A dad can’t find a bakery to make a birthday cake that can accommodate his daughter’s allergy-related needs. Two freelancers realize they need a way to organize all of their client contracts and can’t find software that adequately handles their use case. Necessity is often hailed as the mother of innovation – but not all ideas come from necessity. Unfortunately, in our experience, often media coverage of the ideas that powered amazing businesses and projects often stops at a very superficial level. The founders noticed a need and boom – idea. Often the ideation process has a much longer, more complex story and so we’ve asked some entrepreneurs and creatives we admire to go into detail about their ideation stories.

Ayesha Qureshi

I began practicing photography several years ago as a hobby, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After some time, I had the realization to pursue it more seriously as a business, and took the step to officially launch my photography venture a few years ago. While I continued to treat it as a passion project, my focus shifted in 2024 to expanding my client base, all while balancing a full-time job. Read more>>

Siena Bush

The idea for Personal Effectiveness Association (PEA) was born out of a shared realization between Siena Bush and Mahika Joshi—as high school students, we felt firsthand the overwhelming stress, anxiety, and mental exhaustion that came with academic pressure and constant expectations. Like many of our peers, we saw how mental health struggles were common, yet rarely discussed openly. However, we both found a personal refuge in exercise and nutrition, noticing that they weren’t just about physical health but had a profound impact on our mood, confidence, and ability to manage stress. Read more>>

Zamar Martinez

Z Jewelers was born from a dream—literally. In the middle of the night, I had a vision of myself as a celebrity jeweler in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time, I was just getting by, working as a service dispatcher and living paycheck to paycheck. But that dream sparked something in me. Fast forward a few months, and I was laid off from my job on April 7th, 2020, due to the pandemic. I had little to my name—just $51.80 left from my final paycheck. But I knew this was the moment to take a leap. I invested that last bit into the business, and by May 1st, 2020, Z Jewelers launched. Read more>>

Barrington Fowler

I used to dance in college and I would make the mixes for my dance team. Summer 2011 I was at my little brother’s house grilling and hanging out. One of the programs I used to use, virtual dj, is the medium we were using to listen to music that day. I was on the computer blending song after song and we had the idea that I should become a dj. He had a pretty decent size apartment so we sent out a message to the entire dancing team that we were throwing a party at his house that night. He had a 3 piece stereo but instead of using the speakers it came with, we connected a 12 and ran my computer to the stereo with an aux cord.that party didn’t end until after 5AM. At the end of the party everybody said, ‘you should be a dj’. Safe to say, I listened lol. Read more>>

Becky Tzag

It sounds cliche, but the ideas for my books just kind of float into my head.
I’ve always kind of come up with scenes in my mind, creating characters and situations for them and let them play it out. Full conversations happen in my brain between people who don’t exist in the real world.
It wasn’t until a scene stubbornly refused to leave a couple of years ago that I thought about writing it down. Once I had it typed out, I figured that would be that. Read more>>

Kathleen Eull

From the time I was a kid, I always knew that I wanted to write or play music, that I felt most at home with artists of all types. The question was always, what do I do with that? After earning my college degree in English, I went to work in a law office and then a large brokerage firm. I was making a good living, but I was far from where I wanted to be. Read more>>

Jennifer Capella

As a girl from Brooklyn stepping into New Jersey, I was navigating a new space—both personally and professionally. I was in the early stages of my entrepreneurial journey, trying to find my way into new rooms, collaborating with other women in business, and making meaningful connections. But something felt off. Read more>>

Hannah Gober

I was one of the many young girls who wasn’t properly diagnosed with ADHD. It wasn’t until after I turned 32 that I became aware that I am neurodivergent.
So, growing up I didn’t understand that I wasn’t broken, but that my brain works differently. All of those stories I thought up was me maladaptive daydreaming. And it wasn’t until I found an amazing friend who encouraged me to put those down on paper to share with others. With her help I was able to find a confidence I have never possessed before in my life, because she sees me for who and what I am and still loves me. Read more>>

Ashail Davis

Every great story begins with a dream, and for me that dream was born during the hustle and bustle of university life. After leaving high school I was so set on becoming a medical doctor and got accepted to study medicine at Anhui Medical University in China but as the time approached for me to leave Jamaica it became so impossible for me because I couldn’t afford it at all. I still wanted to get a degree so I decided to do something more affordable and went to pursue my BSc in Actuarial science at University of West Indies, Mona. Read more>>

