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.

Lauren Aninsman

Since my childhood, I have always dreamed of owning my own hair salon. Throughout my career between 2009-2016 I worked at many amazing salons, assisting and learning from top notch stylists in NY and Philadelphia, attending dozens of classes and simply learning from the best. I moved to Brooklyn to pursue my hair dreams but quickly learned the hustle and bustle of NYC was not for me. Read more>>

Kacy Franzen

There were several simultaneous things happening all at once that lead to the idea for Junie & Sprout. It was a few years ago, during a time that I was really into creating and sharing vegan food photos on instagram, and making them look as beautiful and colorful as I could. It became a creative outlet for me–like an art project–where I curated this cheerful, whimsical, aesthetic showcasing food and vegan life. Read more>>

Laura Webster

I thought of Street Juice when I accidently stepped in a puddle in the street of what I described out loud as “street juice”. I think my exact words to my sister was “I hate stepping in street juice.” Then I thought for a second, and was like, “I love that name! I think I am going to start calling my film photography that.” Read more>>

Jenessa Noland

Music has always been a big part of my life. I started playing trumpet in 6th grade. A fire was lit inside me, and I wanted to learn everything about music. In high school I also played French Horn and Mellophone. I wrote my 1st song “Jinxed” a trumpet trio, which received a superior rating at Solo and Ensemble. Read more>>

Jenny Zink

The funny thing about ideas is that they never just pop into your head in one instant. Rarely is there a light blub clicking on. They slow burn. The idea of a cheese shop was one of those. It marinated and grew so slowly that I didn’t even know I had the idea because it was always in my head. Have a cheese shop. Okay. Read more>>

Igor Sanaev

I’ve been working in beauty industry for a little over 22 years across the globe, discovering new trends, perfecting my skills, learning from the best in beauty world. Overtime I got clear understanding what products I need for my kit but couldn’t buy it because it doesn’t exist. Well, if I can’t buy it then I have to make it. That’s how I started “Sanaev Beauty”. And I decided to start with strip lashes just to test the waters. Read more>>

Chance Chenoweth

I’m a brainstorming type of person. I often will sit and think about what ideas and different routes one can take to take that next step on the road of life. I’ve always loved cars, been around them my whole life and grew up around them. I moved to Denver in 2003 to go to automotive school and got my first “real” job working at the Porsche/Jaguar dealership in Littleton, CO. Read more>>

Tracee Nichols

It all started when I was a little girl helping at the thrift store at the local church. My grandma put me in charge of the jewelry case. At age 7 I was responsible for placing all of the jewelry inside the case. I was thrilled to be responsible for all of this jewelry and at that point I remember feeling elated and excited with all of the colors, unique designs, diamonds, and all the sparkly gemstones. I started to collect vintage jewelry across the country as I traveled with my aunt who was an antique dealer. Read more>>

Lindsey Brown

I came up the idea for my business three months after having my daughter, at the very start of the pandemic. Up until that point I had been a boat captain, working long hours and often times away for weeks at a time. This lifestyle was clearly not compatible with having a newborn so I chose to pivot. I live on the Big island of Hawai’i – a very family centric place with no shortage of young children. Read more>>

Kerry Bleu Scy

I’ve always had an interest with fashion and make up and would study both over the years. I tend to get a lot of compliments on both my clothes and make up when out and about and the compliments would come with the question of whether I provided services to other’s. I also noticed there was a void in the makeup industry when it came to makeup on dark skin and that was a big motivation for creating my business as well. Read more>>

Morgan De Witt

Salty Pop was an idea I had when I was 12. We were sitting on the beach in Destin, enjoying the day when inspiration struck. “We should open a popcorn store.” I had said. My family thought it was a great idea. On our drive back home to South Dakota, together we came up with a name, slogan, flavors, etc. As a kid who grew up with food sensitivities I knew I wanted to make our products with specific ingredients with a variety of options, so that we could have something for everyone. We wrote down all our ideas in our phones and didn’t act on it until 6 years later. Read more>>

