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.

Amanda Brincat Kathryn Altman.

We have always enjoyed going out and being social. Sacramento has a lively downtown and there is always a new bar or restaurant popping up, so playing tourist and exploring the city on weekends is a favorite activity. When we made the decision to stop drinking, we truly realized how much alcohol had permeated every aspect of our lives, including our weekend adventures. Read more>>

Chani Ronez

My dog, Benzo was diagnosed with acute anxiety and my veterinarian told me that the only way for him to feel better was to medicate him on doggie Xanax on a daily basis and for the rest of his life. Since this was not an option for me, I decided to go on a quest to find every possible alternative treatment. Read more>>

Javier Folgar.

Even with a busy career, I love to stay active. Since I was a child, I swam competitively and recently started competing in triathlons. I am also very into health and self-care. Part of my ritual for recovery involved taking a nice, warm, bubble bath. Not only is it super relaxing, but it also aided in my muscle recovery. Read more>>

Tulipe Fièvre

We were looking for a sophisticated natural alternative to commercial fragrances and honestly when we started looking we didn’t find what we were looking for. We both wanted a full sensory experience, an intoxicating fragrance, created with organic, sustainable materials and in a beautiful bottle. beyond that our reasons also differed a bit. Read more>>

Sara Cox.

Prior to this endeavor, I was at a regular “9 to 5” job that really wasnt making me happy. Ultimately, that job opportunity did not work out. I decided to do something that i was passionate about- what makes Sara happy. My number one passion has always been animals so it seemed like such an easy decision. My mother had mentioned to me how wonderful I could be at grooming dogs, but I’m definitely not gifted at haircuts of any kind. Read more>>

Deed Ziegler.

I was an officer in the Marine Corps, responsible for leading a team deploying to Afghanistan. We spent a lot of time in extreme, remote environments, carrying all of our gear often for days on end. In those places every pound matters, and it’s often tough to even have time to sit down to prepare a meal. Snacks like energy bars and trail mix are convenient but not nutritionally complete. Read more>>

Winston Wilson

I decided to start my creative journey as a result of personal mental anguish. This was way before my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2020. I did not understand why my pain about those I was losing was so acutely intense. I lost good friends and family members to suicide, disease, and external violence. A young man came to me after a reading of one of my plays and told me how it inspired him to find and continue his journey. Read more>>

Rachael Baptiste.

I believe it was Divine Intervention. I wanted to do something in the Gospel Community in the city I lived in but Crown turned out to be a mix of a jazz pianist, a producer and a sound engineer. After 7 long years of being an artist manager in 2020, I decided to pivot my business to exclusively project and operations for entertainment, business and research. Read more>>

Katie Jackson

I’ve always had dreams of having my own scrub line, just because most scrubs weren’t my style. Their notoriously boxy-fitting, scratchy material, and flooding pants never worked for me. I wanted to come to work in cute scrubs, that made me feel great and ready to conquer the day. The meaning for Nursebae Scrubs & Accessories came to me during my time in nursing school. Read more>>

Roy Smith

What if today was the last time drinking your coffee while enjoying the morning sun shining on your face? What if you kissed your partner or kids goodbye for the last time before rushing to your meetings? There is one thing you cannot buy in life: time. Therefore people’s goal is to reclaim time. They invest in becoming financially literate and independent, buy assets, work on their self-development, and learn to use modern technology – invest in yourself is what coaches teach them. However, they forget the one thing that is the most important – their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Read more>>

Ella Schmidt

I always knew that I wanted to have my own restaurant. I started cooking at a very young age, starting around age 7, when I was tasked with taking care of my younger siblings. My mother was always cooking for us, but when she wasn’t home, it was up to me to prepare meals for myself, my younger brother and sister. I never felt it was a chore, but rather a way to show my love for my siblings, the way my mother showed me love through her simple, yet delicious dishes. Read more>>

Yvng Ajay

Growing up I always loved to play video games and I use to watch people who were popular make gaming content on YouTube. This was around like 2013 where vlogging wasn’t as popular as it is now. The people who I can remember that I watched a lot around that time were Faze Rug, Faze Adapt, Faze Apex and more. Basically I was just consuming so much gaming content and always wanted to do the same. Read more>>

Aviana Hermawan

It was during the pandemic (2020), where I couldn’t find any inspirations in the fashion industry. I have watched every interview there is on the internet about fashion and I realised that this could be a business idea. I worked very hard to earn the viewers that I have now, after two years of just me and the laptop and the microphone. It was very refreshing when I look back into it because I was nineteen at the time when I first broadcasted a designer interview. Read more>>

Gabby Abebe

I love candles. I have one lit at all times. After years of purchasing candles and following my favorite brands, I decided it was time to make my own. 2020 gave me the perfect chance to do just that. After making a few of my favorite scents, I started bridging candle making with my spiritual practice. Each candle contains oils, herbs, flowers, and crystals that correspond with a specific manifestation. Read more>>

Julie (Little) Williams .