Shane Borza

Having had many coaches, teachers, senseis, sergeants, and other mentors and leaders in my life who helped impart wisdom, and the ability to go further/faster more easily, I found myself gravitating towards leadership roles in my life. Regardless of whether that was being a sports coach and climbing guide as early as high school and college, in supervisor roles in the military, or as a manager at an international company, this through line led me to professional coaching almost a decade ago. Read more>>

Kaia Alexander

In the entertainment business, writers, directors, producers and aspiring show creators all tend to make one mistake: they focus exclusively on their craft. They fall in love with movies and television, only to realize when graduating from university or even pivoting into Hollywood from another industry, that it is truly a business, and they know nothing about business. Read more>>

Carrie Young-mcwilliams

As a child, my path was shaped by the unwavering belief of my grandparents and my father that education was the key to success. They worked tirelessly—taking humble jobs as domestics and kitchen staff—not because they lacked ambition, but because they believed their sacrifices would grant me the freedom to choose my own future. They told me, time and time again, that school was the way out, the way up, the way forward. Read more>>

Erika Page

I got vitiligo when I was seven years old. Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease without a cure that causes loss of pigment in the skin and hair. By the time I was in my twenties, I had lost 100% of my skin’s pigment and today I am still losing pigment in my hair. For most of my life, I lived with white patches all over my skin—and frequently dealt with stares and a severe lack of self-esteem and at times, panic attacks, as a result. Vitiligo impacted every minute of every day of my life, and was the lens through which I saw the world—and myself. Read more>>

Paula Chebat

The idea for Bye Bye Biofilm started long before I became a business owner—it began during my time in dental hygiene school, sparked by a personal experience that changed the way I saw the dental profession forever.
A close family member of mine was battling a debilitating disease, one that stripped him of his independence—including the ability to brush his own teeth. As his condition progressed, our home was filled with healthcare providers—nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists—each playing a role in his care. But I couldn’t ignore the one glaring absence: no one from the dental community showed up. Read more>>

Allie Brooke

I decided to create The Growth Mindset Gal Podcast because I was feeling heavy emotions during remote teaching as we were quarantining during COVID-19. I LOVED listening to podcasts because it made me feel less alone as we were stuck at home and isolated. I still have a passion for teaching but using it in a different modality. I wanted to discuss mindset and wellness because I went through my journey or therapy and I wanted to support others who, perhaps were going through the same thing. I was struggling with chronic anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and imposter syndrome, I kept all of this to myself because of the fear of judgment and my preparation of having it all together all the time who be ruined. Read more>>

Ali Malmkar

The idea for 1 ear pUp started in the most unexpected, yet personal, way—through my dog. She’s got this adorable quirk: one ear sticks straight up, while the other flops down. It’s the kind of thing that makes her instantly recognizable and gives her so much personality. When we went looking for bandanas to match her unique vibe, we kept hitting a wall. The options at places like Hobby Lobby were… fine, but they were basic, generic, lower quality, and didn’t feel special enough for her. Read more>>

Samantha Wong

A few years ago, I was looking for fun birthday gifts to give to two little boys I knew. I decided to try sewing some fabric play food for each of them and thought a little bok choy would be nice to include as a nod to their Asian heritage as well as mine. I was easily able to find patterns online for carrots, beets, and cabbages but only photos of ready-made bok choy toys with no tutorials. I didn’t know much about pattern making at that time, so regretfully had to leave the bok choy out. Read more>>

Antoinette Padilla

To be honest, I never thought I would be a business owner. Not at all. What I did know, however, was that I loved fitness and that I had a burning passion to help people achieve their sports and fitness goals. It was never part of my plan, but as it turns out, business has been the vehicle I use to fuel that passion, to help others succeed and still chase my dreams as athlete. Read more>> 

Jake Rothey

They say “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” but “Nothing worth having comes easy”. I love cooking and there’s nothing easy about that, so where does cliche bull shit end and solid advice begin? In my culinary career and after array of positions, titles and cuisines, the natural progression was bigger, better, faster. I started washing dishes in 2005 and found myself as a Sous Chef at a Michelin awarded French/Japanese joint 17 years later, when covid threw a wrench in a machine that was never all that “well oiled” to begin with. I fell back on what I knew and what I loved which is pizza. The restaurant industry was shook and the way people eat had changed. Why couldn’t a five star meal be “to-go”? Read more>>

Ysaline Rozier

I came up with the idea for my business because I lived the exact problem I now help my clients solve.

