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.

Keisha Denise

Everything that I’ve touched and made a business out of has come from pure passion! The passion to encourage others and the passion to make people feel beautiful from starting from the outside! If I can just reach just one person, I’m satisfied” Since I was a child I’ve always had a passion for hair! I grew up going to the work with my aunt who was a, what was call then, beautician. I would watch her do different styles on her clients and I would always try to mimic what I saw on my dolls. Throughout high school my friends and close family friends entrust me with their hair. Read more>>

Taylor Knight

In college, your advisors always tell you to apply for internships so you can learn about your career field. I applied to over 100 internships in 2016 and received countless rejection emails. No news organization was willing to give me a chance to step inside their studio. Many people would have taken the rejections as a sign to change your career path but I didn’t let that discourage me. In 2016, I founded TK On Demand, my own media platform where I could create news content in Tallahassee,FL. Read more>>

Avyana Chapman

I came up with my brand, @Goodeatsonlyyy, on Instagram due to my passion for food. I would always take pictures of food at restaurants that deserved to be showed off. I have always had a slight interest in photography and a major interest in food, cooking, cocktails, and wine pairings, so on and so forth. I believe that food is more than just something we need to stay alive, it is culture, togetherness, and community! Read more>>

JACKIE ALLEN

I would not consider myself someone of many (or any) talents, Not any kind of innate God given talent at least. My ONE claim to “fame” however is my impeccable organization skills. It’s my personal believe that school does not prepare us to be what we want to be when we grow up or at least what we think we want to be. How do we know what we want to be without having tried it? I thought I wanted to be an actress until my immense stage fright kicked in and I realized that dream was a no go; then I thought maybe a chef only to find that I truly despise the time wasted in the kitchen in front of a stove, then finally I landed on nurse. It seemed like a valid choice. Read more>>

TK LaFleur

If I don’t use my struggle to impact others in a positive way, then I have wasted my struggle. I was a star athlete in high school, college and professionally. I know and understand how competing and training at a high level requires mental toughness and a strong mindset to get through. When I look back on my career, there were 2 major defining moments I needed to work through mentally that led me to believe Mindset 180 Academy needed to be formed. The first was my freshman year of college. College was the first time I ever truly struggled with confidence. Read more>>

Ashley Zimmerman

During the 2017-2018 school year, I co-created a math intervention and tutoring program at the high school I worked at in order to help students who were unable to graduate because they struggled to pass their math classes. Nearly every public high school nowadays has some form of a credit intervention program to help students earn missing high school credits during their normal school day. Read more>>

Taylor Mosley

I am a brand development consultant. I help businesses grow and become more structured for longevity. I work with small businesses remotely all over the US, with a large portion of my clientele being in Michigan and Texas. Aside from branding, I also do small business and non-profit event planning. I find that many business owners have amazing idea but lack the structure and organization to execute their ideas correctly Read more>>

Mark Ervin

I was introduced to organic gardening at a very young age by my grandfather. He taught me how to create compost and organic fertilizer from leftovers on his ranch. It always amazed me how a plant thrived from leftover scrapes and recycled materials. These fond memories of gardening with my grandfather helped to instill a love for gardening and regenerative agriculture. Read more>>

Nick Heyward

Before I tell the story of Cornerstone Fellowship I think it is important that I give the disclaimer that for years I would tell everyone that I would never have a church. I enjoyed working at the church as the Director of Membership and serving as an associate minister. In my mind this was my final destination, I had no idea this was simply preparation for what was to come. The idea of Cornerstone Fellowship came to me in increments. Read more>>

Donte Boomer

Originally, My first time writing was due to my misbehavior in middle school. I would get sent to ISS everyday, and we were told that we couldn’t do anything. So, I began to just start writing to myself. It’ll start with one word, then a sentence, then it evolved to writing a full page everyday about anything that came to mind. It was an instrument to my creative thinking  Read more>>

Jiomarys Alers

The idea of making authentic vegan Puerto Rican food was by total accident! Throughout the years, my husband and I have always researched and watched documentaries on healthy eating and benefits of them and we have tried different eating habits along the way. Veganism felt like the right choice for us after several things happening to us and our family. Let me explain- I was told by doctors that I could not have a baby for health reasons, after nearly a year of trial and error, visiting different doctors in different states, using natural oils, changing my eating habits, applying holistic chiropractic care and lots of faith, prayer and perseverance (to keep this story short), I was able to get pregnant! I was in my early 30’s. Read more>>

