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.

Lismeilyn Machado

It all started with a recipe from Steven’s Mom (Sheila Rodriguez) called the Arroz Imperial (The Imperial Rice). She veganized this delicious cuban staple dish for Lismeilyn (Liz) and Steven to enjoy at a family gathering where everyone Vegans or not loved it. After that day, Steven and Lismeilyn(Liz) started the conversation and wondered how awesome it would be if Miami had delicious Plant-Based Cuban Dishes so we can enjoy our traditional cuisine with much healthier alternatives. As Steven and Liz came from no Restaurant background they used instead their knowledge and experiences in Digital Marketing and Creative Thinking. Read more>>

Maggie Thornhill

To be quite frank, it all started in the midst of depression. I was states away from my family in Louisiana, working a “regular” job, feeling unfulfilled and unhappy. I was a hobby photographer back in 2o14 but knew nothing about how to actually work a camera to get the images I knew I wanted. With the support from my husband and a lot of fear of the unknown, I took the leap and bought my first real camera. Read more>>

Barney Jackson

There are times when you follow and support the vision of others but then there’s a moment when it’s time to follow your own dreams and desires. James Baldwin said, “You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.” Read more>>

Doneshia Green

I initially took an eyebrow tint course back in 2019. Shortly after, I began practicing the brow technique. on family members and friends. Once I felt confident enough I created social media outlets as a tool to promote my work. My following started to grow and I knew it was time to make my business official, so a friend of mine helped me register as an LLC. The following year was one of tremendous growth. I started out servicing clients from home for a while. As my clientele grew, I started looking for a professional space. Read more>>

Angela Thomas

Do your remember making bubble maps in English class? Well it’s basically a map full of bubbles, you write your main idea into a bubble, and you continually make more bubbles with relatable ideas. For me, this is how I was able to come up with name for my business. I wrote the word “Birthday” in my main bubble, and keep writing until a relatable word came out of it… and eventually I came up with “Sugar” . At the time we used to offer candy catering as well as party decor services, so Birthday Sugar was a perfect name.. 10 years later and we are Birthday Sugar LLC. Read more>>

Delaney Driver

I worked in the wedding industry before I started my own business. I had so many friends, family, and strangers ask me over and over again why I didn’t have my own business. I never dreamed of having my own company, so when friends and family would ask me this, I just kept brushing it off and didn’t take it seriously. However, after extreme burnout and lack of pay working for someone else, I decided it was time to look into having my own business seriously. Read more>>

Jeanette Reza

Ever since my coming-of-age my expression has been through textiles and exploring different formats of how we can wear or inhabit them. I think the main thing that has set me apart is that my process is both research and concept driven but without ever disregarding the feeling. I am most excited about how the things we have can create comfort in different levels, emotionally or physically or aesthetically. Read more>>

John “Real_WealthyCash” Porter

I started my official journey in the credit repair business after purchasing a credit repair course. I initially purchased the course to repair my own credit, but once I learned the credit game, I came up with the idea to help others. I immediately took action. I started by coming up with my very own business name, this took a lot of thought and eliminations. Once I had my name secured, it was time to make everything legit. I filed for a S-Corporation, got my EIN number, had a logo created, website created, purchased a business phone line & email, & listed my business on all internet search engines. Read more>>

Carrie LaChance

I launched my own subscription site in 2007, and in 2020 I had the idea of scaling the business model and offering other popular content creators an alternative way to earn money on their own website like I had been doing myself since 2007. I got together an amazing team, and we started brainstorming and putting things into action. I wanted something unique, something that was premium, and something that hadn’t been done before to set us apart from competitors. Read more>>

Christian Lora

“The whole idea for me to start shooting photos actually came from a very dark place. I was going through an extremely difficult time in my life and I needed some type of outlet before just to express myself, so I chose photography. At first I just wanted to go out and explore, street and nature photography only. I didn’t want to take pictures of people at all. A few weeks into shooting, my good friend who’s in the industry Jake Plowden noticed my eye for photography and invited me to a photoshoot for a rap group from NYC, The Joint Cheefs. Read more>>

Alexis

Royal Tipz is not only a nail salon. We also offer high-quality nail supplies for both beginner and advanced nail technicians. I started the online nail supply in the summer of 2020 in the middle of the covid 19 pandemic. We started our nail supply with only 2 products to offer. We all know that eyelashes are essential to a woman’s beauty. I got the idea to start selling this product when I noticed there was a need for quality lashes. The other product was our swaggy tags. Read more>>

Emily Wool

A large part of my business is based off of process. I went to school for Graphic Design and for any project we did, we had to show pages and pages…hours and hours of background work, sketches, and research. A lot of that has bled into my business because when I first started learning block printing and printing on fabric I didn’t really have a direction in mind, I just started making a lot of work. I was experimenting with colors, patterns, texture, and scale and just knew that I loved printing on fabric. Read more>>