My idea for the Colby Company sprouted from the death of my Dad, Colby. In 2017 in the middle of my junior year I experienced losing my father to suicide! I quickly started volunteering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and learned my best route for healing was helping. In 2020 I began harvesting the seeds of owning a clothing company for mental health awareness and suicide prevention that have grown into the Colby Company we have today. Read more>>

Zara Durham

Back in 2016, I went off to college at an HBCU. Most of my life, I grew up in multi-cultural schools so it was definitely a culture shock at the time. But, I wanted to be apart of black excellence. My journey I definitely got to experience it, but it often times left me with mixed emotions as well. Since, there were so many different changes that I wasn’t prepared for. Read more>>

Pretty Hungry Gals

It all started back in 2019 with our love for food. We’re 3 best friends, Jacquline, Kyndal & Kristan. We all work full time jobs and in our spare time we found it enjoyable to go to new restaurants and try their food. It served as a way for us to decompress from work and also be able to eat good food. Read more>>

Claudia Lisotta

After I moved to Texas and in the amazing turn of events, even though the fondness for fashion has always been there I decided to pursue my dreams and start my own shoe brand, strongly convicted to the idea God had put in my heart. Not knowing where and how to begin I became obedient to the idea and researched for a couple of years, because in my heart i felt this would truly work if i put in the effort. Read more>>

Julia Kepler.

I was asked to do some research for another business in Midland, MI. At the beginning it was exciting but as I kept pushing forward with it, it was like drudging through mud and I felt it was not going to work. I was asked then what will work and on the 2 hour drive home I wrote the business plan with full power point. Read more>>

Ariel Reckart

I came up with the idea for this business by simply thinking about my dog, Tucker, and what is best for him. Every treat that we gave him seemed to upset his stomach, give him ear infections, etc. I thought that it had to be something in the ingredients, so I decided to look into making his treats myself. During that process, I began thinking that I could not be the only dog owner to be worried about the ingredients in my dog’s treats and wanted to help those people and their dogs as well. Read more>>

Lindsay Malu Kido

The origin story of Empower Pleasure began half a lifetime ago when I was first exploring my own self-love. I was interested in finding a pleasure product but had zero ideas of how to delve into this exploration. So, I went to the only place that I knew of that had sex toys: Spencer’s in my local mall. I vividly remember picking out a light pink vibrator from a dark, musty corner of the store. Read more>>

Lexly Cruz & Maddie Dilg

Throughout college, although both of us were pursuing science degrees, we always found solace in music- specifically k-pop music. We both managed to persevere through the difficulties of graduating in the midst of a global pandemic by immersing ourselves in the k-pop community. We attended concerts, bought albums, and started collecting photocards. Read more>>

Nicole Mason

First I initially wanted a traditional beauty supply store, you know brick and mortar. I wanted to own one because I was tired of going into stores that were not owned by people of color and them looking at me as if I was going to steal something or when I would ask questions about hair products they wouldn’t have the answer. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one in my community feeling like that. I started doing my research on how to open a beauty supply store. And I’ll be honest I stopped for a while. Read more>>

James Firestein

My background is in luxury authentication, spanning a decade of hands-on and behind-the-scenes experience ranging from cataloguing handbag auctions at one of the worlds largest auction houses to my role directing and scaling the authentication department at a large luxury resale startup. Read more>>

J Jordan.

My business, Brown Rice Bakery, offers gluten free and vegan baked goods and treats made with high-quality ingredients. The business is about so much more than baked goods; it’s about growing and supporting community, promoting health (in many different ways), practicing sustainability and creating JOY through food. Read more>>

Michelle Hobgood

I started my career in the editorial & print sectors of the fashion industry. When it came time to organize our fashion closets I was always the person tasked to do the job because organization came naturally to me. In fact, people would always ask how did I come up with these intricate systems. Read more>>

Jessica Martinez

We have been in the construction and design business for some time, but we wanted to venture out and try something new. Around this time there was tennet that was using some land to grow his own produce. We were inspired with what he was doing and wanted to become more knowledgable in growing our own food without the use of pesticides. With this we were inspired to create the farm. Read more>>

Brannon Swygert

We saw first hand the effects of malaria from mosquitoes without preventive control measures have on a society on an operational deployment to west Africa during our time as Special Operations Civil Affairs (SOF CA) in the Army. It was devastating to see a village completely taken over with kids suffering from malaria. We would partner with the Peace CORPS and USAID to assist with small projects to put up mosquito screens on the houses and build family bed nets for the family as they slept. We would deploy multiple times after that to east and west Africa where we would see the same problem as before. Read more>>

Maria Palacio

I was born and raised on a Colombian coffee farm. I saw and experienced all the struggles a coffee farmer goes through. However, after seeing all the struggles I wanted to do something different than my family business. So I decided to move to NY and pursue a different career from my family’s coffee business. Read more>>

Ivan and Ksusha .

