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.

Jerod Nieder

When I broke my neck in 2011, my life shifted dramatically. While I survived, 99% of who I was before felt like it died. I grew up in a small family business, so intertwining life and work always made sense to me. After my accident, I had the idea to create a business around my new reality—documenting my life, showing other paralyzed people how I navigate the world, and sharing my experiences with research. But at first, those close to me didn’t fully understand or believe in the idea. It wasn’t until I moved to Louisville for spinal cord injury research, with a lot of idle time, that I began developing my online presence. That’s when Positively Paralyzed was born, and I realized how much interest there was in the research, especially epidural stimulation. Though I played with social media for years, it wasn’t until I turned 40 and panicked about being on disability that I fully committed to earning my own living. That’s when I started teaching fitness classes. Read more>>

Eleshiya Jacob

Starting my Instagram page, shehzad_and_mamaa, was born out of my own journey as a mother. Like many new parents, I was navigating a world of baby care, trying to find the best tips, tricks, and products to make motherhood smoother. I realized that the little things I was learning along the way—whether it was a parenting hack or a discovery about baby products—could actually help other parents who might be feeling overwhelmed, just like I once was. The idea sparked when I found myself frequently answering questions from friends and family about baby care and development. I realized there was a need for a platform where I could share real, practical advice. That’s when the vision for shehzad_and_mamaa began to take shape. Read more>>

Frances Reimers

I served as the Director of Corporate Visibility for a boutique firm in Alexandria, Virginia, where I focused on building the individual brands of the staff while expanding the firm’s overall marketing reach. During this time, I had ongoing conversations with several professional athlete contacts about their experiences with their current agencies, particularly about brand development. Many expressed dissatisfaction, feeling they weren’t getting the support they needed. Over a weekend, I decided to address this gap by launching Firestarter, a firm dedicated to managing athletes’ and coaches’ marketing, public relations, and event planning needs. I quickly consulted with my attorney and got the necessary paperwork in order. Within days, Firestarter was officially up and running. Read more>>

Michele Foster

Pain, and burnout from the corporate suite. I lost my enthusiasm for my career and my purpose. I am a person who loves life and I felt like I could not see myself doing for 20 more years doing what used to fell good and contributing and I needed to find my happy again. Read more>>

Kaan Avci

While I wouldn’t call this a business in the traditional sense, Garden & Gasoline is definitely my side passion. I’ve been immersed in the automotive industry, both personally and professionally, since I was 15. For many, car meets are simply about enjoying cars, but for me, it’s always been more than that. I see the automotive enthusiast community as a tightly-knit, supportive group with a shared love for not only cars but also for connection. I started hosting small car gatherings in 2017. By the end of 2019, as we all know, the pandemic hit, and life as we knew it was disrupted. Local businesses faced challenges, and one of those businesses, Los Arcos Kitchen and Cantina, was struggling. In a bid to help, we held a car show in their lot, giving their business much-needed visibility. Once things started returning to normal, and their business picked up, we stepped back, but the sense of community we fostered stayed strong. Read more>>

Jennifer Stewsrt

As a kid I had a head full of kinky hair, My mom and sister had different textures than mines. My mom did what she could but the fact remain I didn’t like my hair. It was big, it would not lay down and I had a lot of it. I loved everyone hair that had length and laid down. Relaxers would break off my hair. Its crazy I became a stylist and noticed naturals going through the same struggles I did so I wrote a book of what I knew at that time. I figured helping curly girls beyond the salon would help them love there curls. Then I made affirmation cards for moms of curly little girls to say out loud as a reminder to love their self and their hair. Read more>>

