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.

Oscar Fuentes

The idea came to me when I decided to repair one of my broken typewriters. As I brushed it and cleaned and tested the new ink ribbon, I wrote myself a poem just to see how the machine was now working. And I realized I had written myself a love note. Something that spoke to me about the things I was feeling at the moment. The typewritten note reassured me I was going to be alright. I read it and smile, and thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be nice to write these kindness poems to random strangers?” the rest is history. Read more>>

KJ Blattenbauer

The basis for my business is simple: I love a good pep talk. To me, giving a pep talk shows how much you care about the recipient. Likewise, being on the receiving end of one represents how much you mean to the giver. I’m a firm believer that there’s both power and promise held within a pep talk, which is what motivates everything behind my business. It’s what drives the products that I create. Read more>>

Chloe Clark

Simply Sage Dog Treats started because of a dog named Sage I adopted six years ago from the Atlanta Humane Society. I spent so much money in the first two years of her life at the veterinarian. Every two weeks, we were making vet visits. Sage had problems digesting her food. Also, she had itchy paws and skin, watery eyes, sneezing fits, and soft stool. It was hard watching her suffer, especially during the Spring and Summer months. I spent so much money on dog food and treats; because of her allergy and sensitive stomach problems. Read more>>

Mary Ann Landry

The story is very interesting on how I became the Chief Visionary of Consultants in Dental Aesthetics. 20 years ago I was set up on a blind date only to find out that this gentleman was a Dentist. He was very proud and very competent. At the time, I was a Director at an International Airline in their Training and Implementation Department. Read more>>

Kristina Corcoran

When I began Denver Free Fun it was actually a personal project. I had recently been trying to refinance my home with a mortgage broker that I knew. After the deal kept falling apart, his business partner came to me and told me that he had been stealing from clients including myself, but that he would personally handle my loan. He also asked me to come work with him handling home buying and fix and flips. Read more>>

Victor Umeh

Circa Holiday season 2010 I was in college and off for holiday break. I was spending some time with friends and we were talking about clothing. We were all connected with the diaspora and somehow or another the conversation went to what brands we could shop that actually catered to the cultural things we cared about. As we thought about it and tried to ponder on a few we couldn’t come up with any that were still relevant and servicing that niche. Always being heavily into streetwear fashion, one of my Brothers suggested that “I should create something like that..” Read more>>

Brooke López

Senior year of undergrad approached which meant I had to pick a topic for my senior honors thesis. I decided I would study women’s candidacy for public office, specifically the difference between local and statewide candidacy in Texas. When digging into the research, I started to realize that I couldn’t identify a baseline number of how many women served in local office across the Lone Star state. Read more>>

David Taub

Way back in the early 200os I had my own business teaching private guitar lessons. I taught students of all levels and was doing well. I had 20-35 students at any time and my weeks were very full teaching privately, lesson planning, rehearsing, and playing gigs with various bands. However, I wanted to reach more students. I knew teaching private lessons and with all the lesson planning that goes with that I can only teach 30 or so students each week. Remember that this was before the internet really kicked in with video learning. Read more>>

Abi Stroud

My journey started with cosplay and costume design back in 2015, I was attending 1 to 2 conventions with friends each year. Nothing too excessive, just getting together and dressing up. I had a starter HD camera at the time and was constantly requested to take pictures for said friends. I enjoyed photography enough to start advertising myself and going to over 10 different conventions throughout the next year. As my photography portfolio grew, so did my hunger for creative content. Convention halls have never been known for their beauty or diversity. Read more>>

Britni B.R.A” Azzam”

Long before I started my business, and even before I became a rapper, friends and family would call me bra, and would sorta poke fun at the fact that B.R.A is my initials. So by the time I became a rapper the name naturally caught on. It was a inside joke with the people closest to me in a way because I have always been an advocate for embracing your natural beauty. I started to wear makeup just as early as I decided to not to, and probably became more well known for not wearing a bra. To be honest I thought it was funny how daring people thought that was, and it fueled that fire inside me to challenge social norms, and expectations. Read more>>