For years, I was a high-achieving corporate project manager. I climbed the ladder, made great money, and checked all the “success” boxes. But deep down, I felt trapped. I wanted more—more impact, more freedom, more control over my time. Read more>>

Tony Miller

I have always loved video production and telling stories. I’ve also been a long life pro wrestling fan and always had an interest in getting into the business. When I visited a independent wrestling show back in 2019 an idea came to mind. There’s all these extremely talented wrestlers who are working hard to make it to the WWE and now AEW ( which wasn’t around when I went to this show ) and why can’t I use what I know as a video production specialist to spotlight these talented guys a and girls. Read more>>

Tamira Johnson

How my candle business story started , I just always love wax melts and mixing them up in my wax burner and my mom came in my room one day said hey hey we should start making candles and from there I was convinced to turn it in To a business! It’s definitely been a rocky ride through trials and errors and I’m still learning but I love my little business. Read more>>

Kratina Baker

The Radical Southern Belle was born out of a need to reclaim Black Southern narratives—not as a place we escaped from, but as a place where we build power.

For too long, people have talked about the South like it’s a lost cause—especially when it comes to politics. The dominant narrative has been that the South is backwards, that it will never change, that Black people here are fighting a losing battle. But that narrative conveniently ignores the organizers, strategists, and community builders who have spent decades shifting political power in this region. Read more>>

Emelia Primm

So I got my start within the Balloon decor industry, the summer after I graduated from high school. I really wanted a big nice balloon install that I could take cute pictures in front of at my grad party. I started searching my area for a Balloon stylist and couldn’t find any so then I searched the next big city which was Detroit for me to see if I could find any out there and I did. I called the person that I found in Detroit that did balloons and got all their information their pricing and all. It was just simply out of my mom‘s budget. My mom is a single parent and simply didn’t have within her budget that much money for a photo op spot. Read more>>

Audra Mazie

I created Move More with the hopes to encourage those that come in to my life to recognize that movement (exercise), doesn’t need to be a daunting experience, but to simply move a bit more each day. It is a privilege to be able to move our bodies, and any movement is better than no movement. Read more>>

Isabella Erardi

As an indie singer/songwriter who has been actively pounding the pavement for a decade, I’ve been exposed to my fair share of disappointments and frustrations within the music industry. I’ve been scammed out of money, been made countless empty promises, and gave my energy to projects I thought would take me to the next level, but didn’t. I’m only 23. Read more>>

Giovanna Devonish

For as long as I can remember, the art of mixing drinks has been my creative outlet. What began as a personal hobby—experimenting with flavors, colors, and garnishes in my kitchen—soon evolved into a deeper passion. Friends and family became my eager taste-testers, often praising the unique and delightful concoctions I crafted. Read more>>

Amber Cogbill

Neven and I started posting on our TikTok account because, in the early days of going through his spinal cord injury, we had so many questions—about intimacy, future children, and just life in general. We were constantly wondering what our future would look like and how we’d still be able to do things we once loved. But when we searched for answers, there was almost nothing out there that truly reflected our experience or gave us the kind of guidance we were looking for. Read more>>

Lisa Turner-lewis

I remember working, cleaning a person’s home when I had just a basic cleaning service. It was a senior’s home when I realized that seniors need to be treated differently from other people because they don’t have the help. They do not have the energy. They don’t have the means. Some of them have disabilities, and others have little to no income that they’re trying to survive on. Some have family members that can assist, and some don’t. Read more>>

Ayce Kyptyn

I spent 38 years repressing who I was, because I believed I was wrong, bad, broken, and sinful.

This mentality nearly killed me. I lost my job, family, community, and health all in the matter of days. When my world came crashing in I decided to critically think about how I got to this space. A major aspect of my life that I repressed centered around my sexuality. My gender, expression, identity, and orientation. Read more>>

Dipen Parekh

What differentiates GradePower Learning from other learning centres is that our tutoring methodology is customized for each individual student coming here at our center. We do a comprehensive Assessment to understand child Cognitive & Academic skills. From the Assessment we gather their strengths and gaps. Once we identify the gaps we design a customized curriculum for every student. We individually work with students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 and also assist University/College students in all areas. We also prepare high school students for ACT and SAT. Read more>>

Reshu Jain

The idea for art classes began over a coffee table with a friend. Art and painting have always been a part of my life since childhood, and I used to create pieces for my friends and family. My heart has always been in art, but life led me down a different path to become a software engineer. However, after having my first child and moving to the United States, I decided to take a break from my IT career and pick up my brushes and palette again. One day, a close friend suggested I teach art and share my knowledge with others. At first, I was hesitant, but the idea slowly started to resonate with me. Read more>>