Jackie Edouard

Girl Be Great, Inc. is a vision I’ve had since 2014. I wanted to create a program that catered to the needs of teen girls. However, it wasn’t until 2016 that I began my outreach efforts. My best friend and I started by creating and distributing hygiene kits to homeless women and girls in our cities. With the help of our ambassadors, our outreach efforts expanded to multiple cities in the U.S. (Brooklyn NY, Philadelphia PA, Atlanta GA, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL and Orlando FL) in less than a year. After 4 years of successfully serving women and girls in need, I finally decided to launch the initiative for teen girls but then the pandemic happened and everything changed. Being a person of faith, I sought God on what to do next and I heard “Wait”. At the time, I couldn’t understand why I had to wait to launch it but I did. Fast forward to August 2023, I started working at a school and over time I developed a relationship with the students. They would occasionally stop by my office and I had the opportunity to encourage and motivate them. Read more>>

Dani Gorin

In 2020, I started painting flowers and animals and uploading pictures of them to social media. I painted a lamb, an opossum, a wren, a barn owl–and then my mind wouldn’t stop churning. I’d lay awake at night thinking “Oh, I could paint that. Oh, I could paint that, too. And that.” At the time, I had a very niche Etsy shop, where I sold handmade literary cards. I started to wonder if anyone might be interested in purchasing prints of my paintings. But I had no idea how to go about making prints of them. I tried making them myself first. I took some less-than-stellar photos of the paintings on my i-phone, bought some fine art printer paper, and printed them out on my little home printer. To put it bluntly: they were terrible. They were very poor representations of the original pieces, and I didn’t feel good trying to sell them to anyone. So, I started to do some serious research. Read more>>

Beverly Rice-hayes

I believe my drive in becoming a Doula came from a sense of failure-or what i thought was failure. I spent most of my adult life raising children, and just trying to scrape by with some help from my family. There’s was always a feeling i should be helping people or connecting to them. Eventually i began to think the only thing i was really good at was being a mother, There’s nothing like feeling lost that gets you right on track. I remember an acquaintance of mine suggest being a doula, something i had a faint idea of. Once i did the proper research i was hooked! I knew i could make a difference in this field and i could relate so much to other mothers. It became an unrelenting passion. Read more>>

Grace Schafer

In summer of 2021 I was sitting next to my mom on a plane to Florida, when she asked me if I would ever become an independent stylist. I scoffed, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. At the time I was about 2 years into my career working at a salon that I loved. But all of a sudden, my mind was in a frenzy. Before I knew it, I had whipped my out laptop, and starting looking at business cards, and all of the various salon necessities. I created a document that had all of my ideas and thoughts about what I would want for my own salon space. Fast forward almost two years, and I had barely looked at that document, and was still working at the same salon. In spring of 2023, my sudden interest in my salon document had spiked again. Read more>>

Silvana Johnson

I started *Love Your Faith Catholic* because I wanted to create a multisensory prayer experience that could help alleviate anxiety, combining prayer with soothing scents. The idea came to me when I couldn’t find healthy candles that included prayers, and I was dealing with anxiety. So, I thought, “Why not make my own?” The next step was research. I had no idea how to make candles at that point, so my husband and I spent over a year experimenting. We tested different waxes, wicks, scents, and vessels. I was determined to use coconut soy wax and beeswax for its purity, but it wasn’t easy to get the right combination that would burn evenly and smell amazing. We experimented relentlessly, sometimes failing, but each trial brought us closer to perfection. Read more>>

Keara Coe

I have always planned events such as birthday parties, graduations, weddings for family and friend’s for years . I had work for corporate America half my life. Until one day one of the most important people in my life departed from Her 2 breast cancer. Crushed wasn’t the word, can’t even explain the feeling I felt losing my grandmother. She was the anchor of my family. Least than a month after she departed my life change. She was 68 and I thought to myself why continue to say my dream job is to become an event planner. Why not put my dream into action? Phenomenal events were launched. Where did the name come from? Maya Angelou is one of my favorite activist. She has a poem called phenomenal women and because how phenomenal she was I wanted to allow her to have some part of me. To be honest I am still figuring it out. My first year I made $3000 from planning. I want the number to increase every year until it’s become international. Read more>>