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.

Patrick Hodge

I actually started my business by just finding a creative outlet for myself and truly just taking the time to practice and find my style even in the journey of it all. It all went from my grandmother showing me how to work a sewing machine to me styling looks for fashion shows. Read More>>

Michelle D. Saxton

Thinking back to 2018 while working a 9-5, I can recall one particular Thursday morning I remembered I had a deadline to meet. I remember trying to check patients in but at the same time trying to figure out how I could complete this task, knowing I still had 8 hours left to complete on my shift. Read More>>

Jenna Appel

I never set out to build a traditional dietitian practice. Honestly, the idea started long before I even became a dietitian. My background was originally in personal training and fitness. I loved helping people feel stronger and more confident, but I kept noticing the same thing over and over again: people didn’t just need workouts. Read More>>

Ryan Doan

We came up with the idea of Fresh To Morrow in 2018 after spending 10 years as urban farmers in Cincinnati. During these years of growing for other chefs and restaurants, we began to build the idea that someday we would have our restaurant and primarily serve the food from our farm, to show people that eating locally can be diverse and delicious. Read More>>

Mark Thiesmeyer Hook

The moment I fell from a roof landing hard on my spine, set the wheels in motion for Align Athlete to be born. As a freshman at the University of Michigan, I was running a house painting business to pay for school. One day, while power washing a house, I had a misstep. Read More>>

Kelly (and Jake) Guy

Hi! We’re the Guys! We’re a Midwest-born and raised family of four who relocated to the Charleston area in 2020 to chase our dreams and the beautiful coastal Lowcountry lifestyle. Before Jake and I were married, we were living in Indiana. I was working as a Licensed Veterinary Technician specializing in Radiology, and Jake was in childcare. Read More>>

Abigail Maines

The story of FIERCE starts in 2020, in the middle of chaos. COVID hit, and I watched the women around me, women I’d worked with for years, women who were absolute rockstars, completely drowning. Overnight they became full-time teachers, primary caregivers for sick parents, and were still expected not to miss a beat at work. And I just thought, this is not okay. Read More>>

Michael Johnson

I was a young man at 22 years old and had just quit a job working in the grocery business as a clerk, and went to work for my friend doing landscape design and architecture in a newly developing city of Folsom, California. Money was tight and we were young with little direction other than knowing we needed to work and find our way. Read More>>

The Wines & Chocolates Show Jasmine J and Kiki

It started not as a business plan, but as a spontaneous vibe. After Jasmine returned from a trip to Napa, she found herself completely immersed in the wine culture. She had a box of Christopher Elbow chocolates and was dying to find the perfect wine to pair with them. When her good friend Kiki came over, they started indulging. Read More>>

LaTonia Oyeniran

I’ve worn braids since childhood. For me it was never just a hairstyle. It was a way to express myself, a confidence-booster, part of the culture. But no matter how much I loved the style, the dread of wearing braids was always there. The itch, the tension headaches, the soreness that everyone around me seemed to just accept. Read More>>

Miesha Weaver

The idea for MieshaSpeaks was born in the quiet tension between survival and purpose. On the outside, my life looked functional—I was a professional woman navigating the corporate world—but behind the scenes, I was a working single mother managing exhaustion, pressure, and the constant emotional weight of being everything to everyone. Read More>>

Nick Potters

I always knew I was going to pursue music as a career, so even before I went to school I had an idea of what direction I wanted to head in. Even before I finished school, I was saying yes to gig opportunities that came my way, just to get my name out there. Read More>>

Angela

I knew from working at Aveda and with clients in a hands on manner that I was VERY interested in Makeup. The moment I realized this, I told a co-worker who strongly urged me to apply at Nordstrom to get the most experience and training I could in this position. Read More>>

Alyssia Hall

Dream To Reality Nail Care was born from a very real place in my life. Trying to balance being a woman, a new mom, working, and still wanting to feel put together without spending hours on myself. I realized nail care is often treated like an “extra,” but for me, it became a form of self-care and confidence. Read More>>

Sophonna Sheppard

As a teenager and young adult, I got into a lot of trouble. Looking back, I truly believe that if I had a mentor, guidance, or a support system to help shape my young mind, I could have avoided many of those situations. That realization stayed with me for years. Read More>>

Ebony Nichols

I have always entertained two facets of my personality: my creative side and my academic side. As a child, I studiously completed my homework, reading assignments and projects, but would fit anything creative into any free time I had. Almost everything I created had a celebratory slant to it: invitations, cards, hand-torn confetti…anything. Read More>>

Natalie Gallifent

Seatsquare was born from a collection of small, everyday frustrations. I kept finding myself in situations where there was simply nowhere comfortable or clean to sit. Unsticking my thighs from plastic chairs, getting those awful textured imprints on the backs of my legs, burning myself on scorching hot seats in the summer, ruining white pants by sitting on surfaces I couldn’t even identify. Read More>>

Zandra Zuno Baermann

The idea didn’t come from a whiteboard session or a business plan. It came from a breast cancer diagnosis. When I got that news five years ago, everything stopped. And in that stillness, I had to ask myself some hard questions. What am I doing? What do I actually want? What matters? At the same time, my husband’s work was taking us to Amsterdam. Read More>>