Maria & Roberto Lombardo

Our family, first generation from Palermo, Sicily, was raised in the business, having successful restaurants in Miami since 1978. Even though as young adults our furthering education sent us on different career paths, those paths eventually led back to the table where good Italian family food was served and the hustle and bustle of the kitchen utensils could be heard spilling the sweet aromas of the dishes they were stirring.
Our passion is reflected in our service and respect for our customers. Read more>>

Pablo Rodríguez Gómez

When I began my professional journey I didn’t really picture myself as an entrepreneur, let alone a future startup founder. I started my time in college as an aspiring filmmaker, lucky to have been accepted to my reach school, Emerson College. It was a journey that started with ambitions of greatness, of becoming a director, a writer, an actor. By that point, I only had a handful of short film projects under my belt, my best ones part of a summer program I had taken the summer prior. As a high schooler, my academic trajectories were more reflective of someone who would delve either into STEM or political science with a rather important caveat of a barely above-average GPA. Trying to convince the best American film schools to take me was a challenge, on more than one occasion having my rejection letters quoting my below-the-norm GPA as the determining factor. Read more>>

Jerry Strohkorb

I am a medical doctor and have practiced occupational medicine and public health for about 25 years. Several years ago I was very concerned about a family member with severe ulcerative colitis, who was not responding to usual medical therapies and quickly declining. To me he looked so ill, I thought he was going to die. His own doctors were doing everything they could do but he was not responding to high-power medications. Read more>>

Nina Jenkins

I came up with the idea for my business during a five year period when it seemed as if I was helping a friend or family member move practically every weekend. I would be the person to volunteer to sort, declutter, pack, and organize items inside of the moving truck and/or vehicle. After being told: “You should do this for a living, I’d hire you” so many times, I decided to take a leap and do just that. Read more>>

Myra Fabling

My journey to opening a photography studio specializing in portraits and headshots was shaped by a lifetime of experiences both in front of and behind the camera. I was always captivated by the magic of storytelling through imagery.

My deep connection to photography developed naturally. Having spent years as a performer, I understood the power of a single image—how it could open doors, capture a person’s essence, and tell a story before a word was spoken. I saw firsthand how a great headshot could make all the difference in an actor’s career, in anyone’s career. Read more>>

Ehecatl Perez

After a long time of working for large hotel chains and dedicating a lot of my life, I decided that it was time to take the risk of starting something that was my own and doing it for my family. Cooking has always been my passion, and I thought about doing it in a more personalized way and complementing it with my studies of sommelier and mixology. So, I decided to become a private chef and provide catering services for small and medium-sized parties. Read more>>

Alessandro Ciani

I began to be curious about high-end watch in first year in college. I actually bought – $ 390.00 – a rare Rolex watch that I normally trade today somewhere around the $ 70,000 figure. I sold it a year later for $ 300.00! So much fr starting with the right foot… a couple of years later, after moving back to Europe, I realized that I had made a big mistake and that, for once, I had seen before most others ahead of the curve of something that was about to become a global cultural phenomenon. I started looking into that little that was available back in the day regarding vintage watches – back then a marginal space of the much bigger world of antiques – and devouring all the information available, be it books, magazines, auction catalogs, to fuel my insatiable passion and curiosity. I was 20 years old: the rest is history. Read more>>

Neil Gallagher

I have always been fascinated by my grandfather’s military service. My maternal grandfather, William Kelly, and my paternal grandfather, Kenneth Gallagher, served in World War Two.

However, my grandfather Kenneth Gallagher passed away before I was born, and my grandfather William Kelly passed when I was three. As such, I was never able to learn of their wartime service. Read more>>

Scott Jones

I owned another business…a Yellow pages company. We produced 3 phone books in the state. 3 years out of College and I had 25 people working for me…I HATED it ! My whole life was putting out fires. Couldn’t do what I was good at…meeting with people ! And I had to count on others to do THEIR job for it all to work…and people were disappointing me. Read more>>

Vanessa Quigley

The idea for Chatbooks came from a mix of inspiration, practicality, and, honestly, a moment of mom guilt. I used to be a die-hard scrapbooker back in the ’90s, but by the time I had my youngest—my seventh child—I just couldn’t keep up. One day, he was flipping through a little photo album his preschool teacher had made, and he looked at me with tears in his eyes, saying he never wanted to grow up. It hit me hard because I realized I hadn’t printed a single photo for him outside of our Christmas cards. All my older kids had beautiful scrapbooks, and here he was with nothing. Read more>>

