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.

Erin Williams

When my husband Anthony and I got married in 2021, we wanted to thank our guests for coming to our wedding in a unique way that also resonated with us. Since we both love to cook, Anthony played around with a seasoning blend that he previously made to see if he could perfect it for a wedding favor. Read more>>

Marcus Heckman

I came up with the concept for FryAholics because I love loaded fries and most places just give you melted cheese and bacon. Which is good but I want to bring fresh restaurant quality ingredients to loaded fries. I’m going to bring flavors to loaded fries no one has thought of. Read more>>

Megan Moore

The story of how my small business came to be is a personal one. It starts as a stay-at-home mom of 2 under 2 with a husband who travelled every week. Postpartum depression and anxiety were creeping in as well as thoughts of self-doubt. I knew something had to change if not for my own mental wellbeing, but for my family’s as well. Read more>>

Erin Davis Judkins

The interior design industry has always been split. On one hand you have full-service designers who do everything from design to install. Their work is amazing but not financially feasible for everyone. Then you have the in-store or e-design offerings from large companies. These have their place but they often don’t take into consideration the client’s needs. The outcome is impersonal. Read more>>

Lindsey Bell

As a busy mom of two on a budget, I had to learn how to meal plan, meal prep, and grocery shop on a budget. Not knowing how to begin, I started a Facebook Group called Dinner Darlings in 2017 to gather some quick meal ideas from friends. After the group exploded, I realized that there were plenty of people out there just like me who wanted to cook at home more, needed to, but didn’t know where to start. In 2019, I started The Weekly Dish recipe subscription service to help busy people save time and money while creating delicious meals for their families. Read more>>

Kelsey Schaffer

If you would have told me three or four years ago that I would be a small business owner and live painter, I would have thought you were nuts… I was born and raised in Ohio, and my life was all about sports, with crafts and painting as a hobby. I wanted to go to art school as a kid, but the fear of being a “starving artist” set in right before high school graduation. Read more>>

Aubre Fox

A friend and I found ourselves as newer small business owners and realized between the two of us we had quite a network of friends and we were constantly introducing and connecting people. One day we decided that it would be best to bring all of these women together to support one another in new business ventures and help each other learn from others areas of expertise. When we wanted to learn something we would have other women in the group who specialized in that area teach it to us. Read more>>

Kory Rigler

I never planned to own a product based business. It wasn’t a goal of mine or something I put on my vision board. What I did want to do, was help people feel good, feel better in their day to day. I have three different autoimmune disorders and face a lot of chronic pain in my life. Over the years I had tried everything from special diets and supplements, to yoga and heat therapy. Read more>>

Mark Walsh

I started in the hot tub industry in Phoenix, AZ of all places, at Arizona Pacific Spas. Once I made the decision to move to Olympia, WA, the owner of that company decided to start a hot tub cleaning program for their existing customers. The cleaning program was so popular so quickly, that the company had to hire more staff right away. Read more>>

Rolanda Buck

“WASSAP Faith Builders, It’s Your Girl Rolanda J. Buck And I’m Back With Another Video” is the saying many choose to identify my brand “Faith Builders United”. It sounds inviting and full of security when you first hear my voice utter those words, but I have news for you, that certainly wasn’t the case in the beginning. I want you to close your eyes and take a journey with me. Imagine going on an interview for your dream job right out of college and being overly joyed with the opportunity. Read more>>

Janene Marshall

Imagine being a new (again) mommy, 3 months postpartum with 2 under 2, experiencing “baby blues”, trying to find yourself, and now going through postpartum hair loss to top it off. That was me in January of 2022. I decided to try to control what I could, so I began searching for hair products that could help with my hair loss, but became overwhelmed with all of the unknown ingredients many of them contained… Read more>>

Julia Brokmeyer

It’s funny how one idea can lead to another…then another. My business started out pretty simply. I had been working one of those at home businesses where you have home parties. One way we were branching out was by doing “home parties” online using Facebook Event pages. This was back in 2014. I realized that there were a LOT of events happening in my area and that I could use these event pages to help people promote their events. This idea to just help people advertise events morphed into something that, even I, couldn’t have imagined at the time. Read more>>

Melkia Ames

In 2015, I had a burning desire to empower women to be the best version of themselves and to pursue their dreams and big goals. I knew why I wanted to do this. I just didn’t know how I was going to do this. Every day I would think about talking to a room full of women and giving them information, they could use to change their situation. I would meditate and pray daily on what my next step would be and how I would execute this. Read more>>

Brittany Bauer

My now husband and I were engaged in 2019 and planning our 2020 wedding. As a Project Manager at the time I was using the same tools, systems and processes to plan our 2020 wedding. I had always aspired to be an entrepreneur and have had a big passion for serving others. In 2020 I had decided to take the leap and filed for my LLC and in 2021 after returning to work from maternity leave I quickly realized my career as a Project Manager was not serving me or my family. Read more>>

Jasmine Jackson-Lewis

Throughout my adult life, I can’t remember a time (especially at the workplace) when I was not complimented by colleagues and/or strangers on the clothing I was wearing. If the person worked in my department I already knew what they were going to say, when approached and my clothing was mentioned. “You dress so nice and I have never seen you wear the same thing twice.” Little did they know, Read more>>