THE BALLROOM DANCE HOUSE (TBDH) is owned and operated by Professional Ballroom Dancers Ivan Kudashev + Ksusha Sokolova. Together they have more than 10 years of teaching experience and over 15 years of medals and Championships from around the Globe as International Latin Professional dancers. Read more>>

Emily Hendrie

I believe those who are artists and creatives always have been. Always having a creative perspective or a pull to make something unique to express ourselves. I’ve always had a need to draw and throughout my life that pull ebbs and flows with intensity. For many years I worked in the metal giftware industry, first making metal giftware, then eventually designing (I graduated from the Tyler School of Art with a BFA in Metals / Jewelry / CAD_CAM). Read more>>

Mia Morrow

When the pandemic hit, I made the very hard decision to leave my previous job of 7 years. It was definitely one of those now or never moments because I always knew I wanted to start something of my own, but never had the chance to take the leap. There were so many ideas that were considered in the beginning. From food trucks, to hot dog stands, or sandwich trailers. But after a good friend asked me to make a special dinner for their partner, I knew a personal chef business would encompass all the things I love to do. Read more>>

Stephanie Johnson.

Where to begin, I started making luxury candles November 2021. I suffered a miscarriage and depression was weighing heavy on me at the time. I was just an emotional wreck. One day, I went into the store for one thing and ended up coming out with multiple items, one of them being a candle. I’ve always lit a candle to calm my surroundings and just relax to find my inner peace. This particular day, when going to light the candle, it just wasn’t giving what it needed. Read more>>

Ty Thomas

My name is Ty Thomas, and I’m a New York Native who truly loves my city. My son, is also a New York Native, and I happened to notice one day when we were in our local Bodega he was ordering a Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwich. At this time he was 8 years old, and I’m thinking wow he’s creating childhood memories just by ordering this sandwich every morning. Read more>>

Kuntry

This latest project “Heat of the night” came from a dream of my engineer. He came with the vision & believed I can deliver the soundtrack to the vision & the rest is history Read more>>

Dheeraj Kapoor

As a company we were working with small businesses in the US for accounting side of business.We were aware of the challenges these businesses were dealing with day in day out.Automation is need of the hour and manual work was taking lot of time. Read more>>

Courtney Scantlin.

Throughout my life I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a little girl I loved playing retail shop in my bedroom. I would display the items in my room and pretend they were for sale, I would even write up little receipts for my pretend customers. Eventually, I ended up owning a brick and mortar gift store in Southern California after I had kids. Read more>>

Katie Johnson

I have always had a passion for helping others. I went to school to be a nurse and loved being a pediatric ICU nurse for many years. And then I transitioned into the medical device industry where I supported the nurses and physicians in the setting I had thrived in for the last decade. At every job, I always felt like I was destined to do something more. I dabbled with different ideas but always felt kinds lost. Read more>>

Elizabeth Faye .

Hair Love actually started as a passion project in 2017. But what led to that started before. I had actually been teaching hair and business workshops for 3 years and had built this incredible organic community of female beauty entrepreneurs. I originally began teaching workshops because I quit a salon I was working for and being a beauty school teacher, so I decided to take my skills independently and host small workshops sharing what had helped me in my career. Read more>>

Alee Saviengvong

Just a little background… I’ve always been interested in and attracted to working in the retail space. I used to play “store” as a kid and worked in clothing stores throughout high school, college, and even after college. I fell into a career in the commercial insurance industry but started to lose interest after being in it for so many years. So… I quit my day job to attend school at FIDM- the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, while simultaneously working at a friend’s clothing boutique. Read more>>

Maya Sapp

Growing up, my parents were always hosting people at our home. Whether it was a cookout, family reunion, or just because they felt like cooking. We looked for any excuse to have people over and my parents always made sure that they left a lasting impression on our guests. As I’ve gotten older, I have inherited that same hosting spirit and I’m always searching for a creative meal or drink to prepare for my loved ones. Read more>>

Kofi Buabeng

The idea for Odo Natural Skin & Body Care started with a passion to help others. My family has always used shea butter for skin care since I was a child and it has provided us the benefits of soften hydrated skin. Shea butter also contains quite a few antioxidants, including vitamins A and E. Our goal is to share our unique shea butter products with the world to help others stay moisturized. Read more>>

Latrina Woods .

My name is Latrina Woods, and I am a Health Coach and Personal Trainer who owns a women’s boutique fitness studio, Vivify Training and Fitness. I’ve been in love with the fitness industry and have worked in gyms since 2009. I knew when I graduated college, I wanted to own my gym. Fast forward to 2014, I moved to New Orleans and observed that there were only a few quality places for people to work out in my neighborhood. Read more>>

Heidi Putnam

The online book community is a powerful influence, and I wouldn’t be doing this without them. The ideas that lead to my recent successes all originated from a virtual book club (butt bongos forever!), and small, chaotic group of folks on a Discord server (hi, Betches!). Read more>>