Jim Keyes

The idea for Education is Freedom came from a chance encounter at Columbia University over 20 years ago. I had been invited to speak at a class at Columbia Business School. While walking across campus on a beautiful spring day I noticed a young man walking toward me with an arm full of books, sporting a T-shirt that said “Education Is Freedom”. It stopped me in my tracks. I shook his hand and said that’s me… Education Is Freedom… And everything about my success can be attributed to my ability to learn how to learn. It was a life-changing moment in many ways because I realized that my education wasn’t over, it was just beginning. I realized that my objective was not really to make money, but it instead was a pursuit of freedom. Read more>>

Alicia Schmitt

In 2016, I had a big emotional breakdown about how my body looked. It wasn’t the first time I cried about my insecurities, but I finally had a lightbulb moment and I wanted that breakdown to be my last. As I was staring into a mirror and panning over my cellulite and stretchmarks, I thought “hating myself is such a waste of time.” From that point forward, I started actively seeking out books, education, and activities that would help me strengthen my self-love. I knew that boudoir existed because I had worked in a few photography studios as a hair and makeup artist. I booked a session for myself, and I saw the potential this genre of photography had for body liberation. It didn’t need to be something just done for a partner, which is how I felt a lot of studios marketed at the time. Read more>>

Katie Peters

When I attended physical therapy school, pelvic health wasn’t a course offering. We had a one day inservice on the topic and I will never forget that there was one girl in our class who was interested in pursuing pelvic health… and we all thought she was crazy! I stated my career as an orthopedic physical therapist. A few years in I sustained a very stubborn hip injury that traditional physical therapy wasn’t fixing. One of my co-workers urged my to try pelvic floor therapy as a solution. After a while, I begrudgingly went. After the first session, my hip pain had improved, I could move better and had a major change in symptoms. This is when I realized that I had been doing so many of my patients a disservice. There were so many patients with hip and back pain that no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get better. Read more>>

Michalla Brianna

I came up with the idea for *The Healing Arts, LLC* when I recognized a need for more holistic, authentic, and niche modalities within the clinical field of counseling. I had heard too many horror stories from clients about feeling unheard, treated like a number, or not cared for in previous settings. I wanted to be part of the movement advocating for new approaches and passionate clinicians. Read more>>

Annika Thomas

While other first grade girls were building friendships, eating lunch at their lunch tables, and making their way through elementary school, I was in a hospital bed. I had a birth defect that required major surgery to create a hip joint for me. I would need to learn how to walk again, and it was terrifying!

In the hospital, I had my crayons, my markers, my dreams, and my imagination. I wished for days that I would be like my friends and belong and go to school. Read more>>

Travis Swartzlander

Pre-pandemic, the West Coast Swing community in Phoenix had long standing lessons, and social dancing that had existed for well over a decade. In the late 2018-19 The Phoenix area West Coast Swing competitors had seen a shift to a younger demographic. This new resurgence of West Coast Swing dancers were consistently requesting a more modern and current convention music and vibe, but to no avail. Read more>>

Sara Gaines-rodriguez

Every one of us has special moments in our lives. From celebrations to memorials, events are an integral part of the stories and memories that we share. I began cultivating my passion for events by creating elaborate birthdays, weddings, and other gatherings for family and friends. A lot of people encouraged me to take this to the next level by starting a business. In February of 2022, Sara (my co-owner) and I sat down and started pitching and formulating ideas of how we could take this dream that both of us had, and turn it into reality. We must have gone through hundreds of business names before landing on Adorable Memories. Something that stood out for both of us when picking the name, was that we wanted Adorable Memories to represent to our clients, that our business is a place where we can make your dreams come to life. Starting a business is no joke, but what gave us the confidence to continue on this journey was the passion that we have to put together unforgettable events for our clients. Read more>>

Jessee Skittrall

As a seasoned salon owner and educator in private schools, I consistently faced the challenge of hiring newly licensed stylists who required extensive training—often spanning months or even years—to reach proficiency. When the opportunity to offer licensure through apprenticeship arose in our state, I saw a promising solution.

However, as I embarked on my first apprenticeship, it became evident that there was a significant gap in the existing structure. It was clear that the average busy salon owner lacked the necessary skills, time, and resources to effectively guide apprentices through this process. Read more>>

Hannah Russell

Lightbox was born out of a dark time. It was 2020, and Covid19 had shut down much of the food industry, or at least had transformed it. The world felt bleak. We found a little brightness in continuing to dream about starting a family-founded food brand. We moved from south Georgia to Nashville area in 2020 strictly on a conviction that God had more opportunity for us in Tennessee. My husband Jason and I have been in the food industry for the majority of our careers. From luxury resorts and five-star restaurants to milking cows and processing chickens on a dairy farm. We love food. We love to serve. We love the way in mostly all cultures, food is what brings people together and is the stage for where lots of memories are made. Read more>>