Allison Malenfant and Connie DeMaio N/A

Here is our story :) Connie has been riding horses almost since birth. Her father was a standardbred trainer in New Jersey, so she and her sister grew up around horses. Connie’s mom started sending them to riding lessons at a very young age, and they spent most of their free time riding and competing at horse shows. Connie has been training and riding professionally since she was 16 years old. Read more>>

rista Ford

I’m a wife, work at home boymom, and caffeinated designer. After I had my second son, my husband and I decided I would stay home and raise our boys. I previously owned a small tee shop geared towards mommas, but with a saturated market I decided to close my shop and find something else to do that would spark my creativity… Read more>>

Jeff Hunter

I would say our journey was pretty unique. We truly stumbled into this and it sort of snowballed into what it became. Back in 2013, my wife Kristina, who was my girlfriend and co-worker a the time, were bartenders at what you might call a “Mega-Club” in Hollywood. I had decided we should try CrossFit as it was exploding around that time and we wanted to see what it was all about. Read more>>

Erin Kennedy

Coming up with the idea for Girls Rugby was something that did not just happen overnight, although the process from idea to actual business seemed a lot quicker than that. I had worked in rugby development for a number of years and I was seeing a trend at the youth and grassroots levels – girls were not finding rugby. Programs around the US were littered with young boys and yet you would only find a small number of girls participating. Read more>>

Kelly Boyd

From an early age, I’ve always loved decorating. Whether that was my bedroom covered with anything dolphin related when I was ten to being a newlywed and owning our first home. During the pandemic, I was really struggling to find my creative outlet beyond social media, I would post pictures of updates and our own personal home renovations, but I was craving more. With the help and encouragement from my parents and awesome friends, I applied for a business license and hired someone to make me a logo and that was the start of my business! Read more>>

Hope Nunnelley

I grew up in a small town in Central Texas. Nobody knew where it was … until it made Southern Living’s “Cutest Small Towns in America” list. Soon, my sleepy small town was PACKED with tourists, local businesses were thriving, and wineries were popping up left and right. My hometown? Fredericksburg, Texas. Read more>>

Jada June Totten

I’ve been Rodeo Trippin across the US for several years; however, as much as I enjoyed the sport, I found it challenging to find the perfect western attire to wear. I prefer my clothes to be stylish and comfortable. I started designing my outfits and wearing them. People loved what I created, and I decided to take it on a bigger scale. I strive to be a unique clothing and accessory brand that appeals to the modern day rodeo enthusiast. My brand relates to my peers and I am grateful for the positive response it has received. Read more>>

Annie Green

I am one of those people who gets completely annoyed by the ridiculous amount of plastics and toxins that exist in our environment. I have always wondered why would we as a species would pollute our environment the way we do? Once my children were grown and I had the energy to take on a new endeavor, I decided to do something about it and created /liv/ Nature, a company that sells solid shampoo bars and solid conditioner bars. Read more>>

Leeanna Gantt

I came up with the idea for tooktake during my own treatment for breast cancer. I was stuck in bed for 6 months during chemo and I had at least a dozen medications, both over-the-counter and prescription to manage the side effects of treatment. They were all in different forms and all on different schedules. Trying to keep track of them all became very stressful for my family and me. Read more>>

Shannon Jones

My business is both a hands-on and virtual skin clinic where I do facials and other advanced skin treatments in addition to nutrition counseling, with a focus on chronic skin conditions and gut health. I’ve developed a truly integrative approach to skin, addressing nutritional deficiencies, food sensitivities, and stress management for hard-to-manage skin conditions such as acne, rosacea, and dermatitis with both dietary and topical interventions. Read more>>

Chauncey Pelzer

I came up with the idea for my business by putting together 2 types of roles I had already done. My profession for almost 20 years has been in Human Resources, with a small stint in business to business Sales. I have been trained to advise Managing Directors and C-level executives from the beginning of my career. Read more>>

Olivia Austin

After graduating from University in New York, I immediately moved out to California to start my life as an adult. I was so excited to start making money in my career path and to live by the ocean. Up until this point, I had done everything “right”. Graduated High School, got into a good college and then pursued a career in a path I’m interested in. I was, by society’s standards, “living the dream”. Read more>>

Taryn Armstrong

CAE’s Crystal’s came to be purely out of love and laughter My nephews and myself would go out rock hounding (and we still do!) and find the coolest crystals, minerals and adventures along the way. I’ve always had an interest in rocks, crystals and honestly, just being outdoors in nature. Being able to feel the pressure of day to day life and stress melt away, when my feet hit the ground and its just me and nature.. It’s the best. It would always hit a reset in me that I needed. Read more>>

Russell, IV and Brandi Davis

Russell and I were high school sweethearts. We felt all the first love feelings and were completely convinced that we would be married and have a family one day. But life has a way of surprising you in the most unexpected ways. Mix our tender age of 17 with just a little bit of high school drama and that was the end of our story… or so we thought. Read more>>

Arlene Garcia

On the outside one would say I was well established and put together, but on the inside I was slowly dying. Years of misdiagnoses caused me
to suffer from a major mood disorder and depression. If you came into
contact with me, you would have thought I was crazy or in a bad mood
ALL THE TIME. But years later, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease,
a thyroid disorder that proved difficult to treat because to make matters
worse, I had a genetic mutation that prevented my medication from
working properly. Read more>>