Prabal Chaudhri

When my daughter was born, I became really curious about the food we eat. After learning more about food systems, the impact of climate change on production, and food waste as an issue, I realized that the food system was broken. Additionally, food access is key given the growing world population (>10 Billion by 2050). When I looked at the snack aisles in grocery stores, I saw options that were full of carbs and sugars. As consumers, we are often forced to compromise and choose between taste and nutrition. BRAVE GOOD KIND was founded to create responsible protein-led food solutions that will help people live healthier lives. Read more>>

Sarah & Javier Baltazar

Javier applied for a job with a catering company, and it turned out to be a job catering for the television show Leverage. He immediately loved the challenges and rewards of the business, and several years later we purchased our own mobile kitchen. It was terrifying at first! Javier had been the chef for the first season of Grimm that filmed in Portland, and we sent a quote for the second season, but we were very nervous until we found out we had won the job! Read more>>

Alejandro Buxton

The idea came from my mom because she started to get headaches from her candles. At first, we didn’t know where the headaches were coming from so she did a bunch of allergy testing and she learned a lot. But she also found out that she was very sensitive to smell. She threw all her candles away and started making her own. At the time, I had 2 businesses: a lawn mowing business and a lemonade stand. Read more>>

Neha Bajaj

A finance person by profession, the idea for writing a children’s book came to me after my older son’s diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. My son has always struggled with sensory processing challenges. From an early age, he was sensitive to loud noises like the vacuum cleaner or a hand dryer in a public restroom. In school, he often struggled to pay attention and stay on task because he was so internally distracted by his senses. Read more>>

Sharmaine Kevianne

Our journey with Anu Naturalz began when my husband and I embarked on a holistic health journey after he was diagnosed with a pituitary gland tumor. We wanted to find natural products with medicinal properties, which led us to start experimenting in our kitchen. As parents of five boys, we also wanted to create products that would be safe and beneficial for our family, especially our son with eczema. This led us to develop all-natural deodorant and body butter, which proved to be effective and gained interest from people in our circle. Read more>>

Len Evans

My business partner Jeff Dorta and I came up with the idea to create Project Publicity in 2002. We both worked in the entertainment industry at other companies and realized there was a need for a PR firm that specialized in LGBTQ+ publicity. Back then, this was rare so we had created a unique niche for ourselves in the industry and today there are many competing agencies that have divisions that specialize in LGBTQ+ outreach. Read more>>

Ivette Flower

As a recovering perfectionist and lifelong high achiever, I know how it feels to constantly chase gold stars and put everyone else’s needs before my own. After experiencing burnout as a top producing senior sales executive in Business-to-Business sales, I founded iFlower Solutions to help others avoid the same fate. Read more>>

Keyera and Treveon Williams

Growing up my grandmother used to give me a cup of green tea with lemon, honey, and butter when she would watch me while I was under the weather. It always would make me feel better and I knew that herbs had a lot of wellness benefits. As an adult I would go shopping for tea and was always frustrated with the limited selection of tea available at most retailers and that the packaging didn’t mention the wellness benefits that the tea provided. I also disliked that some teas helped with certain ailments, but didn’t have a pleasant taste. Read more>>

My’Asia Jaaber

I wanted to own a bakery business before I knew what a bakery business was. I loved to cook to with my mama but I also loved sweets. Birthday cakes and wedding cakes were my favorite desserts. As time went on, I forgot about my passion of wanting to own a bakery. The shutdown during covid allowed me to slow down and get back to what I was passionate about. I was in graduate school at U of M between navigating classes, not being around family and friends, I turned to baking. Read more>>

Jon Couch

My wife and I like to travel and often when we visit new places, we like to take a local tour to learn more about the local history. Most of those tours consist of a guide that paints a picture of those areas through stories and experiences. Sometimes they would have pictures of the old buildings or people that they were talking about. I thought it would be kind of interesting to be able to see some of those historic pictures on your own phone while taking a tour or walking around on your own. Read more>>

Asavari Kumar Shaivalini Kumar

Asavari – When I was a kid growing up in India, Shaivalini and I did a lot of creative projects together. We talked about working together when we grew up. Life, however, had other plans. I ended up in Los Angeles and Shaivalini ended up in Copenhagen. As we went about our lives and work, we missed making things together and the idea for Supernova slowly started to take shape. Read more>>