Amalia Flores

I always wanted to be a chef but when I was little, it was a career only for men. After graduating from college and getting a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, I got married and moved to Mexico City. One morning I was reading the newspaper and I found out that the Culinary institute of New York was opening the career in Universidad Anahuac del Sur. I immediately enrolled myself and I did it! Read more>>

Amy Jackson

When I had my first child I started interviewing women who had started companies or grown their careers while raising young children. Writing their stories inspired me to start my own journey about 3 years later after a cross-country pandemic move to the vibrant Austin startup scene and feeling like Goldilocks turning down startup job opportunities that didn’t quite fit. Read more>>

Melissa Sacco

I started as a restaurant server in Boca Raton, Florida when I moved there in 2005. One of the bartenders had called out and my manager needed someone to cover their shift in a pinch. I had no prior bartending experience but I volunteered to cover the shift. I really only knew the drinks that I consumed and a few basic other ones! After successful shift, some of the customers started to request me as their bartender so my manager gave me a few bartending shifts a week aside from my serving shifts. After doing this for a year, I thought to myself “I could really be making a lot of money doing this privately on the side“. Read more>>

Charles Hayes

Before executing what I did was grab my black book that I draw and write a tons of ideas in and I have pages and pages but that was the easy part because when I came to executing I realized that everything on paper looks completely different in person whether it’s digital or physical and sometimes I ran into problem like changing up my ideas or adding more to it or taking from it which is the fun but the most exhausting part because now all you can rely on is your creativity and brainstorming which is scary because in the back my mind all I was wondering or how the target Audi would accept this idea, Read more>>

Luis Bermudez

The Process started way back in 2016, Recently Honorably Discharged from the military and looking for what’s next for myself. After a few odd jobs, I landed a job at an Event Venue, and through that I was introduced to the world of events. and quite frankly I feel in love but I also excelled at what I was doing. Within 2 yrs I had worked my way into management and designing events of all kinds. Around 2019 after some hardships at work I left the event business all together. But that did not take away the love and passion I had for it. From 2019-2021 I would always find myself assisting people with event ideas and how to elevate the event visually, monetarily, etc. Read more>>

Lillie Young

Entrepreneur – The process from idea to execution, I actually always had the idea to start my own beauty products but being quarantined pushed me into making flourish. I had the time and opportunity. I started doing my research on lipsticks, how to brand, I emailed different companies,. I had different companies mail me testers…some were good and some were bad. Once I received a good product I put it out on the market. The Red Lipstick Hustler Lipstick Collection was born. Read more>>

Lindsay Scherr Burgess

Green Wallscapes came about completely by accident. I saw a moss art piece on Pinterest that was manufactured in Europe and I wanted one. Five years ago, there were very few companies that did this work in the US, so we decided to make it ourselves. A few hundred dollars of craft supplies later, the first moss wall was created. After that, we shared a photo on social media and someone asked us to do it for them. Everything grew very slowly and organically. I opened an Etsy shop and shared our pieces on my personal social media. I did it very part time for over a year. Read more>>

Desmond Miller

The idea started in the back of an ambulance. Frustrations about financial longevity set in during one extensive night as a firefighter/paramedic. The hustle, bustle and lack of resources got me to thinking, ” This can not be my life forever.” In an attempt to supplement my income, I explored options in investing, finance and real estate. As the passion for real estate grew, I then became a loan officer. Read more>>

Mynecia Steele

The core of my story is being led by and trust in God. There have been many moments where I’ve stepped back from the craziness of life, looked around and realized how I’ve gotten into this hectic mess. Usually, I’m getting in my own way. It’s during these times that I have to remind myself, “…God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Read more>>

David Bober

At least for us, the seeds of the idea of opening a small, creative and locally sourced restaurant were planted in odd places; my mother was an art historian who was an amazing cook. She wrote about art history, culture and the intersection of these with cuisine. She taught me early on about local, responsible, no-corporate agriculture and sourcing of ingredients, as well as creative utilization of these. Read more>>

Donovan Charles

I came up with the concept for Caseitbreaks about 4-5 years ago and the idea was to only sell phone cases and accessories online through e-commerce platform Shopify. it went well with the initial launch but sells started to decline because of poor marketing techniques and simply not having the right suppliers on hand to get orders out in a timely fashion. This was year 2018 and I nearly gave up on the business in its entirety up until year 2020 when the pandemic came into effect and jobs were being lost left and right including my own at the time. Read more>>

Langston Majette

Having been a fan of preparing food for my family from the comforts of my backyard, I’d always proudly share pictures of my barbecued fare on social media. The responses I’d receive often included various comments along the lines of “when can I get a plate?”…”got any leftovers?’…”how much for a slab of ribs?”. With this response repeatedly happening, I began to realize that I might just have something special to look into. Read more>>

Necota

Our business went from vlogging to LLC when we decided to attend an overlanding event tradeshow. We were focused primarily on growing our small youtube subscriber base and wanted to also work on classes to help us become more experienced in backcountry camping. During our vendor walk around (we were looking for some new gear), we came across a tent company that liked our Youtube channel and asked if we would consider reviewing one of their tents. We agreed to check it out. Read more>>