Jessica Torres

Building a personal brand became more than expression. It became my way out. My way forward. My way of proving that my story, and stories like mine, deserved to take up space. Entrepreneurship was not a choice. It was a responsibility I recognized early. I was raised in an environment shaped by psychological abuse, instability, and generational patterns that had gone unacknowledged for years. Read More>>

Gabriela Chomiak

I didn’t have one single moment where everything clicked. It really came from my journey over time. Before moving to Florida, I had a business partnership, and when I relocated to Naples, I made the decision to step away from that and start fresh. Read More>>

Samantha Arrigoni

For me, this business didn’t start as a single idea it grew out of everything I was already naturally doing and becoming. I’ve always loved creating spaces where people feel welcomed, seen, and connected. Even before I had titles, I was hosting, planning, and paying attention to how an experience felt, not just how it looked. Read More>>

Whitney Habig

Before I started my business in 2015, I was longing for a creative outlet and something to fill my days with purpose. I had two little ones and a husband who was away on active duty for a few months in the Army. I knew my value and worth as a mother, but I felt so lost in value for myself. Read More>>

Nishma Karim and Soraiya Bodhi N/A

Be Light to Raise Light didn’t begin with mere intention. It was born in a space where energy flowed beyond the limits of what we can see and where love transcends form and touches the infinite. It all started one evening when we hosted a women’s circle in the middle of a guided meditation led by Soraiya. Read More>>

Dane Rauschenberg

After completing 52 marathons in 52 weekends, I realized the importance of having access to local knowledge, safety, and motivation. He envisioned a platform where anyone, regardless of experience, could connect with a guide who understands their unique needs – whether it’s finding the perfect running route in a new city or getting the push needed to start a new fitness routine. Read More>>

Shonte Davis Davis

The idea for my podcast, “Sippin’ with Shonte,” came from wanting to create a space where people could laugh, relax, and take a break from the stress of everyday life. The world can feel so heavy sometimes, and I wanted to create a comedic podcast where people could tune in for 30 minutes and simply enjoy real conversations, humor, and authenticity. Read More>>

Sam Schumacher

Well, I started the way most glassblowers start; studying Political Communications. I had one elective credit to fill my senior year and was able to take a glassblowing class at MassArt through a consortium. I was immediately obsessed with the process. I spent about 6 months after college working in communications, but quickly realized the glass studio was where I wanted to be. Read More>>

Henna Mumtaz

About 8 or 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with multiple autoimmune disorders. I tried various conventional Western medicine approaches to heal myself, hopping from one specialist to another, from one treatment to another, from one pill to another, in a desperate search for a cure, but nothing seemed to give me the results I desired. Read More>>

Marcela Vilas Boas

I didn’t have one specific moment where I decided to start my business. It came together over time, through my own experience. I moved to the U.S. from Brazil as a student and had to figure out everything on my own. Immigration processes, deadlines, documents in two languages. It was confusing in the beginning, not because it was impossible, but because nothing felt clear. Read More>>

Mike Bolland

The idea for Enable Review came from a frustration I couldn’t shake—and honestly, a system that didn’t make sense. I was born without a right hand, so prosthetic care has always been part of my life. But like most people, I didn’t choose my care early on—my parents did the best they could with the information they had. Read More>>

Tiara Johnson

My business was born during a season of my life where everything felt uncertain, but at the same time, deeply transformational. For years, I carried the weight of feeling like I was “behind” in life. I had stepped away from school back in 2006, and for a long time I believed the lie that once you miss your moment, it’s gone forever. Read More>>

Sahara Rose De Vore

I graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management. At that time, I didn’t hear of or know about any job that allowed me to travel to the extent that I wanted to at the age of 22. I was also uncertain of the career path and life that I wanted at that age. Read More>>

Anjanette Jones

I remember going inside of the African imports store one day, in search of Ankara fabric and to restock my Frankincense and Myrrh body oil, when I noticed the man creating this ‘body jewelry’. Fascinated by all of the colors, I asked about it. He gave me the history and symbolism of waistbeads in African history. Read More>>

Roger Dundas

In 2011, while running a marketing company focused on Black Canadian communities, I kept hitting the same wall. We’d partner with over 400 Black-owned businesses and creators, but more than 75% lacked even basic digital footprints—no websites, no Facebook pages. These were thriving bakeries, innovative artists, community mentors… but online? Invisible. It wasn’t just about missing marketing tools. Read More>>

Kim Bruen

I was working in HR at iAnthus, one of the largest multi-state cannabis operators in the country at the time, and I kept seeing the same thing over and over. Cannabis operators were drowning in people problems that had nothing to do with their product. Compliance issues they didn’t know existed. Employee relations blowing up with no one trained to handle them. Read More>>

Casey Galli

I had just gotten out of a relationship, one that was underwhelming to say the least. I felt a light switch flip inside of me the day I finally ended things. I’m smart. I knew all along how wrong that connection was and I knew precisely why. That light switch flip merely gave me the courage to do something about it. Read More>>

Rachel Peterson

I was in the thick of motherhood and our evenings were consumed with baseball, ballet, and all the things. I have a bachelors of science in nutrition and have always had high nutrition standards for our family, so our meal prep was naturally evolving to keep up with our busy life. Read More>>

Dave Sands

Dave was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Growing up Japanese and Caucasian , Dave was exposed to many cultures and cuisines immediately. Watching and learning from his late Mother set the seeds of his pure joy of cooking. Read More>>