Starting a business or creative project is scary for many reasons, but one that is often overlooked is the anxiety related to whether this is really “the one.” To some, this isn’t a valid consideration while to others this is the only consideration. Some argue that what you work on, along with who you work with are the two most pivotal decisions you’ll make and so we’ve asked folks to tell us about how they came up with their ideas and how they knew this idea was the one.
David Bank
My main career is actually as a chef and restaurant owner in Manhattan, so I’ve always cared a lot about atmosphere and design, not just food. I originally started collecting vintage industrial lighting, furniture, and Americana pieces purely for myself. At the time, I had no intention of selling anything. I just genuinely loved older objects that felt worn-in, functional, and full of character. Read More>>
Kasdyn Click
Yeah! Around the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/2021, I was living in the Northeast, specifically Connecticut, and the news just felt overwhelmingly negative all the time. I made the decision to stop watching the news, TV, and movies altogether. After about six months, I started going a little stir crazy. Read More>>
Amanda Madden
I have always loved taking pictures to document life’s moments, big or small. Now, I did not have a professional camera until 2020 but simply my Iphone when I was younger. Read More>>
Ashley & Anaiah Alcorn
PureAah started in the most organic way possible. My daughter Anaiah and I began making bath and body products as Christmas gifts for friends and family who struggled with allergies, sensitivities, and reactions to many conventional products. I wanted to create simple, nourishing products with ingredients we felt good about using on our own skin. Read More>>
Sherelyn Duhart.Monts
The idea of becoming an author or writer just popped in my head as I walked up the stairs in the condo. I said to myself I think I should write a skit. I believe I said a play. I wrote my first skit about the three kings bringing gifts to the Saviour. Read More>>
Brenna Nungaray
We started Faith & Fizz not really on purpose, honestly. My husband, Caden, and I both still work full-time jobs, and we’ve always loved making and trying new things at home. At first, we had the idea of starting a coffee business, so we bought a few syrups and started experimenting in our kitchen. Read More>>
Smoochie Be Trippin
Originally, ‘Smoochie’s World’ was just me clowning around saying one day, I was gonna have my own show named after me. Although the alter ego Smoochie didn’t develop till high school, I had it in my mind early on that I was gonna be a star. I didn’t know how I was gonna get there. Read More>>
Cecily Holland
I decided to write The Daily Pain because I am tired of the stigma associated with mental health. Most people deal with mental health in some shape, form, or fashion. However, most people choose not to discuss. I decided to be a vessel and hope my transparency might bring healing to someone else. Read More>>
Nathan Fournier
I came up with the idea to start my permaculture design-build company when I first learned about permaculture in 2014. I was studying mechanical engineering at the time, and I came across it through the Survival Podcast, which had a pretty pessimistic, doomsday perspective. Read More>>
Jenna Regan
Honestly, I don’t think I came up with the idea as much as I slowly realized it was the work I was meant to do. The idea for my business came from two things that have always been part of who I am: a deep love for animals and a desire to create something meaningful through photography. Read More>>
Against The Grain
Against The Grain started as a group of friends from West Baltimore who took pride in being different and expressing ourselves through creativity and authentic experiences. From the beginning, we embraced the idea of going against the norm; that mindset is really the foundation of everything we do. While we were in college, that energy naturally evolved into music. Read More>>
Ami Mesenbrink
I’ve always been drawn to crafts for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I would constantly rotate between different creative hobbies, painting, embroidery, card making, whenever I felt like I had explored one enough. There was always something comforting about making things with my hands. In 2020, when gatherings and community felt especially limited, I started hosting vision board parties with my girlfriends. Read More>>
Vasso Groumousas
Picture it….Connecticut, 2019 (where my Golden Girls fans at!?). You’re not super happy in life, feel like you need to make some changes. You keep saying you want to do this, that, and the other thing. You finally let go. Something inside you says “do it!”. Read More>>
yujie zheng
I came up with the idea for Pawdio™ through everyday experiences with dogs in public spaces. I kept noticing how often dogs were expected to tolerate uncomfortable interactions — especially when strangers would approach, pet, or overwhelm them without really understanding their boundaries or personalities. Read More>>
Rocio Tusher
Lets start from the beginning… I have always loved the arts. I love to paint and create artwork. I went to a high school that specialized in arts (High School of Fashion Industries. I had gone to a few ‘paint-n-sip’ events and of course enjoyed it very much. In 2023 I found a place that did private paint and sip for couples. Read More>>
Alessandro Coppa
The idea behind The Holy Street to Light didn’t come from a business plan — it came from life experience, transformation, and years of observing people through food, art, movement, and human connection. Read More>>
Mandi Casey
I grew up in an Italian family who cooked a lot. Recipes and traditions were the core of our family. As an adult with my own children, I continued that in my family. I became an empty nester and an executive in my career that required travel, so the kitchen and cooking went on the back burner. HAHA. Read More>>
Rachel Warrington
I have always been the type of person who said – There’s no such thing as too much knowledge . At the age of 21 months old I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes – minutes away from death. I owe my life to my mother in every sense of it. Growing up and navigating life with an autoimmune disease is not an easy task. Read More>>
Denise S. Fraile