Andrea Tobin

I started a women’s functional clothing where everything is made from performance fabrics but looks more like everyday apparel. I came up with the idea for Lynt when I couldn’t seem to find anything that fits my lifestyle. I went to fashion school and have always loved fashion and sewing. I’ve always been active growing up and in my 20s I got really into bike riding, mountain biking, hiking, camping, all the outside things. Read more>>

Jabria Milsap

My little sister passed away in 2018 and it has been extremely difficult to cope with. One day on a ride home I was missing her and was thinking about how I wanted to do something to honor her. Being that I’ve always loved make up and my sister loved lip gloss I decided to start my lip gloss line Bliss 444 Cosmetics LLC. I wanted her to be the face of my brand so I created a logo with her beautiful face and it took off from there. Read more>>

Letha Sandison

The idea to create Four Moons really came about in two ways, first as an idea for the type of space we wanted to create and the services we wanted to provide but we knew we wanted to allow for a certain level of organic evolution. Both my business partner and I had been living abroad and loved the experience how close ex-pat communities are. When I moved home I felt like the close community connection was largely missing. We wanted to create a space that would allow us to support and bring together local community and build that community connection. Read more>>

Karla Chavez

I was hanging out with a friend one evening, and I distinctly remember him asking me if I had ever considered turning my hobby into a business. Honestly, at the time, it hadn’t crossed my mind. That same night, we began brainstorming brandable names for this hypothetical business. My own healing journey beautifully inspired the name Serenity Designs. Once we landed on a name, my friend pulled out his laptop and started designing a logo. Read more>>

Andrea Martinez

The name of my company has transformed over the years and it reflects what I was going through emotionally. My first name was Daily Dose by Drea – I kind of copied it from my personal Instagram username and liked the play on words. It was a great starter name that kept me consistent with branding my product for its daily use and convenience. As I grew, I tried Daily Dose Cosmetic, but I hated the box I put myself in. I view myself and my brand as a collective rather than one kind of item. Read more>>

Lynn Lambrecht

The Living Planner® incorporates planning while living, which is central to my work. My work as a volunteer emergency team responder fuels my passion to educate in lay person terms what’s at risk and what’s to gain through contingency planning for business and home. My business name simply describes what I do! Read more>>

Valeria Cavazos

I believe that when starting a business, the name is something that is carefully considered because it represents who your company is and what it stands for. It took me a while to decide on a name; I changed it at least three times before settling on the one I have today. I chose Valeria Grace Photo because Valeria is obviously my name, but Grace is a name that I cherish and hold dearly to my heart. Grace was my sister’s name, who passed away 2001. I knew I wanted her to be a part of my small business, so Valeria Grace Photo was born. Read more>>

Romin Irani

Most of my friends has always made fun of me at some point in my life cause every time we eat something I refer to it being BOMB or Hella Bomb, Super Bomb. So originally I had thought of working Hella Bomb into the name. I asked a few friends about my ideas and there were many ideas floating around, RomBurger, HellaBombBurgers, Burgerani, Top Romin. However, since we’re Americans we always gotten shorten things down so a good amount of them called me ROM, instead of ROM-IN. Read more>>

Courtney Reynolds

Healthy Lengths, LLC was discovered in fear in 2018-2019. I connected with other women with various hair textures while working as a Beauty Consultant for a local hair boutique in the Atlanta. Our goal as a Consultant was to not only make a sale. However, we we developed great relationship with customers. During that time, I developed a deeper passion for educating customers on hair care tips to elongate their hair extensions. Healthy Lengths was discovered! Read more>>

Ellie Rodriguez Litt

My company name, “Little Cosas”, emerged from a dream. After months and months of brainstorming and attempting to incorporate my identity within the brand, Little Cosas came to me in a dream. The dream was short, and I was presented with a simple phrase. This phrase, “Little Cosas” (or, Little Things, in English) incorporated my married last name “Litt” and sprinkled in some Spanish to pay homage to my Cuban upbringing. Read more>>

Brittney & Brooke Asher

So we’ve actually never shared this story, and we personally love it! One night myself and Brooke were just sitting at our kitchen table trying to decide what to call our business (which officially launched in February 2022) and we couldn’t agree on anything to save our lives! And then Brooke said well my favorite flower is a daisy and we’re 27 years old.. Twenty7Daisies? And we just looked at each other and said that’s the one! Read more>>