Patty Kamson

I’ve been an Intuitive Astrologer and practitioner of Energetic Healing for over 2 decades. and one of the most powerful tools we can use to help us tap into our purest expression are crystals. Throughout my own self-discovery journey, I have personally experienced the healing power of crystals. And nothing brought the magic of crystal more to light than the start of the pandemic. Read more>>

LaQuest Ware

So before photography, my interests pertained to fashion in its entirety. I have always had a fascination with how fashion is captured. The way we as onlookers gain admiration and inspiration from what we see. It would not be until the start of the pandemic that I pursued photography. I purchased my first camera on Amazon. I started off taking pictures of just about everything and everyone! From my friends, family, and myself. I started gaining more confidence in my passion and getting support from my family. They are my biggest supporters throughout it all. Read more>>

Shanika Small

I came up with the idea of Shalana Essentials after I began using Cannabidiol (CBD) oil for a knee injury I sustained in the gym. I suffered a torn meniscus and was in severe pain. I’d been taking OTC pain medication and it was just taking the edge off.I’d been hearing so much about CBD and started doing my research on its benefits. I decided to try CBD oil and was blown away at the way it helped my knee pain. Read more>>

Jo-Anne Longtin

A mother’s quest to bring awareness to Coats Disease and its impact on her son has created a children’s book. After experiencing the trauma of her son’s enucleation, and the removal of his eye due to the disease, she realized a gap in the market for books that children with vision impairments could relate to. Read more>>

Candace Thome

Enlightened was founded as a sister company to my previously exisiting nonprofit Swim Brayv. Swim Brayv is a donation based 501c3 that utalizes merfolk mascots to edu-tain humans on water safety. My little brother, Brayv, passed away from drowning. In my grief, I learned drowning is a top cause of death; which most people dont know. Read more>>

Keya Isler

I always knew I wanted to start a business; I just needed to figure out where to start. I graduated high school in 2017 and attended Livingstone College, pursuing my degree in business administration. In the second semester of my first year, I knew I was ready to start my own business. Livingstone helped me start my clothing brand from scratch in 2019. I put my business courses to use; it was no other way. This was meant for me. It was right in front of me. All I had to do was the work. Read more>>

Daniel & Julie Sas

So my wife and I moved to Seattle in Sept 2019 from Minneapolis to work at Blue Geisha Tattoos, the main shop in West Seattle. And unfortunately shortly after COVID hit and shut everything down. Such a big shop like many others didn’t last during the pandemic and had to close down permanently. We all took the necessary time off and in Sept 2020 we set up a private studio in WS still trying to abide by the COVID guidelines. Read more>>

Jessica Aldridge

It all started with 4 of us. BBU (Black Businesses United) was created in December 2020, I sought out fellow entrepreneurs in the area (Columbus, Georgia) to give back to the community through providing some families with gifts for their children so that they could have Christmas. Together, we were able to bless 3 families with a total if $700 in gifts. After the initial Christmas drive I felt so good about what I was doing and wanted to continue to give back with other bosses beside me. Read more>>

Claudia Thomas

I believe it all started with me making a scrapbook for a friend that just had a baby. My sister was visiting from Brazil and is a professional photographer, so she took pictures of Maya (baby) and I decided to make the book. Well, I bought so many supplies and had so much fun, that… next thing I knew, my husband Ron, gave me a Cricut machine. Things only escalated from there. I guess the creative juices were out and they were not going back in. I was just using the Cricut for fun and at our ice cream shop in Punta Gorda, Florida. Read more>>

Edliz Vazquez

Before the pandemic, I often “gifted” my clients a book on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and a folder to put in all of their worksheets. There are apps that exist where clients can keep track of homework, but it required me to input and check things on their behalf and when you are already managing schedules and administration, it can be tough to add “homework management” to the list of things to do as a practicing mental health counselor. Read more>>

Montana Chambers

A lot of the people I’m friends with and have a lot of the same interest as me, loved the shop that used to be here in Cookeville. It was called New Century Books, and that place largely inspired me to create a similar place. Read more>>