Ironically, it started by watching incredibly important nonprofits operate like they were constantly one month away from collapse. My background was originally in business development, branding, and strategic growth. I worked across multiple industries with entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 companies, developers, and professional athletes. In those environments, growth was engineered. Relationships were cultivated intentionally. Sustainability was part of the strategy—not an afterthought. Read More>>
JEFFREY BOYD
In 2014, I was serving as Alderman of the 22nd Ward of St. Louis, a predominantly African-American community located on the northwest side of the city. The ward had a population of approximately 10,862 residents, with more than 95% of residents identifying as Black or African-American. At the time, the area faced many of the economic and housing challenges impacting North St. Read More>>
Rayston Jones
Years ago, I was arrested and ended up facing a gun charge for a legally owned firearm. I was set up but luckily, I had a good lawyer. I kept the faith & told myself to remain focused. I decided to use the negative image they tried to portray me as, and wear it with pride. Read More>>
Dr. Tiffany Bannworth
The Bannworth Institute of Archaeology, Paleontology, and Expeditionary Studies grew very naturally out of the work I was already doing through Bannworth Academy of Classical Education. At the Academy level, I had already identified and was actively addressing a gap in education. Students were being taught to think, to read, to analyze—but they were rarely being trained to do. Read More>>
Joe Nowak
I didn’t set out with a grand plan to build a creative services business — I came into wedding photography through experience and repetition. For years, I was shooting a very high volume of weddings, sometimes 50 a year, which forced me to develop speed, consistency, and technical control at a very high level. Read More>>
Dr. Ivana Rich-Leitner
This all started while I was serving alongside my now-husband, Kamau Leitner, as a volunteer and partner in his organization, Thee Primetime Foundation. Side by side, we served our community, showing up, rolling up our sleeves, and doing the work. But as I moved through those initiatives, something stirred quietly within me. Read More>>
Alexander Lee LoCicero-Campell-Nieves
How One Vision Transformed Community Outreach: The Story of Alexander Nieves and Serve Aurora The idea for Serve Aurora wasn’t born in a boardroom; it was born on the streets of Aurora, Colorado, driven by what I call a “faith-in-action” philosophy. The Spark: Proximity to the Problem Before we became Serve Aurora, we were Nieves Ministries. Read More>>
Josiah Bruny
Music Changing Lives wasn’t born in a boardroom; it was born out of survival, frustration, and vision. Growing up, I saw talent everywhere in my community, but I also saw how quickly gifted young people were overlooked, criminalized, or pushed into cycles that made them feel invisible. A lot of us came from environments where creativity was treated like a hobby instead of a pathway. Read More>>
Britt Nichole
My book began as a personal survival tool before it ever became a business idea. I’ve always written poetry, especially during seasons where I felt overwhelmed, isolated, emotionally exhausted, or in transition. Writing became the one place where I could be completely honest without interruption. Read More>>
Royston Burr
The idea for Mburrzd came from a personal experience that kept repeating itself. I’d walk into luxury stores and see pieces that looked incredible on the hanger, but the moment I tried them on, something felt off. The fit, proportions, and overall structure rarely considered men with broader frames. Read More>>
Mariam Fedai
LinkUp actually started in very intimate, curated settings—I was making fresh rum punch for private events and large gatherings, and it became something people consistently asked for and talked about. During COVID, demand grew to the point where people were asking me to bottle it, and it eventually found its way into high-energy cultural events where the response was overwhelming. Read More>>
Sierra McKay
I didn’t set out to start a business I really stumbled into it when I discovered thrifting. At the time, I had just started going into thrift stores out of curiosity, and I quickly found myself drawn to pieces that stood out to me, even if they weren’t my size. Read More>>
Brian Peterson
The idea for Bees in the D really started with a moment of perspective shift. I was in New York City, walking through Battery Park, and I saw something that stuck with me—beehives thriving right there in the middle of a dense urban environment. Read More>>
Maya Sagen
It honestly didn’t start as some big, polished “business idea.” It started as a feeling. At the University of Alabama, everything socially revolves around going out. It’s a huge SEC school, and if you’re not in a sorority or part of that scene, it can feel like there aren’t many other ways to meet people. I never joined a sorority, and Paris actually dropped hers. Read More>>
Roxanne Liang
The idea didn’t begin as a business—it began as a very specific, almost sensory memory that stayed with me. A few years ago, while traveling across parts of Asia with my husband, we came across these simple wind chimes made from naturally grown seed pods. I remember picking one up and noticing the texture first—slightly rough, lightweight, not polished in any way. Read More>>
Mike Bodkin
The idea found me before I found it. For a decade I ran Giant Propeller, the digital agency I co-founded. The thing that nearly killed us, over and over, was hiring. How do you find senior marketing and creative talent at margins that don’t break the business? US salaries kept climbing. Our margins kept tightening. Fiverr, Upwork, the offshore VA shops. Read More>>
Jordyn Alander
One day I was scrolling Tik Tok and noticed how popular these ‘dirty sodas’ really were everywhere but in our area here in Duluth/Cloquet, MN. So I decided to try gathering a few ingredients together to make them at home. Read More>>
Fabian Cruz
Before founding CITO Tax Resolution, I spent years in pharmaceutical sales, where I built my foundation in working with people, solving problems, and earning trust. Getting into tax resolution wasn’t something I planned. It came from a very personal experience. My mom received a letter from the IRS saying that my parents owed a significant amount in back taxes. Read More>>
Hosea Jackson
I combined my middle name, Rotimi, which connects me to my Nigerian roots, with the idea of getting “lost” in creativity. “Lost x Rotimi” reflects a journey—an immersive experience where people step into my world of art. Since I was given a camera at nine, creativity has always driven me. Read More>>