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.

Jenny Kavjian

Initially, I was influenced by different rockstars’ personal styles. The mixture of fetish wear with their stage clothes really elevated their look and I found it infinitely inspiring. Although I am not musically talented nor find myself on stage, I did frequent goth clubs and danced many evenings away. I knew that I wanted to design my own harnesses to set myself apart from all of my fellow monochromatic dance floor patrons. At first the designs were strictly fashion but I started to design different items that leaned more practical. My favorite among these is a wide strapped harness with a detachable rectangle pocket that sat just under my arms. It was a simple idea that I then evolved into the Coffin Holster Collection. The styles in that collection started simply as a way to combat clothing that didn’t have pockets and then turned into a practical way to make an outfit look more complete while also being able to carry my phone and cards. When I wasn’t dancing my gear around on goth nights, I had a booth set up at the bar for the people who also wanted accessories like mine. Soon after I was inspired to start an online shop. Read more>>

Tariq Mackey

Believe it not! Its was 2018 and I was awaken from my sleep from a vision I had, I immediately grabbed my phone and started creating what I saw. After a few drafts I had my Vision perfectly crafted! Read more>>

Brittany Avery

I started out providing home staging and redesign services for realtors and clients. While completing a few new home redesign projects, I could not find designs or color of decorative pillows I would need to bring the project together. Since I’ve always had a love for fabric and designs I started to do more research on fabrics and upholstery. One day I sat down at my sewing machine and decided to create my own. It came easy to be since as long as I can remember my mother would sew different things and kept me right beside her to teach me the ropes. I curated something magical that day and have been full steam ahead ever since Read more>>

Chiara Candia

 

After I graduated I immediatly started looking for a job as a Fine Arts teacher (art history, painting techniques, etc.). After almost a year of many attempts I deepened my knowledge about the world of 3D. During my studies I participated in a lesson about 3D printing and thought that I would never be part of that world. In 2020 I met Crosslances and was intrigued by its products. I became one of its students and, after a short time, Hera’stone was born. Read more>>

Courtney Garrett

In my mid-twenties, I discovered I had a passion for teaching the Bible which eventually led me to pursue a seminary degree in Christian Education. After I completed my studies, I served as the Dir. of Women’s Discipleship at Grace Bible Church in Houston for several years. I loved my job because I built many meaningful relationships and learned so much about how people come to a knowledge of God and the truth. My job entailed teaching women the Bible and equipping women to lead others. I was also able to help women learn how they could take what they had learned and share it with others, but when it came to sharing their faith, many women felt stuck. They lacked the confidence and a tool to share their beliefs and convictions. I would often get asked for help and I never had a solid resource to recommend. It was frustrating because I felt like it shouldn’t be that difficult to find a ground-level study or introduction to Christianity. After searching high and low for what I was looking for, I came up empty-handed. I finally made the decision to create the tools that I had been searching for and 101 Christianity was born. Read more>>

Shontris Mason

As a kid I grew up in a lower class home. My mom was working as janitor and my dad was a warehouse worker. At the time neither one of my parents had a degree or education beyond high school. Those times were really hard especially for my parents. There were times were we had no food or cable. I vividly remember my mom taking me to dollar general for clothes for picture day at school. Eventually, when I was about 10-11 years old my mother went back to school to get her associates in business. She absorbed all the knowledge that she learned from being a janitor and opened her own cleaning business. My life literally changed completely. My mom inspired me from a young age to be an entrepreneur. It’s literally in my blood. Even in grade school I would sell phone cases and snacks to my classmates. I always knew that I wanted to be my own boss. Fast forward to college, I majored in Psychology and the goal was to become a licensed therapist. Although I wanted to be a licensed therapist I knew that I wanted to own my own practice. My freshman year of college (2019) I joined Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, Incorporated. This organization gave me the knowledge, skill and confidence I needed to create my own business which at the time was named Lash Excellence. I began from selling from my dorm no website, no instagram just word to mouth. Eventually, I knew I wanted to take my business more serious so I rebranded got a logo made, created my own website, business cards and social media profiles.I also expanded beyond lashes and began to sell phone cases, purses, waistbands and more. I named it The Melanin Collection Co. my business was inspired by my mom being a resilientblack woman and my pride for my culture. I wanted to create a brand that showed other black girls that it’s possible to be a boss and look/feel good while being one. Since then my business has grown tremendously and I have had the privilege of traveling to many different cities to promote my brand. Now I am building my second business venture as an Esthetician specializes in Makeup, Facials and Waxing in the Murfreesboro/ Nashville area. What can I say? I’m a business woman at heart. Read more>>

Kaitlin Mazzei & Lyndsey Crofoot

It was 2015 when the two of us teamed up as personal trainers at Crunch Fitness. It was fate, really. Our shared passion for fitness immediately clicked, and we knew we were destined for something great. We both quickly saw success at that gym and became the top personal trainers in our region. We were more than coworkers, we were teammates. We recognized the skill sets one another had and balanced each other well. Having someone to bounce ideas off of, problem solve, and learn with was a game changer. Read more>>

Miguel Garcia

It was 2018 and I had been working for Chase for 11 years. I was an assistant Branch Manager but always had a passion and love for cooking and bring joy to people through my cooking. Towards the end of 2018 I had a fall out with my new manager and decided to quit. Fast forward to January of 2019 and my brother-in-law (Alex Ramirez) approached me and asked if I had found another job- I said no. So he suggested we start Catering Tacos. Read more>>