Valeria Rivera Paulina Kaloyan

Everything started in the pandemic, we were exploring new inhouse activities to exercise and both of us started to practice yoga. In every class we were using the “OM” mantra which is considered to be the most powerful one. We developed so much love and a special connection with this mantra that we thought that if it could help us connect with ourselves it could also help us connect with our community. Read more>>

Debra D Jones

Originally the name of the company was Women Breaking Barriers aka WBB. We realized we were serving more than women and changed the name to Worldwide Barrier Breakers – still affectionately known as WBB. Our primary goal has always been to break through barriers in our personal and professional lives and help others to do the same. Read more>>

Nancy Flint

People always get a kick out of my business name, Sugar Mamma Caramels for so many reasons. 1. It’s funny!
2. It’s a play on Sugar Daddy caramel candy 3. My business is making sweets, so naturally , “sugar” had to be part of the name (although, my business name could just as fittingly be, “Butter Babe!” Haha! 4. I’m an Italian/American Mamma, so that had to be in the name. Not only am I the mamma of 2 fabulous daughters, but literally all of their friends have always called me Mamma, and now so does everyone else! Read more>>

Tasi LeDonne

Creating the name of my company, was quite a challenging but exciting experience. I wanted to choose a name that represented myself and my brand accurately. Originally, I was considering naming my company “Tasi” after my name which means ocean, but it just didn’t feel right. So I went back to the drawing board and tried to think of people, places, or words that reminded me of the ocean. Then it finally dawned upon me the perfect name from my company, Sirena. Read more>>

Brian Feretic

There’s a cute story behind the name of Blossm, which ties really well into the backstory and mission… Back in the fall of 2019, I stopped by a garage sale in my alley. When I returned, I brought Sondra (the seller) a rubber plant I propagated as a thank you and neighborly gift. She was stoked! It turned out she was a huge plant enthusiast that lived just a block away and I never knew. As I was walking back with my new plant, I rushed home to go download the app for this. I was looking for a platform to connect with my fellow plant people in my community.  Read more>>

Tiffany Nothwang

Being a faith based company, we knew we wanted a name that reflected that but was still catchy. Since we seek prayer from beginning to completion of each project, there is a definite divine aspect to every design and event! Read more>>

Rachel Vargo

Our Creative Hands signifies just this. When starting my creative journey it was just me. I came from a very creative background , my Father owned an upholstery business. His business flourished becoming a household name in the industry. My Mother, was more creative at home for her family and home furnishing. Mom made many of our clothes, was involved in the PTA, was an avid gardener and cook. Mom could paint and knit and crochet, here I learned many artistic venues with both parents. Read more>>

Thomas Numprasong

I met my stepson when he was a little over one years old. At the time I was trying to get him to call me T-Bone which is a nickname some of my friends gave me in high school. He couldn’t say it though. Instead, he called me Temo which was his best attempt. When I was trying to think of a name for my business I wanted it to be something personal and original so Temo Foods just made sense. He is now thirteen years old and still calls me Temo. Read more>>

Mick, The Doctor of Digital, Smith

I have a standard Liberal Arts educational background but insightlfully as an early adopter of the Internet and while it was taking off in 1994 I jumped on early. I built distance learning programs which proved to be profitable and saved a significant amount of time for students. Consulting proved to be more rewarding and lucrative so in 1998 I started advocating for digital transformation and grew companies in education, non-profit, and for the Internet start-up fields. Over the years as an educational transformer I embraced the digital world and really, what I do, as The Doctor of Digital, combines my decades long experience in digital marketing, as a voice talent, and as a podcaster. Read more>>

Levi Hilton

So, I think I could talk about how I came up with my “tattoo style” which is what people seem to come to me for. There are a lot of different styles of tattooing and, personally, I love them all. They all present a unique take on similar subject matter and it’s hard to see something beautiful and not want to start trying to emulate it or even copy it. There are so many different categories of tattooing, how does anyone choose just one to fall into? For me, I have such a love for animation and illustration that my influences mostly come from that source. Read more>>

Veniece Newton

Becoming the founder of ENGAGEathon was an easy transition for me. My life has always been focused on community and engagement and social impact . I’ve always felt the need and desire to ensure that I was giving back in some capacity . In 2020, I decided I wanted to utilize my skills , talents and experience to pursue another software entrepreneurial venture . The only vow I had to myself , was that it had to be a social enterprise . ENGAGEathon was born . An enterprise software that measures and rewards social impact for corporations., nonprofit and government . Read more>>