around, the podcast quickly grew to be the most successful in our niche. Read more>>

Dana Yarn

I decided to take the big leap into opening my own business after grabbing lunch with a old co-worker who also opened up her own Pilates studio. I was so inspired by her ownership in her business, customer service and financials I was ready to leave my corporate fitness job. I was also pregnant with my third baby and I was frustrated at the demands of corporate fitness including several unpaid meetings, mandatory holiday shifts and the pressure to meet sales quotas was priority over actually helping clients improve their lifestyles. I was ready to have more freedom to raise my children and have more time to spend with my husband. Read more>>

Randi Zucker

Preparation is the key to success. My biggest takeaway to anyone launching a business: Research! Take your time to properly research all aspects of your business. Even then, you’re going to hit walls that you never thought would be there. Find the right mentors to follow and join numerous online groups where you can search and ask questions. Read more>>

Acheil Tac

I started with an idea and then went on a mission to bring that idea to life. When I came up with “The Athlete’s Advocate”, my initial vision was to launch my very own consulting firm. This consulting firm would be a resources for athletes of all ages and skill level with their athletic journeys. Thinking through the entire process of creating and launching a consulting firm, I decided to start small. Starting small meant that I had to build and grow my target audience first before I officially launched a business behind it. So, I started with a podcast and eventually morphed my podcast platfrom into a digital media platform shortly after. Read more>>

ILona Serchenko

As long as I remember, I have been obsessed with photography since I was a little girl back in Ukraine. When I turned 17, my parents gifted me my first professional camera, and I was so excited to bring it along on my journey to come study in USA pursuing my next level of education on full ride tennis scholarship. Eventually, as I started travelling more all over the world (28 countries and counting) I became obsessed with capturing insta-worthy, travel blogger shots of myself and my significant other. Read more>>

Kristen Kramlich

I usually jump into things like a maniac, & then let it evolve from there. When I first started making jewelry, it was a completely different situation. I had the stability of a really good job & I was making jewelry from plastic and crystals. My first necklace was a little plastic bow barrette that I drilled holes in & wire wrapped dangling crystals to. I started buying nice stones & making higher end beaded jewelry. In about a year, I had my sights set on metalwork. I bought a metal stamping kit on Etsy & realized that the only way that this was going to make me happy was evolution. Read more>>

Michelle Larrabee-Martin

Kolo Collection was going to happen; my husband and I were just fortunate enough to figure out there was a need and that we could fill it. While traveling, before children,we were introduced to a Danish outdoor furniture line that was looking to come to the USA market. I’ve been in the design industry since 1988 so I was familiar with how high end lines are sold through design driven showrooms. Read more>>

Trelyn Spencer

Looking back now I didn’t expect that Fashion would be my lifelong passion. I don’t think it even started out as a hobby ………It just started. It seems like in life we live and then we die. In the middle of that we try to find our purpose and why we were made in the first place. I honestly feel like I’m where supposed to be. I started out thinking I wanted to be model, that later changed when I found out I had no control. Becoming a Stylist took convincing. I felt like Anna Delvey in a world of people who already had it together here I was a young 18-year-old with no clue. I started styling my friends and people I knew who would give me a chance. I used my Connections that I made in modeling world to get in the room to express my eagerness to style. Read more>>

Sima Verzino

My husband Marcellino had been a Chef in his birth country of Italy since he was a very young man and always self-employed. I was a classically trained vocalist from NYC who was performing in Rome, Italy, and was signed to a European record label. Marcellino and I met in Rome at his bar bistro on New Year’s Eve 1993, and we have literally been together since. In 1996, we made the move from Rome back to NYC, and he worked as an Executive Chef and co-owner with partners for 7 years. Read more>>

Lauren Perez

I started my wedding coordination business 5 years ago. I had been working with a high end fabulous wedding planner in Atlanta. I was learning the ends and outs of wedding day set up, breakdown, wedding day timelines and meeting fun and interesting vendors along the way. I was seeing that there was a niche that was missing in weddings and the process of planning a wedding. It was what do brides do that don’t have the budget or they want to plan their own wedding do ,once the day, week of , month of their wedding happens. Read more>>

Ariel Sutton

Sweet Bea’s Creations, LTD Co. was pushed into execution. I made a body butter for myself in May, 2021, because I wanted my legs to glisten in the summer. I was telling everyone it was a part of my “Turning 40 Kit”. Of course they laughed, but they asked me about the recipe. Then it clicked to write it down so I could even duplicate it for myself! In July, I found myself in a major production, and I was talking to different people about how I don’t use lotions anymore. Not to sell, but just a casual convo, and I was surprised at the response, they wanted to support me! Read more>>

Karlie and Liz Warne

Opening a coffee shop together had always been a dream of ours. We’ve been best friends for 20+ years and so many of our favorite memories growing up involve spending hours at local coffee shops. Throughout high school and college we both worked at multiple coffee shops, but ultimately thought this would be the extent of our coffee dream/obsession. While in college we both studied “people” degrees. I graduated with a Sociology & Psychology major and Liz graduated with a Human Development and Family Studies major. Right out of college we were lucky enough to accept jobs within our degrees, Read more>>