KYLE SHANNON

When Youtube came out in 2005, I had an epiphany that “short form video was going to be A THING.” I didn’t know what that mean, and didn’t know what it would look like, but 1-3 minute videos from anyone with a digital camera felt like something new. If you are old enough to remember the early days of YouTube, most of the content on it was unwatchable. Since I have a background in storytelling (degree in acting, writer of 7 screenplays, etc.) Read more>>

Christopher Cater

Necessity breeds Innovation. The idea didn’t come from me. I started my first tech job one week after my high school graduation. RadioShack recruited me early, but you had to have finished high school to work there, so they waited for me. I was able to learn so much about gadgets and tech. I then got recruited to take my skills to Bestbuy, surrounding me with even more consumer electronics, other tech enthusiasts, and people who wanted to be own more tech. While working, a customer appreciated my knowledge and asked if I could show her how to set up and use the new computer she just purchased. Read more>>

Dylan Thomas

I love to compete and I love sports. After leaving college & relocating to a brand new city, I knew I needed to keep myself busy by finding leagues to play in. So, with a quick google search, and a few bucks, I joined a sand volleyball league, a basketball league, a flag football league, a kickball league and even a billiards league. Why could I not find a golf league? I was new to the community in Scottsdale and I love to golf, but I couldn’t afford a $20k membership fee at a club in North Scottsdale, and I couldn’t commit to a Tuesday night 4pm men’s league. It just wasn’t viable and there wasn’t a way for me to compete recreationally in one of my favorite sports, in one of the single most popular cities to play it in! Read more>>

Valerie DeVito

I was deeply invested in soapmaking, I loved it! I received lots of feedback from customers telling me it was helping to improve their dry skin, and how much they loved the soaps, too. After selling bath products for six years, I felt the pull to create a more cohesive branding. I was always drawn to vintage style, but at the time, my packaging was very generic. It wasn’t until the spring of 2017 that I honed in on the style of the 1920’s, Flapper Girls, and Art Deco. Read more>>

Bob Roth

How was Cypress HomeCare Solutions born? How did you come up with the idea? It all started shortly after Bob Roth graduated from college. He was just beginning his career in the consumer products industry in marketing with The Quaker Oats Company, when his 48-year-old mother, Joan, was shattered by a series of near-fatal heart attacks on January 2, 1985. Read more>>

Kathryn Moore

In 2009 during the housing crisis I was an Interior Designer and my husband, Brad, was in the Banking Industry. Needless to say these industries were hit hard. I ask my husband “If we were to take some money out of savings what would you want to do next?” He instantly responded with “open a restaurant”. We didn’t have that much in the bank and with no prior restaurant experience we knew this wasn’t feasible. Brad did come back with “How about a food truck?”. Read more>>

Kiki Dikmen

It is not so much about our core business but more so the current back bone of our business, which is technology. I learned a long time ago that an entrepreneur should not fall in love with their own idea; with this in mind I wanted to create a customer centric mindset and have our growth as a company driven by the ideas of our clients. For this very reason, we took a simple idea a client gave us, about creating a “data depository” to our current technology which serves as not only a data repository, Read more>>

Tara Hooper

I was a hairstylist and salon owner for 2o plus years and we decided to move cross country for my husbands new job advancement. This was exciting, scary and a much needed break from work for me. I had a toddler and was 6 months along with my daughter. I never expected my break would include moving from San Diego, CA to Fairhope, AL!! I had this wonderful opportunity to be home with my kiddos, support my husband in his career advancement and take a break from working full time. Read more>>

Arthlene Legair-Lawrence

My Story. The first dress…. My 14-year daughter was invited to a father-daughter dance at church, August 2008. The day before the event, as soon as she came home from school, we got in the car and off to dress shopping. We went to the mall and visited many department stores, boutiques, and other specialty dress shops. We searched for quite a few hours but I couldn’t find anything that was appropriate for her to wear. Every dress she tried on made her look like she was an adult, I didn’t want that look for her. Read more>>

Chris Phelan

The idea of coaching came to me. I mean, a prospective client, someone I was already helping to run, approached me. Debbie asked me to coach her for a specific race. I was flattered. Who wouldn’t be? After I began working with Debbie, others saw or heard the work I was doing with her. More people signed up. All my athletes had success at their goals. In fact, since 1989 when Debbie came aboard, every one of my athletes has met their goal. Read more>>