Philip Brynildsen

I came from the music world and I had no experience with food whatsoever but I knew there was a niche for good pizza in San Diego. So this business started with a simple idea….get good pizza to the people. I went back east and started researching. I went to pizzerias in New York and New Jersey and tried to find out any information I could. What’s behind the counter? What types of tomatoes, flour, cheese, are they using? One day I jumped into the dumpster of my favorite local pizzeria..it was like winning the lottery for me haha. ..like finding some ancient scrolls while digging a ditch. Read more>>

Kirsten King

Working in corporate America as a single mother was very challenging for me, especially having small kids in elementary. I never thought about starting my own business, but I knew that working a 9-5 was not totally going to allow me to be the freedom I need nor was I going to be working doing something i passionately love. While working my 9-5 I began venturing into club promotions in which it became very lucrative for me very fast. Once I began making my bi-weekly paycheck within one Saturday night as a promoter, I knew then God had a bigger plan for me. Read more>>

Prejith Pillai

While in High school itself I was very keen on programming and designing user interfaces for web and system applications. After working on various academic software projects I have gained confidence in my skills by the overwhelming response from my colleagues and teachers from the school. It clicked in my mind and the idea got generated there to do something like a Freelancer and to take that ahead as a venture to make it a software development company. Read more>>

Lena Timmons

I actually came up with the idea of starting my own brand my last year in college. That was back in 2013. I used that entire year to build a fashion design portfolio and “prepared” myself for life after college. In the beginning I didn’t think I know if I would use my degree to look for employment or start my brand. I quickly decided to start my brand after working my merchandising internship. Read more>>

Tammy Tran

I came across the concept of rental arbitrage one day and was incredibly intrigued. The idea happened by accident, I actually wanted to find an apartment for myself, but because I travel so much I wanted to optimize my space by also converting it into a short-term rental (STR). I researched the idea for 4 days, scouted locations for a week, and in the next week I furnished the place and listed it. In the first day I was shocked to see that I already had 9 bookings! From idea to execution in less than a month! Read more>>

Chris Srubas

I had worked for a few other companies in the industry, so the idea was always there. I had been instrumental in each of their growth and success, I just had to shine that light on myself. That really was the hardest part, taking that initial leap of faith. Once I made up my mind to go for it, the rest just came naturally and I just went to work. I had no products, I had no inventory, just some great ideas, a phone and a computer. In hindsight, I think it is critical that you believe in yourself and your abilities. I often think of the famous Wayne Gretzky quote- “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Read more>>

Casandra Haynes

I’ve been in the media world since high school so of course I decide to pursue it in college. After graduating from the University of North Texas in Public Relations, I decided to freelance for a while because I wasn’t sure a PR agency would be a good fit for me. I freelanced for a few years, then decided to go legit. I did a lot of research and decided I wanted to manage models/music artists and host events. So after I obtained 4 DBAs, I took off running by attending as many music and fashion events as possible. I’ve learned that people are more likely to do business with you if they see your face often. A familiar face generates money. Read more>>

Lacey Schmidt

Our experience and research at NASA exposed us to teams that must work well in dangerous conditions and extreme environments. The more we studied these teams, the more we realized that their learning outcomes were relevant to all work teams. Some people work in ad-hoc teams with informal or shifting leadership roles (e.g. Aviation), while others work entirely in hierarchical teams with very formal and set leadership roles (e.g. law enforcement). Still other people work in a mix of ad-hoc and set teams at the same time within a matrixed hierarchy (e.g. hospital systems). Read more>>

Tara Sauvage

I had worked as a footwear designer, handbag, and fashion accessories designer for about 8 years. We moved to Seattle from Los Angeles and I had a hard time finding a new job in fashion. I finally got hired by a footwear company designing handbags that got bought out by Steve Madden, and then found myself without a job. I decided to start my own brand of handbags. I wanted to do leather bags so to sharpen my skills in that category I signed up for a leather goods design course in Milan, Itay. At that point in time, I had never had any formal training in fashion or design at all. Read more>>

Barbara Hartsfield

My goal was to expand a miniature chair museum, Collectible & Antique Chair Gallery, into a major tourist attraction. The selected business location was historic Stone Mountain Village, near Stone Mountain Park. I wanted to capitalize off tourists visiting the park. Consideration was given to the fact that that the park operated as a seasonal business, with less traffic during the fall and winter months. Read more>>

Glayson LeRoy

As a graphic designer I have always had a passion for arts and with the amount of artists friends who do a lot of murals it seemed like the right move. It started by producing an art show in Delray Beach FL in 2017 called Stairwell Visuals. The show featured over 10 artists from South Fl who all have had a hand in the South FL graffiti and street art scene. After that we started to get more into mural curations for private clients such as development companies as well as private citizens. Read more>>

Anthony Pretto

Kobey’s Swap Meet is a San Diego Staple! We’ve been around for over 40 years! Founded by my grandfather Monte Kobey in 1976 at the old Midway Drive In Theater we started with only 13 sellers & a few hundred shoppers. In August of 1980 we moved to our current location which is the Pechanga Arena (San Diego Sports Arena). That is when Kobey’s Swap Meet blossomed to become one of San Diego’s most visited tourist & shopping destinations. Today Kobey’s sees over 1000 vendors weekly and over 15,000 shoppers every Friday – Saturday – Sunday! Over 750,000 people attended Kobeys in 2021! Read more>>